Default Mode Network as a Neural Substrate of Acupuncture: Evidence, Challenges and Strategy.

Author: Zhang Y1, Zhang H2, Nierhaus T3,4, Pach D5,6, Witt CM5,6,7, Yi M1,8
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, Beijing, China. <sup>2</sup>Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China. <sup>3</sup>Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. <sup>4</sup>Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. <sup>5</sup>Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany. <sup>6</sup>Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. <sup>7</sup>Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States. <sup>8</sup>Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, Ministry of Education, National Health Commission, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Conference/Journal: Front Neurosci.
Date published: 2019 Feb 11
Other: Volume ID: 13 , Pages: 100 , Special Notes: doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00100. eCollection 2019. , Word Count: 122

Acupuncture is widely applied all over the world. Although the neurobiological underpinnings of acupuncture still remain unclear, accumulating evidence indicates significant alteration of brain activities in response to acupuncture. In particular, activities of brain regions in the default mode network (DMN) are modulated by acupuncture. DMN is crucial for maintaining physiological homeostasis and its functional architecture becomes disrupted in various disorders. But how acupuncture modulates brain functions and whether such modulation constitutes core mechanisms of acupuncture treatment are far from clear. This Perspective integrates recent literature on interactions between acupuncture and functional networks including the DMN, and proposes a back-translational research strategy to elucidate brain mechanisms of acupuncture treatment.

KEYWORDS: acupuncture; default mode network; fMRI; neuroimaging; pain

PMID: 30804749 PMCID: PMC6378290 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00100