Electrical Properties of Acupuncture Points and Meridians: A Systematic Review

Ahn, Andrew; Colbert, Agatha P.; Anderson, Belinda; Martinsen, Ørjan Grøttem; Hammerschlag, Richard; Cina, Steve; Wayne, Peter M.; Langevin, Hélène M.; Krämer, Sybille

doi:10.1016/j.dza.2008.08.002

Cited by 40 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is quite common to encounter instruments that ostensibly locate acupoints through measurement of skin resistance. Using these instruments, it is easy to find skin areas of low resistance that then are claimed to be acupoints [36]. In Japan, a Ryodoraku machine has been used to map out lines of high conductance that corresponded to Chinese meridians [9].…”

Section: Skin Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Meridians: A Modern Basis of Understanding

Longhurst

2010

Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acupuncture, one of the primary methods of treatment in traditional Oriental medicine, is based on a system of meridians. Along the meridians lie acupuncture points or acupoints, which are stimulated by needling, pressure or heat to resolve a clinical problem. A number of methods have been used to identify meridians and to explain them anatomically. Thus, tendinomuscular structures, primo-vessels (Bonghan ducts), regions of increased temperature and low skin resistance have been suggested to represent meridians or as methods to identify them. However, none of these methods have met the criteria for a meridian, an entity that, when stimulated by acupuncture can result in clinical improvement. More recently, modern physiologists have put forward the "neural hypothesis" stating that the clinical influence of acupuncture is transmitted primar ily through stimulation of sensory nerves that provide signals to the brain, which processes this information and then causes clinical changes associated with treatment. Although additional research is warranted to investigate the role of some of the structures identified, it seems clear that the peripheral and central nervous system can now be considered to be the most rational basis for defining meridians. The meridian maps and associated acupoints located along them are best viewed as road maps that can guide practitioners towards applying acupuncture to achieve optimal clinical results.

show abstract

Section: Skin Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Meridians: A Modern Basis of Understanding

Longhurst

2010

Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Skin Conductance at 24 Source (Yuan) Acupoints in 8637 Patients: Influence of Age, Gender and Time of Day

Chamberlin¹,

Colbert²,

Larsen³

2011

Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Limited evidence suggests that electrodermal activity (EDA) at acupoints and meridians is distinct from EDA in nearby tissue(s) [1,2]. A few studies also suggest that skin conductance (or its reciprocal, resistance) at acupoints correlates with clinical diagnoses [3−8] and with therapeutic outcomes [4,9]. Whereas EDA at palmar sites has been validated and is extensively utilized by psychophysiologists in stress and emotion research [10,11], acupuncturists measure SC at acupoints for a different, as yet unvalidated purpose, based on the 1950s work of Voll [12,13] and Nakatani [14]. Acupuncturists use electrical skin conductance (SC) at acupoints to identify which of 12 classically paired acupuncture meridians are out of balance. These SC measurements then inform the clinician's treatment plans and assist in monitoring therapeutic outcomes. Although SC at acupoints may prove to be a valid diagnostic aid and/or quantifiable outcome measure, more preliminary research is needed to characterize AbstractThe clinical practice of recording skin conductance (SC) at acupuncture points (acupoints), as a diagnostic and/or therapeutic monitoring aid may have scientific merit. However, influences of age, gender and time of day on these recordings are unknown and it is unclear whether SC at acupoints differs from SC levels in general (as reported in psychophysiology research). This paper summarizes SC data obtained with the AcuGraph 3 Digital Meridian Imaging System between June 2005 and March 31, 2010. An initial dataset of 117,725 SC examinations was scrubbed to include only the first SC examination on individual patients and exclude potentially faulty data. The final dataset consists of SC recordings at the 24 Source (Yuan) acupoints in 8637 patients, collected by 311 practitioners. Twelve left/right average conductance measures and an overall average of the 24 acupoints were assessed. Statistical analyses included two sample t tests, three way analyses of variance and linear regression. Results indicate that mean SC at acupoints, similar to SC in general, is higher in males, higher in afternoons and declines with age. Not previously reported, the rate of SC decline with age differs at different acupoints between males and females. These findings have substantial implications for acupuncture research and practice.

show abstract

“…meridian characteristics (Ahn and Langevin, 2008). However, the human meridian system is a network with several channels.…”

Section: Y Tan Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this section, based on our previous work (Zhao and Tan, 2006;2008), a modified hysteretic operator is proposed. The modified hysteretic operator will handle the extreme-missing problem.…”

Section: Expanded Input Space With a Modified Hysteretic Operatormentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neural network based identification of hysteresis in human meridian systems

Tan

Dong

Chen

et al. 2012

International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Developing a model based digital human meridian system is one of the interesting ways of understanding and improving acupuncture treatment, safety analysis for acupuncture operation, doctor training, or treatment scheme evaluation. In accomplishing this task, how to construct a proper model to describe the behavior of human meridian systems is one of the very important issues. From experiments, it has been found that the hysteresis phenomenon occurs in the relations between stimulation input and the corresponding response of meridian systems. Therefore, the modeling of hysteresis in a human meridian system is an unavoidable task for the construction of model based digital human meridian systems. As hysteresis is a nonsmooth, nonlinear and dynamic system with a multi-valued mapping, the conventional identification method is difficult to be employed to model its behavior directly. In this paper, a neural network based identification method of hysteresis occurring in human meridian systems is presented. In this modeling scheme, an expanded input space is constructed to transform the multi-valued mapping of hysteresis into a one-to-one mapping. For this purpose, a modified hysteretic operator is proposed to handle the extremum-missing problem. Then, based on the constructed expanded input space with the modified hysteretic operator, the so-called Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) neural network is utilized to model hysteresis inherent in human meridian systems. As hysteresis in meridian system is a dynamic system, a dynamic ELM neural network is developed. In the proposed dynamic ELM neural network, the output state of each hidden neuron is fed back to its own input to describe the dynamic behavior of hysteresis. The training of the recurrent ELM neural network is based on the least-squares algorithm with QR decomposition.

show abstract

Electrical Properties of Acupuncture Points and Meridians: A Systematic Review

Cited by 40 publications

References 1 publication

Defining Meridians: A Modern Basis of Understanding

Defining Meridians: A Modern Basis of Understanding

Skin Conductance at 24 Source (Yuan) Acupoints in 8637 Patients: Influence of Age, Gender and Time of Day

Neural network based identification of hysteresis in human meridian systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About