Trial reportBrain and behavior2025
Selective Plasticity of Hippocampal Sub-Regions in the Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment After Acupuncture.
Trial report in Brain and behavior, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of traditional Chinese medicine non-pharmacological interventions on cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Selective Plasticity of Hippocampal Sub-Regions in the Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment After Acupuncture.Brain and behavior · 2025Trial
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAcupuncture has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing cognitive decline in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Hippocampal atrophy has been typically reported as a core neuromechanism in the aMCI. However, whether and how hippocampal subregions plasticity exists in aMCI after acupuncture remains largely unknown.
objectivesWe aimed to explore gray matter alterations in the hippocampal subregions of aMCI after acupuncture.
methodsA randomized, controlled, blind research was conducted. A cohort of 53 patients with aMCI was randomly assigned to either the verum acupuncture (VA) group or the sham acupuncture (SA) group. Each group received 24 treatment sessions (three times per week for 8 weeks). Clinical evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed at baseline and after treatment for all patients with aMCI. Hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed using Freesurfer 7.1.1. An interaction effect was used to explore the efficacy of acupuncture. In addition, a correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between the volume of hippocampal subregions and cognitive function in patients with aMCI.
resultsMixed-effects analysis revealed a significant group × time interaction for volume in the right subiculum body (p = 0.006), where volume significantly decreased following SA (p = 0.015) but increased following VA. Within-group effects showed that VA significantly increased volume in the right GC-ML-DG head (p = 0.041) and right CA4 body (p = 0.028), while SA increased volume in the right CA4-head (p = 0.035). Directly comparing the magnitude of change between interventions, VA led to significantly greater volume increases than SA in the right subiculum body (p = 0.008), right CA1-body (p = 0.042), whole hippocampus body (p = 0.041), and whole hippocampus (p = 0.028). Clinically, within the VA group, the increase in right subiculum body volume was significantly correlated with improvement in AVLT_N5 (delayed recall) scores (p = 0.013).
conclusionThese results suggested that acupuncture could selectively induce structural plasticity in hippocampal subregions associated with cognitive effects in patients with aMCI, which provided potential biomarkers-particularly the right subiculum body-for effective and timely interventions for aMCI.
trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn), Registration number: ChiCTR2400084308.
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