简介:Manualacupunctureiswidelyusedforpainreliefandstresscontrol.Previousstudiesonacupuncturehaveshownitsmodulatoryeffectsonthefunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithoneorafewpreselectedbrainregions.Toinvestigatehowmanualacupuncturemodulatestheorganizationoffunctionalnetworksatawhole-brainlevel,weacupunctureatST36ofarightlegtoobtainelectroencephalograph(EEG)signals.Bycoherenceestimation,wedeterminethesynchronizationsbetweenallpairwisecombinationsofEEGchannelsinthreeacupuncturestates.Theresultingsynchronizationmatricesareconvertedintofunctionalnetworksbyapplyingathreshold,andtheclusteringcoefficientsandpathlengthsarecomputedasafunctionofthreshold.Theresultsshowthatacupuncturecanincreasefunctionalconnectionsandsynchronizationsbetweendifferentbrainareas.Forawiderangeofthresholds,theclusteringcoefficientduringacupunctureandpostacupunctureperiodishigherthanthatduringthepre-acupuncturecontrolperiod,whereasthecharacteristicpathlengthisshorter.Weprovidefurthersupportforthepresenceof'small-world'networkcharacteristicsinfunctionalnetworksbyusingacupuncture.Thesepreliminaryresultshighlightthebeneficialmodulationsoffunctionalconnectivitybymanualacupuncture,whichcouldcontributetotheunderstandingoftheeffectsofacupunctureontheentirebrain,aswellastheneurophysiologicalmechanismsunderlyingacupuncture.Moreover,theproposedmethodmaybeausefulapproachtothefurtherinvestigationofthecomplexityofpatternsofinterrelationsbetweenEEGchannels.