fMRI study of acupuncture at large intestine 4

Objective To study the changes in the human brain when needle was acupunctured at the right LI4 acupoint. Methods Six right handed healthy young Chinese subject were instructed to accept the acupuncture at LI4 while being scanned with a 1.5T MR Siemens scanner. Results Activation was found bilateral in M1/SI, middle frontal gyrus, anterior part of superior temporal gyrus, thalamus, medial superior-frontal gyrus, cerebellum, occipital-temporal association area, contralateral in insular, ACC, SI and ipsilateral SII (BA40/43); while deactivation was found bilateral in temporal pole, medial temporal lobe, medial inferior frontal gyrus, orbital gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, PCC, occipital lobe, middle part of postcentral gyrus and ipsilateral superior part of postcentral gyrus. Conclusion Activation and deactivation were found in the human brain which induced by acupuncture at the LI4 suggests that fMRI might be helpful to understand the physiological mechanism of acupuncture.