Altered Spontaneous Brain Activity Following Moxibustion in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background: Moxibustion has definite clinical effect in improving the cognitive condition of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, yet its potential neural mechanism remains elusive. This study aimed to investigate the changes of spontaneous brain activity and cognitive function in MCI patients with moxibustion treatment. Methods We enrolled a cohort of 30 MCI patients and 30 matched healthy controls (HCs) in this study. MCI subjects were assigned to receive moxibustion treatment for two months. Based on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging technique, we used regional homogeneity (ReHo) to evaluate changes in brain activity and Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment to assess changes in the participants' cognitive performance. Results There existed aberrant ReHo values in different brain areas mainly involved in the default mode network (DMN) in MCI subjects compared with HCs. After moxibustion treatment, MCI subjects showed an inverse change in ReHo values from baseline in the hippocampus/parahippocampus and insula, as well as an increase ReHo value in the middle frontal gyrus. Furthermore, changes in ReHo values of the left hippocampus/parahippocampus and middle frontal gyrus correlated with cognitive improvement in MCI group. Conclusion Abnormal neural activity occurred in MCI subjects mainly within the DMN. Moxibustion therapy may improve the cognitive function of MCI subjects through regulating their brain activity, particularly reversing the neural activity of DMN and salience network at reset, and may hold great potential for the early intervention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.