Research published in the Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science concludes that acupuncture benefits "patients with cognitive disorder due to cerebral infarction." A total of 66 patients with cognitive disorder following a cerebral infarction (an ischemic stroke) were randomly divided into two groups for the study. Group 1 received conventional drug and physical therapy only. Group 2 received conventional drug and physical therapy plus the addition of scalp acupuncture treatments. Measurements were taken prior to treatments and at the end of the three month treatment regime. The acupuncture group showed a significantly greater improvement in brainwave response time than the control group.

The researchers measured a 39.1 ms shortening of P300 brainwave latency in the acupuncture group and a 16.7 ms shortening in the control group. P300 is a brainwave recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) and is a measure of cognitive function related to decision making. Acupuncture effectively reduced the latency of the the P300 wave. P300 latency is ordinarily between 250 to 600 ms and is a measure of the delay between a stimulus and the brain’s response to it. Scalp acupuncture reduces the time between a stimulus and the ability of the brain to process the information.

Reference:
Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science. Volume 10, Number 1 (2012), 26-28, DOI: 10.1007/s11726-012-0564-2. Dong-ling Xie, Li-fang Zhu, Hui-yu Liu and Chun-ying Zeng. Application of P300 in scalp acupuncture for cognitive disorder due to cerebral infarction.