Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine (동의생리병리학회지)

The Physiological Society of Korean Medicine and The Society of Pathology in Korean Medicine (대한동의생리학회·한의병리학회)
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A Narrative Literature Review on the Effectiveness of Qigong Therapy for Cognitive Impairment: Focusing on the Neuroimaging Studies

인지장애에 대한 기공요법의 유효성에 관한 서술적 문헌 고찰: 신경영상 연구를 중심으로

  • Woohyun Seong (Department of Anatomy, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University) ;
  • Hyeonsang Shin (Department of Anatomy, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University) ;
  • Dong Hyuk Lee (Department of Anatomy, College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University)
  • 성우현 (상지대학교 한의과대학 해부학교실) ;
  • 신현상 (상지대학교 한의과대학 해부학교실) ;
  • 이동혁 (상지대학교 한의과대학 해부학교실)
  • Received : 2024.08.28
  • Accepted : 2024.10.24
  • Published : 2024.10.25
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current state of clinical studies of qigong therapies for cognitive impairment using neuroimaging method. We searched for clinical trials of qigong therapies for cognitive impairment using neuroimaging method in the MEDLINE (Pubmed) and CNKI on October 18, 2024. Once the online search was finished, studies were selected manually by the inclusion criteria. Finally, we analyzed the characteristics of selected articles and reviewed the neural substrates of qigong therapies in cognitive impairment. Total six studies were included in this study. The most frequently utilized modality was functional MRI. The qigong therapies applied in the study were Tai chi and Baduanjin. Looking at the selected studies, there were many cases that the control group included controls who did not perform any interventions other than health education and an active control group that performed brisk walking. It was confirmed that Qigong therapy can improve cognitive function more broadly, including MoCA scores, compared to the general control group or walking group. Moreover, several studies revealed that qigong therapies could regulate brain activation centered on medial temporal lobe, frontal areas, parietal lobes, attention-related brain networks, and brainstem including neurotransmitter-related nuclei. Through the analysis, we demonstrated that neuroimaging techniques could explore the neural mechanisms of qigong therapies on cognitive impairment. We hope that this perspective on the effectiveness of qigong therapy using neuroimaging methods would be helpful in performing future clinical researches on the mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease in the traditional Korean medicine.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 성과는 정부(과학기술정보통신부)의 재원으로 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 수행된 연구입니다(No. NRF-2022R1F1A1061004). 또한 이 논문은 2022년도 상지대학교 교내 연구비 지원에 의해 수행된 연구입니다.

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