Non-invasive measurement of brain activity using functional MRI: toward the study of brain response to acupuncture stimulation.
We studied functional MRI in 15 male and 13 female normal volunteers on a clinical MRI system using gradient echo sequence. During the experiments, brain activation was induced by grasping the unilateral hand once or twice a second for motor tasks. A localized increase of MRI signal in the contralateral motor cortex was observed in 17 out of 21 cases (81%) under right hand motor task and 11 out of 21 cases (52%) under left hand motor task. The application of this method may be useful to evaluate brain response to acupuncture.
Yoshida
T
T
Department of Neurosurgery, Meiji College of Oriental Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Tanaka
C
C
Umeda
M
M
Higuchi
T
T
Fukunaga
M
M
Naruse
S
S
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D013997:Time Factors