| | Acupuncture intervention | Participants | Mechanisms | Refs. | | Acupoint | Intervention parameters |
| | MA | Bilateral Taichong (LR3), bilateral Hegu (LI4) | 3 minutes | AD patients vs. HCs | Modulate DMN activity in AD patients, with increased cluster in the left PCC, the right MTG, together with the right IPL and decreased bilateral CG and left PCu within DMN connectivity.
Enhance the functional connectivity between the hippocampus and the precentral gyrus in AD patients. | [23, 117] | | MA | Bilateral Taichong (LR3), bilateral Hegu (LI4) | 3 minutes | MCI patients vs. AD patients vs. HCs | Induce increased or decreased activities in regions of MCI, AD subjects, most of which were involved in the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe closely related to memory and cognition.
Induce similar activations in cognitive-related brain areas (inferior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and rolandic operculum) as well as deactivations in cognitive-related areas, visual-related areas, basal ganglia, and cerebellum in AD and MCI patients, which were not found in HCs. | [113, 118] | | MA | Bilateral Taichong (LR3), bilateral Hegu (LI4) | A total of 4 courses in 6 months (3 times a week, 4 weeks as a course) | MCI patients vs. HCs | Enhance hippocampal FC with ITG and MTG in aMCI subjects. | [125] | | MA | Taixi (KI3) on the right side | 3 minutes (deep acupuncture vs. superficial acupuncture) | MCI patients vs. HCs | Enhance the correlations related with the temporal regions in MCI patients.
Increase the correlations related with the temporal regions for the deep acupuncture condition, compared to superficial acupuncture.
Deep acupuncture induces the strongest and most extensive effective connectivities related to the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in MCI patients.
Activate 20 brain regions in both MCI and HC participants, including the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 32, 24), left medial frontal cortex (BA 9, 10, 11), left cuneus (BA 19), left middle frontal gyrus (BA 11), left lingual gyrus (BA 18), right medial frontal gyrus (BA 11), bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47), left superior frontal gyrus (BA 11), right cuneus (BA 19, 18), right superior temporal gyrus (BA 38), left subcallosal gyrus (BA 47), bilateral precuneus (BA 19), right medial frontal gyrus (BA 10), right superior frontal (BA 11), left cingulate gyrus (BA 32), left precentral gyrus (BA 6), and right fusiform gyrus (BA 19). | [119–121] | | MA | Sishencong (EX-HN1), Yintang (GV29), Neiguan (PC6), Taixi (KI3), Fenglong (ST40), Taichong (LR3) | 5 times a week, 4 consecutive weeks (acupoint acupuncture vs. sham acupoint acupuncture) | MCI patients | Increase the connections between cognition-related regions such as the insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, inferior parietal lobule, and anterior cingulate cortex. | [124] | | EA | Neiguan (PC6) on right side | 6 minutes, 1 Hz | AD patients vs. HCs | Activate functions of different brain regions in the HC vs. AD patients, including activation of the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the cingulate gyrus as well as the cerebellum in AD patients, and the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe activated in HCs. | [122] | | MA | Shenmen (HT 7), Zusanli (ST36), Fenglong (ST 40) Taixi (KI 3) | NA | AD patients | Induce right main hemisphere activations (temporal lobe, such as hippocampal gyrus, insula, and some area of parietal lobe) and left activated regions (temporal lobe, parietal lobule, some regions of cerebellum) | [123] |
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