Scalp Acupuncture Synchronizing Dual Task Gait for Enhancing Prefrontal Cortex Response

Summary

This protocol demonstrates the standardized procedure of scalp acupuncture synchronizing motor-cognitive dual task and motor-cognitive dual task. This can provide an important reference for the clinical exploration of the new and effective non-drug treatment of integrated Chinese and Western medicine.

Abstract

Studies have shown that motor-cognitive dual task can greatly improve motor/cognitive function. However, the therapeutic effect of motor-cognitive dual task is still limited. How to improve dual-task performance is the key to solving this problem. Scalp acupuncture is a non-drug intervention method of traditional Chinese medicine to treat brain-derived diseases by acupuncturing the corresponding projection area of cerebral cortex function on the scalp. Studies have shown that scalp acupuncture helps improve neuronal damage and cognitive dysfunction and plays a neuroprotective function in central nervous system diseases. However, no relevant studies have discussed the synergistic gain effect of motor-cognitive dual task and scalp acupuncture. Therefore, this protocol aims to demonstrate the standardized operation of scalp acupuncture synchronizing motor-cognitive dual task and motor-cognitive dual task and compares the differences between these two tasks in healthy subjects through a randomized cross-over trial. This protocol initially revealed the possible influence mechanism of scalp acupuncture synchronizing motor-cognitive dual task on cognitive performance, gait control, and cortical brain function, which can provide new ideas and a theoretical basis for clinical exploration of new and effective non-drug treatment of integrated Chinese and Western medicine.

Introduction

Motor-cognitive dual task refers to the synchronous execution of a motor task and a cognitive task, requiring the synchronous participation of both motor and cognitive systems^1,2. Studies have shown that compared with a single motor task/cognitive task, a motor-cognitive dual task can greatly improve motor/cognitive function^3,4. Anson et al.⁵ randomly divided 20 Parkinson's patients into a single-task group (gait and cognitive training in sequence) and a dual-task group (gait and cognitive training synchronously) for an 8-we....

Protocol

This project was approved by the Medical Ethics Association of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (approval No. KY01-2023-11-02) on December 05, 2023. The trial was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry (registration number: NO. ChiCTR2400079574) on January 06, 2024. All participants signed the informed consent form.

1. Recruitment

1. Inclusion criteria
   1. Recruit healthy subjects aged 20-35 years.
   2. Recruit healthy subjects with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ≥ 26¹⁸.
   3. Recruit healthy subjects without a history o....

Results

This protocol used a randomized controlled crossover design, recruiting 39 healthy subjects aged 20 to 35, including 14 males and 25 females. These participants were randomly assigned into Health Group 1 (n = 19) and Health Group 2 (n = 20). Baseline data for both groups were gathered (Table 1). No significant differences were observed between the groups regarding gender, age, height, weight, length of left and right legs, and MoCA assessment scores (all P > 0.05).

Discussion

Previous studies have not seen combining scalp acupuncture with the motor-cognitive dual task". This protocol explored the synergistic gain effect of synchronous motor-cognitive dual task combined with scalp acupuncture. It examined the therapeutic differences between scalp acupuncture synchronizing motor-cognitive dual task and motor-cognitive dual task. Scalp acupuncture operation is the key technology of this protocol. Baihui Point, Shenting Point, and Sishencong are selected as crucial acupoints. Baihui Point and.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Disposable acupuncture needles	Huan Qiu, China	N/A	Scalp acupuncture
GAITRite	CIR Systems Inc, America	https://www.gaitrite.com/	Gaitrite gait analysis system
NirSmart-500	Hui Chuang, China	N/A	fNIRS