Differential temporal neural responses of pain-related regions by acupuncture at acupoint ST36: a magnetoencephalography study. 


Author: Cheng H, Zhang XT, Yan H, Bai LJ, Ai L, Wang FB, You YB, Chen P, Wang BG.

Affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China. 
Conference/Journal: Chin Med J (Engl).
Date published: 2011 Apr
Other:
 Volume ID: 124   ,  Issue ID: 8   ,  Pages: 1229-34   ,  Word Count: 238  
    Previous neuroimaging studies primarily focused on the spatial distribution of acupuncture needling stimulation. However, a salient feature of acupuncture was its long-lasting effect. This study attempted to detect the spatial-temporal neural responses evoked by acupuncture at an analgesia acupoint ST36 by using magnetoencephalography. To further verify its functional specificity, we also adopted acupuncture at Pericardium 6 and nonacupoint as separated controls.



METHODS:

Forty-two college students, all right-handed and acupuncture naïve, participated in this study. Every participant received only one acupoint stimulation, resulting in 14 subjects in one group. Both magnetoencephalography data (151-channel whole-head system) and structural functional magnetic resonance imaging data (3D sequence with a voxel size of 1 mm(3) for anatomical localization) were collected for each subject. All processing procedures were performed in BrainStorm Toolbox.



RESULTS:

Acupuncture at ST36 showed a significantly time-varied brain activities with different onset time. Our results presented that acupuncture at different acupoints (or comparing with nonacupoint) can specifically induce neural responses in different brain areas-acupuncture at ST36 can specifically induce the neural responses of pain-inhibition areas, while acupuncture at PC6 can specifically induce the activities of the insula and amygdala.



CONCLUSIONS:

In the present study, we attempted to detect the temporal neural responses underlying the functional specificity of acupuncture at ST36, using acupoint belonging to different meridians and non-acupoint with efficacy-irreverent as separate controls. The specific neural substrates involving acupuncture at different acupoints may be related to its functional specificity in clinical settings.



PMID: 21543002