Yeo Sujung, van den Noort Maurits, Bosch Peggy, Lim Sabina
College of Korean Medicine, Sang Ji University, Wonju 26339, Republic of Korea.
Department of Meridian & Acupoint, College of Korean Medicine, WHO Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine, East-West Medical Research Institute, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2016;2016:4173185. doi: 10.1155/2016/4173185. Epub 2016 Dec 8.
The modulatory effects on the brain during right versus left side acupuncture stimulation of the same acupuncture point have been a subject of controversy. For clarification of this important methodological issue, the present study was designed to compare the blood oxygen level-dependent responses of acupuncture stimulation on the right versus left (GB34). Twenty-two healthy subjects received right or left GB34 acupuncture. Our results show that acupuncture on the left GB34 induced neural responses in the left putamen, caudate body, insula, postcentral gyrus, claustrum, right and left thalamus, right middle frontal gyrus, hypothalamus, and subthalamic nucleus. Acupuncture on the right GB34 induced neural responses in the right middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, thalamus, putamen, lateral globus pallidus, medial globus pallidus, and insula. Interestingly, the putamen and insula were ipsilaterally activated by acupuncture on either the left or right GB34; therefore, they seem to be the main target areas affected by GB34 acupuncture. This is the first reported functional magnetic resonance imaging study directly comparing needling on the right and left GB34. Although more replication studies are needed, our preliminary results prove that acupuncture has different modulatory effects on the brain when performed on the right versus left side.
在同一穴位进行右侧与左侧针刺刺激时对大脑的调节作用一直存在争议。为了阐明这一重要的方法学问题，本研究旨在比较针刺右侧与左侧（GB34）时的血氧水平依赖反应。22名健康受试者接受了右侧或左侧GB34针刺。我们的结果表明，针刺左侧GB34可在左侧壳核、尾状核、岛叶、中央后回、屏状核、右侧和左侧丘脑、右侧额中回、下丘脑和底丘脑核诱发神经反应。针刺右侧GB34可在右侧额中回、顶下小叶、丘脑、壳核、外侧苍白球、内侧苍白球和岛叶诱发神经反应。有趣的是，针刺左侧或右侧GB34均可同侧激活壳核和岛叶；因此，它们似乎是受GB34针刺影响的主要目标区域。这是首次报道的直接比较针刺右侧和左侧GB34的功能磁共振成像研究。尽管需要更多的重复研究，但我们的初步结果证明，针刺右侧与左侧时对大脑具有不同的调节作用。
