"Vascular cognitive impairment is characterized by symptoms ranging from forgetfulness to more serious problems with attention, memory, language, and problem-solving. Heart disease and stroke are two of the major risk factors, as both involve compromised blood supply to the brain."

A 2019 study compared two groups of patients, with one receiving donepezil hydrochloride for vascular cognitive impairment, and another receiving acupuncture. "Following treatment, both patient groups showed improvements in scores at four and eight weeks, although significantly greater improvements were noted in the acupuncture group as compared to the medication group."

A meta-study of the effect of acupuncture on the human brain is described.  Studies that used fMRI showed that "acupuncture modulates activity within specific brain areas, including somatosensory cortices, limbic system, basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum. Meta-analyses for verum acupuncture stimuli confirmed brain activity within many of the regions mentioned above."

"... most studies suggest that acupuncture can modulate the activity within specific brain areas, and the evidence based on meta-analyses confirmed some of these results."