title: Partly Separated Activations in the Spatial Distribution between de-qi and Sharp Pain during Acupuncture Stimulation: An fMRI-Based Study.
abstract: Nowadays, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become one of the most important ways to explore the central mechanism of acupuncture. Among these studies, activations around the somatosensory-related brain network had the most robust blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses. However, due to the insufficient control of the subjective sensations during acupuncture stimulation, whether these robust activations reflected the pattern of de-qi, sharp pain, or  mixed  (de-qi + sharp pain) sensations was largely unknown. The current study recruited 50 subjects and grouped them into two groups according to whether he/she experienced sharp pain during acupuncture stimulation to give a definite answer to the aforesaid question. Our results indicated that BOLD responses associated with de-qi during acupuncture stimulation at ST36 were activation dominated. Furthermore, both the quantitative and qualitative differences of BOLD responses between de-qi and mixed sensations evoked by acupuncture stimulation were significant. The pattern of BOLD responses of sharp pain might be partly separated from that of de-qi in the spatial distribution. Therefore, we proposed that in order to explore the specific central mechanism of acupuncture, subjects with sharp pain should be excluded from those with only de-qi.
authors: Life Sciences Research Center, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China.
authors: Jinbo
authors: J
authors: Sun
authors: Yuanqiang
authors: Y
authors: Zhu
authors: Lingmin
authors: L
authors: Jin
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Yang
authors: Karen M
authors: KM
authors: von Deneen
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Qin
authors: Qiyong
authors: Q
authors: Gong
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Tian