Changes of brain activity during a functional magnetic resonance imaging stroop task study: Effect of Chinese herbal formula in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract Introduction The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Stroop task could be used to study brain activity changes during treatment for Alzheimer’s disease(AD). The aim was to observe the brain functional activity changes during the treatment for AD patients with Yishen Huazhuo Decoction (YHD) using an fMRI Stroop task. Methods Thirty-five mild AD patients were randomized into either a treatment group or a control group in order to observe the brain activity before and after the treatment. Results Before the treatment, the activated regions were bilateral cerebellar hemispheres and bilateral frontal occipital lobe. After the treatment, the activated regions of bilateral cerebellar hemispheres and bilateral frontal occipital lobes decreased for patients in control group, but the activated regions were larger than that in treatment group, and there appeared deactivated regions in the bilateral prefrontal lobes, left orbitofrontal gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule; the activated state of bilateral anterior cingulate gyri, bilateral superior, middle, and medial frontal gyri, left middle-superior frontal gyrus, right middle-superior frontal gyrus, and bilateral posterior cingulate gyri significantly decreased after treatment compared with before treatment in control group. Regions of higher brain functional activity changes in YHD treatment group were observed in the control group were; left anterior central gyrus, left middle-inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral medial frontal gyri, left anterior cingulate gyrus, bilateral superior frontal gyri, left middle frontal gyrus, left superior-middle frontal gyrus. Conclusions We used an fMRI Stroop task to investigate the brain functional activity changes during the treatment of AD patients by YHD, and we found that YHD could improve brain activity of AD patients.