Distinct brain activity patterns associated with traditional Chinese medicine syndromes: a task-fMRI study of mild cognitive impairment.

Abstract

Background: Abnormalities in brain activity patterns during episodic memory tasks have been inconsistently reported in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This study applied traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation to categorize aMCI patients into distinct subgroups, aiming to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying their cognitive profiles.

Methods: Participants included aMCI patients categorized into the turbid phlegm clouding the orifices (PCO) or spleen-kidney deficiency (SKD) syndrome subgroups, alongside cognitively normal controls (NC) matched for age and gender. Neuropsychological assessments were performed, and fMRI scans were acquired during an episodic memory task involving the recognition of new and old vocabulary. Brain activity across different stages of episodic memory was analyzed using SPM12 and DPABI 7.0 software.

Results: A total of 57 aMCI patients (34 with SKD and 23 with PCO) and 54 healthy controls were involved in the final task-based fMRI analysis. Compared with the NC group, the PCO group exhibited increased brain activation during both encoding and retrieval phases, primarily involving the prefrontal cortex and occipital lobe. Compared with the SKD group, the PCO group demonstrated the elevated activation in the right central sulcus and right insula during the encoding phase. Correlation analysis indicated a specific association between PCO symptom scores and insula activation. No statistically significant differences were found between the SKD and NC groups.

Conclusion: Distinct patterns of fMRI brain activity found in aMCI patients with PCO and SKD syndromes during episodic memory tasks suggest differing neural mechanisms that may contribute to the clinical heterogeneity of aMCI.