Effect of acupuncturing at true and sham points on the activation of various cerebral areas assessed with functional nuclear magnetic resonance

Hu Ka-ming; Wang Cheng-ping; Xie Hui-jun; J.Henning

doi:10.3321/j.issn:1673-8225.2006.15.015

Abstract：BACKGROUND: From the different function of the brain, functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) was used to explain the correlation with acupoints of meridian. OBJECTIVE: To discuss the effect of aeupuncturing at true and sham points on activating effect in various cerebral areas through fMRI. DESIGN: Randomized-controlled verificated study. SETTING: Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture Section of Environment and Physio-medical Science Department of Medical College and the Radiation Medical Center of University of Freiburg. PARTICIPANTS: The experiment was completed in the Radiation Medical Center of University of Freiburg in Germany in October 2000. In our present study, altogether 18 healthy volunteers with normal vision were selected from Medical College of Freiburg University. All volunteers were divided into two groups. Sham acupuncture + treating acupuncture group (group A) and sham acupuncture + non-treating acupuncture group (group B) with 9 in each group. METHODS: During the experiment, all volunteers first received sham acupuncture (shallow needling on a non-acupoint), then withdraw the needles. Second, cases in group A were needled on Guangming (GB37) and Taichong (LI3) of both sides; cases in group B received acupuncture on Fenglong (ST40) and Xiangu (ST43). In order to achieve a strong De Qi (a characteristic sensation manifesting as numbness, soreness, heaviness, distension), a manual twisting manipulation of the needles (10 s each, left and right in turn) was performed every 30 s. After a period of 4 minutes, the needles were maintained for 2 minutes regarded as a course. Needles were removed after 25 minutes, 4 courses. All imagings were performed on 1.5 Tesla Vision Scanner (Siemens, Erlangen). Then make the cross-correlation analysis on all volunteers and each volunteer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① The effect of acupuncture of group A on the vision-related cortex. ② The activation on different area of the cortex by acupuncture in the two groups. RFSULTS: Two subjects (either has one) had to be excluded from further data analysis due to incorrect application of the stimulation procedure. ① We did not find any BOLD-response to acupuncture in the visual cortex through acupuncture of Guangming (GB 37), which was described as an effective acupoint directly influencing vision-related disorders, but during the experiment, some of the areas reproducibly showing BOLD-contrast in all experiments e.g. Insula, sulcus lateralis and the parieto-temporal cortex had been shown to be involved in the cortical processing of painful and somatosensory stimuli. ② No obvious difference of the activation patterns were found in response to acupuncture on points with a specific therapeutic potencial in contrast to acupoints without that specific potential. ③ Activation in the Alamus could be observed for only 2/8 volunteers during acupuncture on sham acupuncture by cross-correlation-analysis (CC ＞ 0.3). Both of the two groups were found activation in the thalamus, nucleas rubber, the suleus lateralis. And activation in the posterolateral PAG could be observed for 3/8 (group A) and 4/8 (group B) volunteers. Activation in the parieto-temporal cortex was also found in both of the two groups. These proved significant contrasting between true acupuncture and sham acupuncture.CONCLUSION: ① Trough acupuncture on the acupoints related to the vision, we found no activation on the vision cortex. But on other cortex, e.g.insula, sulcus lateralis and the parieto-temporal cortex, the cortical processing of painful and somatosensory stimuli, we found the activation. ②There is difference of the activation pattern in response to true acupuncture in contrast to sham acupuncture detectable, but seldom difference of t he activation pattern in response to acupuncture on points with specific potential in contrast to acupoints without that specific potential.