Zhang Yongheng, Hua Weicheng, Zhou Ziqiu, Zhu Haibin, Xiong Jiawei, Zhang Jianbin, Chen Duo, Guo Jiayang
School of Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Front Neurosci. 2024 May 9;18:1269903. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1269903. eCollection 2024.
Acupuncture is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) method that achieves therapeutic effects through the interaction of neurotransmitters and neural regulation. It is generally carried out manually, making the related process expert-biased. Meanwhile, the neural stimulation effect of acupuncture is difficult to track objectively. In recent years, virtual reality (VR) in medicine has been on the fast lane to widespread use, especially in therapeutic stimulation. However, the use of related technologies in acupuncture has not been reported.
In this work, a novel acupuncture stimulation technique using VR is proposed. To track the stimulation effect, the electroencephalogram (EEG) is used as the marker to validate brain activities under acupuncture.
After statistically analyzing the data of 24 subjects during acupuncture at the "Zusanli (ST36)" acupoint, it has been determined that Virtual Acupuncture (VA) has at least a 63.54% probability of inducing similar EEG activities as in Manual Acupuncture (MA). This work may provide a new solution for researchers and clinical practitioners using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in acupuncture.
针灸是一种通过神经递质相互作用和神经调节来达到治疗效果的中医疗法。它通常是手动进行的，这使得相关过程存在专家偏差。同时，针灸的神经刺激效果难以客观追踪。近年来，医学中的虚拟现实（VR）已迅速普及，尤其是在治疗性刺激方面。然而，相关技术在针灸中的应用尚未见报道。
在这项工作中，提出了一种使用VR的新型针灸刺激技术。为了追踪刺激效果，将脑电图（EEG）用作标记来验证针灸时的大脑活动。
在对24名受试者在“足三里（ST36）”穴位进行针灸时的数据进行统计分析后，已确定虚拟针灸（VA）诱导出与手动针灸（MA）相似的EEG活动的概率至少为63.54%。这项工作可能为在针灸中使用脑机接口（BCI）的研究人员和临床医生提供一种新的解决方案。
