Abstract
BackgroundAs laser acupuncture is being increasingly used to treat mental disorders, we sought to determine whether it has a biologically plausible effect by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the cerebral activation patterns from laser stimulation of relevant acupoints.Methodology/Principal FindingsTen healthy subjects were randomly stimulated with a fibreoptic infrared laser on 4 acupoints (LR14, CV14, LR8 and HT7) used for depression following the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and 1 control non-acupoint (sham point) in a blocked design (alternating verum laser and placebo laser/rest blocks), while the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI response was recorded from the whole brain on a 3T scanner. Many of the acupoint laser stimulation conditions resulted in different patterns of neural activity. Regions with significantly increased activation included the limbic cortex (cingulate) and the frontal lobe (middle and superior frontal gyrus). Laser acupuncture tended to be associated with ipsilateral brain activation and contralateral deactivation that therefore cannot be simply attributed to somatosensory stimulation.Conclusions/SignificanceWe found that laser stimulation of acupoints lead to activation of frontal-limbic-striatal brain regions, with the pattern of neural activity somewhat different for each acupuncture point. This is the first study to investigate laser acupuncture on a group of acupoints useful in the management of depression. Differing activity patterns depending on the acupoint site were demonstrated, suggesting that neurological effects vary with the site of stimulation. The mechanisms of activation and deactivation and their effects on depression warrant further investigation.
Highlights
Despite the remarkable developments in Western Medicine in modern times, public interest in Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM), such as acupuncture, remains high [1,2]
Group analysis At the group level, there were significant increases in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) levels in some brain regions for acupoints LR14, CV14, LR8 and the control point compared to all the other points
This is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to examine the effects of laser stimulation of a suite of acupoints found to be efficacious in a clinical condition
Summary
Despite the remarkable developments in Western Medicine in modern times, public interest in Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM), such as acupuncture, remains high [1,2]. Stimulation of the acupoint PC6, located above the wrist, recommended for a wide range of conditions from nausea to stress management, resulted in activation of the cerebellum, dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus, anterior cingulate gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus [8] All of these studies have used needle acupuncture which, more traditional, is invasive. Whereas needle acupuncture studies have shown activation and deactivation of the somatosensory cortex [3,4,6,7,11,12,13,14], superficial needling and laser intervention appear to stimulate cortical and subcortical structures other than the somatosensory cortex [11,19,20] This is consistent with the observation that low intensity laser stimulation does not produce a skin sensation. If the effect differs dependent on the site of stimulation, the neural locus of the activity should differ
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