ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore brain activations associated with electroacupuncture simulation at Tongli (HT 5) and its comparison with brain activations during picture-naming task.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Half of them received electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 (ACUP group) and the other half of them received stimulation at a nonmeridian sham acupoint (SHAM group). All subjects performed picture-naming task. Each subject finished two runs of functional magnetic resonance imaging examinations in one session and picture-naming task was performed before electroacupuncture stimulation. Subjective brain activations were obtained using generalized linear model and inter-group analyses were performed after that.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 induced significant brain activations in both the anterior and posterior language regions, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, which was in consistent with activations induced during picture-naming task. Group analysis showed a tendency of increased activation of ACUP group in left inferior frontal gyrus compared with SHAM group (P<0.05 FDR corrected).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Electroacupuncture treatment at the acupoint HT 5 has modulation effect on typical language-implicated brain regions in healthy subjects, which provides supporting evidence for beneficial effects of needling at HT 5 for recovery of language function in aphasia.</p>
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the specifificity of Tongli (HT 5) and Xuanzhong (GB 39) paired acupionts in aspects of Deqi sensation and brain activation patterns during electroacupuncture.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In this study, 15 healthy subjects were enrolled. All participants suffered two kinds of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) examinations randomly: Examination A received electro-acupuncture (EA) at the bilateral Tongli (HT5) and Xuanzhong (GB 39) acupoints (ACU), and examination B received EA at bilateral non-acupoints (NAP). The subjects reported the feeling of Deqi at each examination later respectively. A multi-voxel pattern analysis method and Statistical Program for Social Sciences were used to analyze the data.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The ACU group (Exam A) reported fullness, heaviness, numbness, soreness and throbbing of signifificantly greater intensity than the NAP group (Exam B). In addition, there was no statistical signifificance between two groups in aching, tingling, deep pressure, sharp pain, dull pain, warmness and cold. Meanwhile, fMRI data revealed differences between two groups in discriminating accuracy of brain somatosensory cortex and language-related cortices.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Needling HT 5 and GB 39 may modulate language function through a complex brain network, suggesting that it may be benefificial to the recovery of language function in patients with aphasia.</p>