Acute prefrontal hemodynamic responses to Xingnao Kaiqiao acupuncture in healthy participants and patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness.

Overview

1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, China
2. School of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Shandong Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Yantai, Shandong, China

Abstract

Background/objectives: Xingnao Kaiqiao (XNKQ) acupuncture is used clinically in prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDOC), but the cortical processes underlying its acute effects remain incompletely characterised. We used bedside functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a superficial non-acupoint sham comparator to examine acute prefrontal hemodynamic responses in pDOC patients and healthy controls.

Methods: Forty-five pDOC patients (25 minimally conscious state; 20 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) and 127 healthy volunteers were enrolled; 124 healthy volunteers were retained for complete-case analysis. Participants received real XNKQ acupuncture or superficial sham needling at adjacent non-acupoints. fNIRS recorded oxyhaemoglobin (HbO) across three 8-min windows: pre-acupuncture (Before), steady-state needle retention (During), and post-acupuncture (After). Regional HbO was the principal analysis; connectivity-derived network, temporal, and baseline-association analyses were exploratory.

Results: In healthy participants, real acupuncture produced greater HbO responses than sham across all four regions and the global prefrontal average (Cohen’s d = 0.62–1.20; all q ≤ 0.0011). In pDOC patients, the response was smaller and regionally restricted: the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC; d = 0.80, q = 0.0397) and global HbO (d = 0.98, q = 0.0191) remained significant after false discovery rate (FDR) correction, whereas the frontopolar area (PFA) was borderline (q = 0.0576), and the sensorimotor cortex and inferior frontal area (IFA) were not significant. Baseline-adjusted analyses showed the same general pattern. No connectivity-derived network contrast survived FDR correction. Baseline-to-change correlations were negative but mathematically coupled.

Conclusion: Real XNKQ acupuncture was associated with greater acute prefrontal HbO responses than superficial non-acupoint needling. The effect was broad in healthy participants and more restricted in pDOC patients. These findings demonstrate an acute hemodynamic response, not clinical efficacy, preserved awareness, or strict acupoint specificity. Network and baseline association findings remain exploratory.

Patient protocol registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, https://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2400090915 (registered 15 October 2024).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability statement

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because individual-level data from pDOC patients are subject to privacy and ethical restrictions. De-identified participant-level fNIRS feature data and the analysis code may be made available upon reasonable request, subject to approval by the Ethics Committee of Binzhou Medical University Hospital and a data-use agreement protecting patient privacy. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to the corresponding authors. Group-level summary data underlying the figures and supplementary tables are included in the article and Supplementary Material.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

• Funding: added Binzhou Medical University

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 8 authors, 5 keywords, 12 MeSH terms, 38 references.

Cite

This paper

Guo, H., Liu, L., Sun, Z., Du, H., Zhang, Y., Mei, S., Wang, Y., & Cao, Z. (2026). Acute prefrontal hemodynamic responses to Xingnao Kaiqiao acupuncture in healthy participants and patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness. Frontiers in neurology, 17, 1889514. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2026.1889514

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcag117

Connectome disruptions after hypoxic-ischaemic injury associate with consciousness disorder severity.

Journal: Brain communications

In common: other condition, 5 references

[2] doi:10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035009

Single-subject detection of speech network activation using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Journal: Neurophotonics

In common: fNIRS, 4 references

[3] doi:10.1117/1.nph.13.s3.s32602 [code]

Cedalion tutorial: a Python-based framework for comprehensive analysis of multimodal fNIRS and DOT from the lab to the everyday world.

Journal: Neurophotonics

In common: fNIRS, 4 references

[4] doi:10.1038/s41598-026-50540-z [code]

Addressing arbitrary choices of frequency band of interest in fNIRS hyperscanning.

Journal: Scientific reports

In common: fNIRS, 3 references

[5] doi:10.1117/1.nph.12.2.025011 [code]

NIRSTORM: a Brainstorm extension dedicated to functional near-infrared spectroscopy data analysis, advanced 3D reconstructions, and optimal probe design

Journal: n/a

In common: fNIRS, 3 references

[6] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1208 [code]

Brain network analysis in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment using high-density diffuse optical tomography.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: fNIRS, 3 references

[7] doi:10.3390/s26061848

Unsupervised Dynamic Time Warping Clustering for Robust Functional Network Identification in fNIRS Motor Tasks.

Journal: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)

In common: fNIRS, 2 references

[8] doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1856059 [code]

Feasibility of fNIRS for assessing n-back task-related prefrontal cortex oxygenation after continuous cycling at varying intensities: an evaluation of protocol feasibility.

Journal: Frontiers in human neuroscience

In common: fNIRS, 2 references

[9] doi:10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035006 [code]

Characterizing developmental changes in infant habituation using functional change point detection.

Journal: Neurophotonics

In common: fNIRS, 2 references

[10] doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcag235 [code]

Association between glymphatic dysfunction and glucose hypometabolism in chronic disorders of consciousness: a multimodal PET/MRI study.

Journal: Brain communications

In common: other condition, 2 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.