Life Sciences Research Center, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:297839. doi: 10.1155/2013/297839. Epub 2013 Feb 7.
de-qi, comprising mostly subjective sensations during acupuncture, is traditionally considered as a very important component for the possible therapeutic effects of acupuncture. However, the neural correlates of de-qi are still unclear. In this paper, we reviewed previous fMRI studies from the viewpoint of the neural responses of de-qi. We searched on Pubmed and identified 111 papers. Fourteen studies distinguishing de-qi and sharp pain and eight studies with the mixed sensations were included in further discussions. We found that the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses associated with de-qi were activation dominated, mainly around cortical areas relevant to the processing of somatosensory or pain signals. More intense and extensive activations were shown for the mixed sensations. Specific activations of sharp pain were also shown. Similar BOLD response patterns between de-qi evoked by acupuncture stimulation and de-qi-like sensations evoked by deep pain stimulation were shown. We reckon that a standardized method of qualification and quantification of de-qi, deeper understanding of grouping strategy of de-qi and sharp pain, and making deep pain stimulation as a control, as well as a series of improvements in the statistical method, are crucial factors for revealing the neural correlates of de-qi and neural mechanisms of acupuncture.
得气，主要是针刺过程中的主观感觉，传统上被认为是针刺可能产生治疗效果的一个非常重要的组成部分。然而，得气的神经相关性仍不清楚。在本文中，我们从得气的神经反应的角度回顾了之前的 fMRI 研究。我们在 Pubmed 上进行了搜索，确定了 111 篇论文。其中，有 14 项研究区分了得气和锐痛，8 项研究包含了混合感觉，我们对这些研究进行了进一步的讨论。我们发现，与得气相关的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应以激活为主，主要集中在与躯体感觉或疼痛信号处理相关的皮质区域。混合感觉显示出更强和更广泛的激活。也显示出锐痛的特定激活。针刺刺激引起的得气和深痛刺激引起的类似得气感觉之间的 BOLD 反应模式相似。我们认为，规范的得气定性和定量方法、对得气和锐痛分组策略的更深入理解、以及将深痛刺激作为对照，以及对统计方法的一系列改进，是揭示得气的神经相关性和针刺神经机制的关键因素。
