Study design and participants
MCI
This clinical trial of CCT was a multicenter, single-blind randomized controlled trial for MCI patients. In this paper, we applied a data-driven approach to explore the changes in SC-FC coupling and topological attributes using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting-state imaging. The inclusion criteria for the participants were as follows: (1) they met the diagnostic criteria for MCI; (2) they were 50 to 85 years old; (3) they had Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores of ≤ 25 points (1 point lower, i.e., ≤ 24 points, if they had < 12 years of education [All potential participants were recruited from the clinics of the Affiliated Rehabilitation Hospital, Affiliated People’s Hospital, and Affiliated Second People’s Hospital of Fujian Traditional Chinese Medicine University. Diagnosis of the participants was made by two independent clinical neurologists according to Petersen’s criteria for MCI [