[Study of the relationship between the acupoints of Zhongzhu (TE 3), Yanglingquan (GB 34) and their corresponding cortical areas with the functional MRI].
OBJECTIVE
Using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the distributed characteristic of excited cerebral cortical areas that induced by acupuncture-stimulating the Zhongzhu (TE 3) of the meridian of Hand-Shaoyang and Yanglingquan (GB 34) of the meridian of Foot-Shaoyang, and investigate the central neural mechanism on the effect of meridians and acupoints.


METHODS
Forty-two right handed healthy volunteers were randomly divided into Zhongzhu (TE 3) group and Yanglingquan (GB 34) group. The functional cortical changes during acupuncture-stimulating the Zhongzhu (TE 3) and Yanglingquan (GB 34) were successively scanned with fMRI, and the effected areas were determined through analysing the obtained data with SPM2 software.


RESULTS
The main excited areas were bilateral frontal lobes, temporal lobes, cerebellum and occipital lobes successively in Zhongzhu (TE 3) group, and bilateral occipital lobes, cerebellum, frontal lobes and temporal lobes in Yanglingquan (GB 34) group in contrast.


CONCLUSIONS
Acupuncture-stimulating both Zhongzhu (TE 3) and Yanglingquan (GB 34) can excite bilateral acoustic, visual and somatomotor cortices, which might be the central neural basis for clinical treatment on related diseases.
Tian
Li-Fang
LF
Department of Acupuncture and Massage, Beijing Hospital of The Ministry of Health, Beijing 100730, China. lftian88@yahoo.cn
Zhou
Cheng
C
Chen
Min
M
Zou
Ming-Zhu
MZ
Yang
Zheng-Han
ZH
D015669:Acupuncture Points; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D016740:Meridians; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography; D055815:Young Adult