Electroacupuncture stimulation of language-implicated acupoint Tongli (HT 5) in healthy subjects: An fMRI evaluation study.

Chin J Integr Med. 2017 Dec 11;:

Authors: Li LL, Liu XW, Wu F, Tong DC, Ye LP, Tao HX, Liu P, Qiu YH, Yang WZ

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore brain activations associated with electroacupuncture simulation at Tongli (HT 5) and its comparison with brain activations during picture-naming task.
METHODS: Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Half of them received electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 (ACUP group) and the other half of them received stimulation at a nonmeridian sham acupoint (SHAM group). All subjects performed picture-naming task. Each subject finished two runs of functional magnetic resonance imaging examinations in one session and picture-naming task was performed before electroacupuncture stimulation. Subjective brain activations were obtained using generalized linear model and inter-group analyses were performed after that.
RESULTS: The electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 induced significant brain activations in both the anterior and posterior language regions, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, which was in consistent with activations induced during picture-naming task. Group analysis showed a tendency of increased activation of ACUP group in left inferior frontal gyrus compared with SHAM group (P<0.05 FDR corrected).
CONCLUSIONS: Electroacupuncture treatment at the acupoint HT 5 has modulation effect on typical language-implicated brain regions in healthy subjects, which provides supporting evidence for beneficial effects of needling at HT 5 for recovery of language function in aphasia.

PMID: 29230621 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]