## 3 Results
### Cortical Activation  
The grand average hemodynamic changes of HbO in the ROIs during treadmill walking for each phase (0, 4, and 8 weeks) are compared in Figure 3. The colored lines indicate the phases (0 weeks: red; 4 weeks: blue; 8 weeks: green), and the black lines indicate the task start (solid line) and task end (dashed line). In each phase of the CG ROIs, there were no distinct differences in HbO (Figure 3a-c \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Ch**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**MNI**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Region**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Ch**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**MNI**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Region**} \\ \cline{2-3} \cline{5-10}  & x & & & & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{x} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{y} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{x} \\ \hline
**1** & 37 & \(-\)34 & 72 & SM1 & **25** & 8 & 31 & 63 & SMA \\
**2** & 17 & \(-\)33 & 79 & SM1 & **26** & \(-\)11 & 32 & 62 & PMC \\  
MA & **46** & 15 & 70 & 22 & FPA \\
**23** & 40 & 28 & 52 & FEF & **47** & \(-\)11 & 70 & 20 & FPA \\
**24** & 20 & 32 & 60 & FEF & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Ch: Channel, SM1: primary somatosensory area, M1: primary motor cortex, PMC: premotor cortex, SMA: supplementary motor area, FEF: frontal eye fields, DLPFC: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, FPA: frontopolar area.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: The MNI coordinates and associated brain regions were corresponding to all the channels. and Table 3). On the other hand, stronger cortical activations were observed in the IG following acupuncture treatment (Figure 3d-f and Table 3). In the first (0 weeks) and second phase (4 weeks), the difference in HbO activity was not significant, but in the third phase (8 weeks), the increase in HbO in the M1 and PFC regions was high. To confirm the effectiveness of the acupuncture treatment, the HbO activity of the ROI for each phase (0, 4, and 8 weeks) was compared between the two groups. Figure 4 shows the statistical significance of the difference in HbO peak values between the CG and IG for each phase (0, 4, and 8 weeks). The red bars indicate HbO peak values for the CG, and the blue bars indicate the HbO peak values for the IG. There were some differences between the ROIs in the first phase (0 weeks), but there were no significant differences between the two groups (M1: \(p\) = 0.4542; SMA: \(p\) = 0.7898; and PFC: \(p\) = 0.0908) (Figure 4a and Table 4). Immediately after the acupuncture treatment (4 weeks), the HbO activity was higher in the ROIs of the intervention group, with a significant difference in the SMA (M1: \(p\) = 0.0654; SMA: \(p\) = 0.0022; and PFC: \(p\) = 0.1040) (Figure 4b and Table 4). After 4 weeks of follow-up (8 weeks), both groups had increased HbO activity, with a large increase in the IG. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the CG and IG in both ROIs (M1: \(p\) = 0.0009; SMA: \(p\) = 0.00004; and PFC: \(p\) = 0.0186) (Figure 4c and Table 4). Figure 4: Comparison of peak values of group average hemodynamic response between the CG and the IG for each phase: (**a**) the first phase (0 weeks), (**b**) the second phase (4 weeks), (**c**) the third phase (8 weeks). * \(p\) < 0.05, ** \(p\) < 0.01, *** \(p\) < 0.001. Figure 3: The grand average oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) responses for regions of interest (ROIs) in every phase: (**a**) primary motor cortex (M1) in the CG; (**b**) supplementary motor areas (SMA) in the CG; (**c**) prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the CG; (**d**) M1 in the intervention group (IG); (**e**) SMA in the IG; (**f**) PFC in the IG.