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Wong KKL, Xu J, Chen C, Ghista D, Zhao H. Functional magnetic resonance imaging providing the brain effect mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for depression. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1151421. [PMID: 37025199 PMCID: PMC10070747 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1151421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of depression has been fully recognized internationally. However, its central mechanism is still not developed into a unified standard, and it is generally believed that the central mechanism is regulation of the cortical striatum thalamic neural pathway of the limbic system. In recent years, some scholars have applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the central mechanism and the associated brain effects of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for depression. This study reviews the acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of depression from two aspects: (1) fMRI study of the brain function related to the acupuncture treatment of depression: different acupuncture and moxibustion methods are summarized, the fMRI technique is elaborately explained, and the results of fMRI study of the effects of acupuncture are analyzed in detail, and (2) fMRI associated "brain functional network" effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on depression, including the effects on the hippocampus, the amygdala, the cingulate gyrus, the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, and other brain regions. The study of the effects of acupuncture on brain imaging is not adequately developed and still needs further improvement and development. The brain function networks associated with the acupuncture treatment of depression have not yet been adequately developed to provide a scientific and standardized mechanism of the effects of acupuncture. For this purpose, this study analyzes in-depth the clinical studies on the treatment of anxiety and depression by acupuncture and moxibustion, by depicting how the employment of fMRI technology provides significant imaging changes in the brain regions. Therefore, the study also provides a reference for future clinical research on the treatment of anxiety and depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelvin K. L. Wong
- The Research Center for Medical AI, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jinping Xu
- The Research Center for Medical AI, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Cang Chen
- The Research Center for Medical AI, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Dhanjoo Ghista
- The Research Center for Medical AI, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Hong Zhao
- Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, Luohu District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
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Huang W, Pach D, Napadow V, Park K, Long X, Neumann J, Maeda Y, Nierhaus T, Liang F, Witt CM. Characterizing acupuncture stimuli using brain imaging with FMRI--a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. PLoS One 2012; 7:e32960. [PMID: 22496739 PMCID: PMC3322129 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 170] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2011] [Accepted: 02/08/2012] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The mechanisms of action underlying acupuncture, including acupuncture point specificity, are not well understood. In the previous decade, an increasing number of studies have applied fMRI to investigate brain response to acupuncture stimulation. Our aim was to provide a systematic overview of acupuncture fMRI research considering the following aspects: 1) differences between verum and sham acupuncture, 2) differences due to various methods of acupuncture manipulation, 3) differences between patients and healthy volunteers, 4) differences between different acupuncture points. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We systematically searched English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese databases for literature published from the earliest available up until September 2009, without any language restrictions. We included all studies using fMRI to investigate the effect of acupuncture on the human brain (at least one group that received needle-based acupuncture). 779 papers were identified, 149 met the inclusion criteria for the descriptive analysis, and 34 were eligible for the meta-analyses. From a descriptive perspective, multiple studies reported that acupuncture modulates activity within specific brain areas, including somatosensory cortices, limbic system, basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum. Meta-analyses for verum acupuncture stimuli confirmed brain activity within many of the regions mentioned above. Differences between verum and sham acupuncture were noted in brain response in middle cingulate, while some heterogeneity was noted for other regions depending on how such meta-analyses were performed, such as sensorimotor cortices, limbic regions, and cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS Brain response to acupuncture stimuli encompasses a broad network of regions consistent with not just somatosensory, but also affective and cognitive processing. While the results were heterogeneous, from a descriptive perspective most studies suggest that acupuncture can modulate the activity within specific brain areas, and the evidence based on meta-analyses confirmed some of these results. More high quality studies with more transparent methodology are needed to improve the consistency amongst different studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenjing Huang
- Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany
- Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
| | - Daniel Pach
- Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany
| | - Vitaly Napadow
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Radiology, Logan College of Chiropractic, Chesterfield, Missouri, United States of America
| | - Kyungmo Park
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Republic of Korea
| | - Xiangyu Long
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jane Neumann
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig University Medical Center, IFB Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Yumi Maeda
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Radiology, Logan College of Chiropractic, Chesterfield, Missouri, United States of America
| | - Till Nierhaus
- Berlin NeuroImaging Center and Department Neurology, Charité, Berlin, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Fanrong Liang
- Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
| | - Claudia M. Witt
- Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany
- Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
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