Title

Electro-acupuncture at different acupoints modulating the relative specific brain functional network

Department

Health Promotion

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Source

Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE

Publication Date

2010-12-29

Volume

7845

Article Number

78452Z

Abstract

Objective: The specific brain effects of acupoint are important scientific concern in acupuncture. However, previous acupuncture fMRI studies focused on acupoints in muscle layer on the limb. Therefore, researches on acupoints within connective tissue at trunk are warranted. Material and Methods: Brain effects of acupuncture on abdomen at acupoints Guanyuan (CV4) and Zhongwan (CV12) were tested using fMRI on 21 healthy volunteers. The data acquisition was performed at resting state, during needle retention, electroacupuncture (EA) and post-EA resting state. Needling sensations were rated after every electroacupuncture (EA) procedure. The needling sensations and the brain functional activity and connectivity were compared between CV4 and CV12 using SPSS, SPM2 and the local and remote connectivity maps. Results and conclusion: EA at CV4 and CV12 induced apparent deactivation effects in the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network. The default mode of the brain was modified by needle retention and EA, respectively. The functional brain network was significantly changed post EA. However, the minor differences existed between these two acupoints. The results demonstrated similarity between functional brain network mode of acupuncture modulation and functional circuits of emotional and cognitive regulation. Acupuncture may produce analgesia, anti-anxiety and anti-depression via the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network (LPNN). © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.

Keywords

acupoint specificity, Brain functional connectivity, CV12 (Zhongwan), CV4 (Guanyuan), Electroacupuncture (EA), fMRI, limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network (LPNN), needling sensation

DOI

10.1117/12.871666

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.871666

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