Department of Cardiovascular & Neurologic Disease (Stroke Center), East-West Neo Medical Center, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea.
J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Nov;15(11):1193-200. doi: 10.1089/acm.2008.0602.
The objective of this article is to investigate brain activity of scalp acupuncture (SA) as compared to upper and lower limb acupuncture (ULLA) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Ten (10) healthy right-handed female volunteers aged 20-35 were divided into 2 groups: a SA group and an ULLA group. The SA group had needles inserted at the left Sishencong (HN1), GB18, GB9, TH20, and the ULLA group at the right LI1, LI10, LV3, ST36 for 20 minutes, respectively. Both groups had tactile stimulation in the order of the right LI1, LI10, LV3, ST36 before and after acupuncture for a block of 21 seconds repeated 3 times. The blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI was used to observe the brain and somatosensory cortex signal activation.
We compared the signal activation before and after acupuncture needling, and the images showed signal activation after removing the acupuncture needles and the contralateral somatosensory association cortex, the postcentral gyrus, and the parietal lobe were more activated in the SA group. The right occipital lobe, the lingual gyrus, the visual association cortex, the right parahippocampal gyrus, the limbic lobe, the hippocampus, the left anterior lobe, the culmen, and the cerebellum were activated in the ULLA group.
We concluded that there were different signal activations of BOLD fMRI before and after SA versus ULLA, which can be thought to be caused by the sensitivity of acupoints and the different sensory receptors to acupuncture needling.
本文旨在利用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究头皮针刺（SA）与上肢和下肢针刺（ULLA）的脑活动。
10 名 20-35 岁的健康右利手女性志愿者分为 2 组：SA 组和 ULLA 组。SA 组针刺左侧四神聪（HN1）、GB18、GB9、TH20，ULLA 组针刺右侧 LI1、LI10、LV3、ST36，各持续 20 分钟。两组在针刺前后均按右 LI1、LI10、LV3、ST36 的顺序进行触觉刺激，每次持续 21 秒，重复 3 次。采用血氧水平依赖（BOLD）fMRI 观察大脑和躯体感觉皮层信号激活情况。
我们比较了针刺前后的信号激活情况，图像显示，去除针刺针后，SA 组的对侧感觉联合皮层、中央后回和顶叶的信号激活更为明显。而 ULLA 组的右侧枕叶、舌回、视觉联合皮层、右侧海马旁回、边缘叶、海马、左侧前叶、穹窿和小脑被激活。
我们得出结论，SA 与 ULLA 相比，针刺前后 BOLD fMRI 的信号激活存在差异，这可能是由于穴位的敏感性和针刺对不同感觉受体的刺激所致。
