Life Science Research Center, School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China.
Magn Reson Imaging. 2010 Apr;28(3):380-7. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2009.11.009. Epub 2010 Jan 13.
Acupoint specificity is one of the central issues of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of acupuncture and has been under discussed. However, strong and consistent proof has not been provided for the existence of acupoint specificity, and unsuitable analysis approach applied could be the reason. We observed that previous researches of acupoint specificity were mostly based on model-based methods which were limited to make exploration of acupoint specificity because of the inaccurate specified prior. Here we applied multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate the specificity of brain activation patterns induced by acupuncture stimulations at a vision-related acupoint (GB37) and a nearby nonacupoint (NAP). Results showed that multiple brain areas could differentiate the central neural response patterns induced by acupuncture stimulation at these two sites with higher accuracy above the chance level. These regions included occipital cortex, limbic-cerebellar areas and somatosensory cortex. Our results support that the characteristic neural response patterns of brain cortex to the acupuncture stimulation at GB37 and a nearby NAP could differ from each other effectively with the application of MVPA approach.
穴位特异性是针刺功能磁共振成像(fMRI)研究的核心问题之一,一直备受争议。然而,目前还没有强有力且一致的证据证明穴位特异性的存在,应用不合适的分析方法可能是原因之一。我们观察到,以前的穴位特异性研究大多基于基于模型的方法,由于指定的先验不准确,这些方法仅限于探索穴位特异性。在这里,我们应用多体素模式分析(MVPA)来研究视觉相关穴位(GB37)和附近非穴位(NAP)针刺刺激引起的大脑激活模式的特异性。结果表明,多个脑区可以区分这两个部位针刺刺激引起的中枢神经反应模式,其准确性高于随机水平。这些区域包括枕叶皮层、边缘-小脑区域和躯体感觉皮层。我们的结果支持,应用 MVPA 方法可以有效地将大脑皮层对 GB37 和附近 NAP 针刺刺激的特征性神经反应模式区分开来。
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