Differential cerebral response to somatosensory stimulation of an acupuncture point vs. two non-acupuncture points measured with EEG and fMRI
View/ Open
Author
Nierhaus, Till
Pach, Daniel
Huang, Wenjing
Long, Xiangyu
Roll, Stephanie
Liang, Fanrong
Pleger, Burkhard
Villringer, Arno
Witt, Claudia M.
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00074Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Nierhaus, Till, Daniel Pach, Wenjing Huang, Xiangyu Long, Vitaly Napadow, Stephanie Roll, Fanrong Liang, Burkhard Pleger, Arno Villringer, and Claudia M. Witt. 2015. “Differential Cerebral Response to Somatosensory Stimulation of an Acupuncture Point Vs. Two Non-Acupuncture Points Measured with EEG and fMRI.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9 (February 13). doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00074.Abstract
Acupuncture can be regarded as a complex somatosensory stimulation. Here, we evaluate whether the point locations chosen for a somatosensory stimulation with acupuncture needles differently change the brain activity in healthy volunteers. We used EEG, event-related fMRI, and resting-state functional connectivity fMRI to assess neural responses to standardized needle stimulation of the acupuncture point ST36 (lower leg) and two control point locations (CP1 same dermatome, CP2 different dermatome). Cerebral responses were expected to differ for stimulation in two different dermatomes (CP2 different from ST36 and CP1), or stimulation at the acupuncture point vs. the control points. For EEG, mu rhythm power increased for ST36 compared to CP1 or CP2, but not when comparing the two control points. The fMRI analysis found more pronounced insula and S2 (secondary somatosensory cortex) activation, as well as precuneus deactivation during ST36 stimulation. The S2 seed-based functional connectivity analysis revealed increased connectivity to right precuneus for both comparisons, ST36 vs. CP1 and ST36 vs. CP2, however in different regions. Our results suggest that stimulation at acupuncture points may modulate somatosensory and saliency processing regions more readily than stimulation at non-acupuncture point locations. Also, our findings suggest potential modulation of pain perception due to acupuncture stimulation.Other Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327308/Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:36304196
Collections
- HMS Scholarly Articles [17921]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)