Central Nervous Processing for Acupuncture at Liv3 with fMRI: A Preliminary Experience

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese healing technique, which is gaining popularity as an alternative and complementary therapeutic intervention in many worldwide countries. The acupoints are arranged on so-called meridians, which represent a network of channels each connected to a functional organic system. Our experiment is to investigate the mechanism of acupuncture at Liv3 (Taichong) and possible post-effect of acupuncture. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the whole brain was performed in 18 healthy right-handed young volunteers during two stimulation paradigms: ten subjects received real acupuncture (RA) at acupoints rights Liv3 (on the hand) and other 8 subjects received sham acupuncture (SA) near . Liv3.fMRI data were analyzed using SPM99. Acupuncture at Liv3 resulted in activation of bilateral cerebella, prefrontal lobe (PF), superior parietal lobule (SPL) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), occipital lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, thalamus, lentiform nucleus; contralateral temporal pole and anterior cingulated gyrus (ACG), posterior cingulated gyrus (PCG). The PE of RA activated bilateral cerebella, PF, SPL, and IPL, occipital lobe, lentiform nucleus; isolateral temporal pole, hippocampus, insula and thalamus; contralateral head of nucleus caudate, corpus callosum, ACG and PCG. Acupuncture at Liv3 resulted in activation of visual area, limbic system and subcortical gray structures, which was considered as the specific central nervous response within the brain to acupuncture at Liv3. Moreover, the activation still existed during PE of RA. fMRI provides an objective evidence for post-effect existence, which will establish the foundations of later scientific design in acupuncture experiments.

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