Spinal effects of acupuncture stimulation assessed by proton density-weighted functional magnetic resonance imaging at 0.2 T. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Signal changes can be detected by proton density-weighted functional imaging in both the brain and the spinal cord. These are attributed to changes in extravascular water proton (signal enhancement by extravascular protons) density during neuronal activation. In this study, we used this technique to detect correlations between acupoint stimulation and neural activity in the spinal cord. Stimulation of acupoints associated with treatment of sensorimotor deficits (LI4 and LI11) was performed on 11 volunteers. During stimulation, 8 of the 11 subjects had consistent functional activations in C6/C7. A bilateral activation pattern was common. Our findings show that acupoint stimulation modulates activity in the spinal cord.

publication date

  • December 1, 2005

Research

keywords

  • Acupuncture
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 29244468288

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.mri.2005.10.007

PubMed ID

  • 16376183

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 23

issue

  • 10