Hu Ling
Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
Zhen Ci Yan Jiu. 2019 Jun 25;44(6):465-8. doi: 10.13702/j.1000-0607.180445.
Pain is inherently unpleasant and has the characteristic of protecting the body by promoting motivation and learning. Relief from aversion (including pain relief) is rewarding. The aversion to pain and reward from pain relief are encoded by brain mesocorticolimbic circuits characterized by reward/motivation. This paper reviews the research findings about the effect of pain and acupuncture on reward/motivation circuits derived from animal models and human neuroimaging. It is further suggested that neuroimaging techniques may be used to track brain regions that mediate acupuncture effect, and the response of reward/motivation circuits to acupuncture could be used as an objective indicator of analgesic efficacy. It may provide help for further study on the brain mechanism of acupuncture in improving chronic pain.
疼痛本质上是令人不快的，具有通过促进动机和学习来保护身体的特性。缓解厌恶情绪（包括缓解疼痛）是有益的。对疼痛的厌恶和疼痛缓解带来的奖赏是由以奖赏/动机为特征的脑内中脑皮质边缘回路编码的。本文综述了来自动物模型和人类神经影像学关于疼痛和针刺对奖赏/动机回路影响的研究结果。进一步表明，神经影像学技术可用于追踪介导针刺效应的脑区，奖赏/动机回路对针刺的反应可作为镇痛效果的客观指标。这可能为进一步研究针刺改善慢性疼痛的脑机制提供帮助。
