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- Title
Partly Separated Activations in the Spatial Distribution between de-qi and Sharp Pain during Acupuncture Stimulation: An fMRI-Based Study.
- Authors
Jinbo Sun; Yuanqiang Zhu; Lingmin Jin; Yang Yang; Karen M. von Deneen; Wei Qin; Qiyong Gong; Jie Tian
- Abstract
Nowadays, functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI) has become one of the most important ways to explore the central mechanism of acupuncture. Among these studies, activations around the somatosensory-related brain network had the most robust blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses. However, due to the insufficient control of the subjective sensations during acupuncture stimulation, whether these robust activations reflected the pattern of de-qi, sharp pain, or mixed (de-qi + sharp pain) sensations was largely unknown. The current study recruited 50 subjects and grouped them into two groups according to whether he/she experienced sharp pain during acupuncture stimulation to give a definite answer to the aforesaid question. Our results indicated that BOLD responses associated with de-qi during acupuncture stimulation at ST36 were activation dominated. Furthermore, both the quantitative and qualitative differences of BOLD responses between de-qi and mixed sensations evoked by acupuncture stimulation were significant. The pattern of BOLD responses of sharp pain might be partly separated from that of de-qi in the spatial distribution. Therefore, we proposed that in order to explore the specific central mechanism of acupuncture, subjects with sharp pain should be excluded from those with only de-qi.
- Publication
Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM), 2012, Vol 2012, p1
- ISSN
1741-427X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1155/2012/934085