A Comparison of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cerebral Regions Activated by Cutaneous Needling and Regular Needling at Waiguan(SJ5) Acupoint

Objective: To observe the brain activating effect of cutaneous needling and regular needling using functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI),and explore the difference of different needling layers.Methods: Eight young volunteers were given cutaneous needling and regular needling respectively under fMRI brain scanning.All the data were analyzed with SAS 9.13 software package.Data of the activating number,activating strength and activating cases of regions of interest in cutaneous needling and regular needling were obtained.Results: Cutaneous needling and regular needling of Waiguan(SJ5)could activate certain brain functional regions,and no significant difference was found in activating number and activating cases between the two methods.The activating strength in right cerebellum of regular needling was greater than that of cutaneous needling.Conclusion: Both cutaneous needling and regular needling can activate certain brain functional regions to different extent.Regular needling can relatively activate cerebellum in specificity,which is correlated to the clinical application of SJ5.