The integrated response of the human cerebro-cerebellar and limbic systems to acupuncture stimulation at ST 36 as evidenced by fMRI

Hui, Kathleen K.S.; Liu, Jing; Marina, Ovidiu; Napadow, Vitaly; Haselgrove, Christian; Kwong, Kenneth K.; Kennedy, David N.; Makris, Nikos

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.04.037

Cited by 457 publications

(443 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Our results were consistent with previous findings (14). There was increasing evidence that revealed the significance of the acupunctureinduced neural activity of the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical networks (8,23). As we know, the limbic-cerebellar regions play a critical role in both affective and motoric pain processing (24,25), and also in the ascending pain-conductive system (14,26).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Divergent neural processes specific to the acute and sustained phases of verum and SHAM acupuncture

Liu

Qin

Guo

et al. 2010

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Purpose: To discuss which brain region potentially functioned and switched between the immediate and delayed response of acupuncture. Materials and Methods:A nonrepeated event-related functional MRI (fMRI) design was used to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of acupuncture effects induced by needling an acupoint ST36 (ACU) and a nonmeridian point (SHAM). The standard general linear model was used to detect the immediate neural responses of acupuncture. Graph theory analysis was used to characterize the functional integrated network of the acupuncture delayed effect.Results: Acupuncture induced significant signal changes in the limbic/paralimbic areas, neocortical regions, brainstem, and cerebellum for immediate effect both in ACU and SHAM. Some of these brain regions showed strong functional connectivity for a delayed effect in ACU. Conjunction analysis showed that the insula played a critical role during the overall process of ACU. No overlapping brain regions were found in SHAM. Conclusion:The findings of this study suggested that the delayed effects may reflect a more significant characteristic underlying acupuncture. Given that the insula as a relay station switched between the immediate and delayed response, it suggested that divergent functional connectivity patterns may mediate the acupuncture-related effects for ACU and SHAM.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Divergent neural processes specific to the acute and sustained phases of verum and SHAM acupuncture

Liu

Qin

Guo

et al. 2010

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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“…This includes endogenous antinociceptive limbic networks (cingulate cortex, insula, and hypothalamus) as well as higher-order cognitive and affective control centers within the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe (amygdala and hippocampus) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Wu et al found that stimulation at LI4 (located at the first dorsal intermetacarpal space with a depth of approximately 1 cm) and ST36 (located four finger breadths below the lower margin of the patella and one finger breadth laterally from the anterior crest of the tibia) resulted in increases in signal intensity of the hypothalamus and nucleus accumbens, as well as decreases in the rostral part of the anterior cingulated cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus.…”

Section: Neuroimaging Results Of Acupuncture In Humanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Modulation of Central Neural Pathway Underlying Acupuncture Action: A Systematic Review

Bai¹,

Qin²,

Liang³

et al. 2009

CMIR

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Acupuncture, an ancient therapeutic technique, is currently gaining popularity as an important modality of alternative and complementary medicine in the West world. Concurrently, scientific interests in exploring whether acupuncture is therapeutically effective are raised alongside those about the means by which it may operate. Modern neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography provide a means to safely monitor brain activity in humans. In this review, we have summarized evidence derived from the neuroimaging studies and tried to elucidate the neurophysiological correlates of acupuncture. Previous investigations on the neural responses to acupuncture mainly focus on its acute effects and explore the correlation between the specific acupoints and cortical activations only in the spatial domain. However, abundant clinical reports and psychophysical analysis suggest the kinetics of acupuncture is longer acting as a function of time. Consequentially, an accurate interpretation of acupuncture actions depends on how effectively we can characterize the nature of temporal variations underlying neural activities, rather than simply detect the occurrence of such changes. This emerging picture indicates that both designing paradigms and statistical models involved in acupuncture studies should be applied with great care.

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“…Zhang et al [31] demonstrated that electroacupuncture stimulation (EAS) at two pairs of acupoints in the same spinal segment evokes specific responses in brain images obtained with fMRI. The studies of Hui et al and Wu et al [20,28,29] on acupoint ST 36 showed significant modulatory effects on the limbic system, paralimbic and subcortical gray structures, while control stimulation showed strong activation mainly at the somatosensory cortex. Kong et al [21] studied activa-tion patterns evoked by manual and electroacupuncture, showing that electroacupuncture mainly produced fMRI signal increases in the precentral and postcentral gyri, inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and putamen/insula.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…These previous acupuncture studies [7,31,20,28,29,21,30] were mainly based on multiple-block design, and fMRI data were analyzed using the whole block paradigm. However, from our analysis, we found that the 'on-state,' during which needle manipulation was performed, consisted of three main components: mechanical stimulation due to needle manipulation, subject expectation of what they would experience and the actual acupuncture effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An fMRI study of acupuncture using independent component analysis

Zhang

Qin

Liu

et al. 2009

Neuroscience Letters

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The integrated response of the human cerebro-cerebellar and limbic systems to acupuncture stimulation at ST 36 as evidenced by fMRI

Cited by 457 publications

References 83 publications

Divergent neural processes specific to the acute and sustained phases of verum and SHAM acupuncture

Divergent neural processes specific to the acute and sustained phases of verum and SHAM acupuncture

Spatiotemporal Modulation of Central Neural Pathway Underlying Acupuncture Action: A Systematic Review

An fMRI study of acupuncture using independent component analysis

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