Acute and Sustained Effects on Human Brain Induced by Different Modalities of Acupuncture: An fMRI Study

The aim of this study was to mainly investigate the acute and sustained effects of manual acupuncture (MA) and electroacupuncture (EA) on human whole-brain activity. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the human whole-brain activity during stimulation and post-stimulation periods for MA and EA at ST 36 (Zusanli) which is one of the most commonly used acupoint in acupuncture-related studies. 12 right-handed healthy controls participated in both MA and EA procedures in an interval of more than one week. Overall, similar significant signal decreases in the somatosensory area, limbic/paralimbic regions, prefrontal lobe and superior temporal gyrus were observed in both MA and EA during stimulation period. In general, MA produced more complicated brain activity than EA in the post-stimulation period. These results indicate that MA and EA at ST 36 produce similar acute effect, but different sustained effect during post-acupuncture period. The investigation of acupuncture-induced acute and sustained brain responses using neuroimaging techniques may facilitate the understanding of the mechanism and treatment for MA and EA in clinical practice.