Correlation between the Effects of Acupuncture at Taichong (LR3) and Functional Brain Areas: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Using True versus Sham Acupuncture.

Zhipeng Li,Junqi Chen,Jiping Zhang,Jiarong Chen,Huailiang Ouyang,Shanshan Qu,Shaoqun Zhang,Chunzhi Tang,Chunxiao Wu,Yong Huang

doi:10.1155/2014/729091

Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been shown to detect the specificity of acupuncture points, as proved by numerous studies. In this study, resting-state fMRI was used to observe brain areas activated by acupuncture at the Taichong (LR3) acupoint. A total of 15 healthy subjects received brain resting-state fMRI before acupuncture and after sham and true acupuncture, respectively, at LR3. Image data processing was performed using Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI and REST software. The combination of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) was used to analyze the changes in brain function during sham and true acupuncture. Acupuncture at LR3 can specifically activate or deactivate brain areas related to vision, movement, sensation, emotion, and analgesia. The specific alterations in the anterior cingulate gyrus, thalamus, and cerebellar posterior lobe have a crucial effect and provide a valuable reference. Sham acupuncture has a certain effect on psychological processes and does not affect brain areas related to function.

Highlights

The traditional Chinese medical therapy, acupuncture, is used clinically as an alternative or supplementary treatment [1, 2]
amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) results showed that brain areas with alterations after true acupuncture at LR3 apparently decreased in the right frontal lobe (BA47) and left superior occipital gyrus (BA19; T value was negative; Table 1, Figure 1) versus preacupuncture
Deactivation in BA19 occurred with both ALFF and regional homogeneity (ReHo)

Summary

Introduction

The traditional Chinese medical therapy, acupuncture, is used clinically as an alternative or supplementary treatment [1, 2]. A few studies have investigated the mechanism of action of acupuncture, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) being an effective method to study the results of acupuncture [3,4,5]. Many studies have investigated the effects of acupuncture at LR3 on brain function using fMRI [6,7,8,9] These studies were based on a block design using a general linear model. To better simulate clinical acupuncture treatment, this study performed acupuncture at LR3 using resting-state fMRI and compared the preacupuncture and postacupuncture image data to verify the changes in brain functional connectivity in different brain areas in an attempt to explain the mechanism of action of acupoints

Methods

Results

Conclusion