Cortical Network Response to Acupuncture and the Effect of the Hegu Point: An fNIRS Study

Abstract

Acupuncture is a practice of treatment based on influencing specific points on the body by inserting needles. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the aim of acupuncture treatment for pain management is to use specific acupoints to relieve excess, activate qi (or vital energy), and improve blood circulation. In this context, the Hegu point is one of the most widely-used acupoints for this purpose, and it has been linked to having an analgesic effect. However, there exists considerable debate as to its scientific validity. In this pilot study, we aim to identify the functional connectivity related to the three main types of acupuncture manipulations and also identify an analgesic effect based on the hemodynamic response as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The cortical response of eleven healthy subjects was obtained using fNIRS during an acupuncture procedure. A multiscale analysis based on wavelet transform coherence was employed to assess the functional connectivity of corresponding channel pairs within the left and right somatosensory region. The wavelet analysis was focused on the very-low frequency oscillations (VLFO, 0.01–0.08 Hz) and the low frequency oscillations (LFO, 0.08–0.15 Hz). A mixed model analysis of variance was used to appraise statistical differences in the wavelet domain for the different acupuncture stimuli. The hemodynamic response after the acupuncture manipulations exhibited strong activations and distinctive cortical networks in each stimulus. The results of the statistical analysis showed significant differences (p<0.05) between the tasks in both frequency bands. These results suggest the existence of different stimuli-specific cortical networks in both frequency bands and the anaesthetic effect of the Hegu point as measured by fNIRS.

Effects of Acupuncture Therapy on MCI Patients Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

“…A future study may consider a greater number of subjects for better analysis, such as for obtaining the temporal or connectivity features in order to classify MCI patients. Moreover, in the future, other connectivity measures such as wavelet and cross-wavelet coefficients will be used for a better understanding of the therapeutic effects of AT on patients diagnosed as MCI (Ganjefar et al, 2018; Rojas et al, 2019). Finally, in the present results, gender-based variability was not assessed since all the participants were female.…”

“…These studies demonstrated reduced brain activation during retrieval tasks (Uemura et al, 2016), verbal fluency tasks (Arai et al, 2006; Yap et al, 2017), working memory (WM) tasks (Niu et al, 2013; Yeung et al, 2016a, b), verbal n-back task with varying levels of WM load (Vermeij et al, 2017), digit verbal span tasks (Li et al, 2018), and a combination of verbal fluency tasks while walking (Doi et al, 2013). In addition, medication and AT interventions in patients diagnosed with MCI and AD can be monitored using fNIRS (Litscher and Schikora, 2002; Hori et al, 2010; Takamoto et al, 2010; Chou and Lan, 2013; Araki et al, 2014; Folch et al, 2016; Rojas et al, 2019). However, translation of the resting state (RS) and task-related fNIRS studies from the research laboratory setting to clinical practice is still in the preliminary stages.…”

A Machine Learning Approach for the Identification of a Biomarker of Human Pain using fNIRS

“…For study participation, written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to initiation of the experiments. Throughout the experiments, the participants were instructed to keep their eyes closed 29 . Procedures and methods for this study followed the guidelines accepted by the Declaration of Helsinki.…”

“…The equipment uses a 24-channel cap, configured in 12 channels per hemisphere. According to the EEG 10–20 system, the measuring probes were on the C3 and C4 positions 29 . The head probe has a predefined source-detector separation of 3 cm.…”

Recovery from hepatitis A after Korean medicine-based treatment: a case report

“…He was given CGP three times a day to alleviate liver damage. Acupuncture treatment at LR3, LI4, ST36, GV20, CV12 points were also performed for 15 min twice a day with 0.20 × 30 needles (DongBang Co., Seoul, Korea) to relieve the abdominal pain and improve liver function 10, 11, 12. Moxibustion was performed on his abdomen at CV12 acupoint to enhance gastric motility 13 .…”