Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 499
To analyse the preliminary data of studies on acupuncture by means of fMRI with regard to its methodological potential and limitations.
We reviewed the current fMRI studies which have been carried out during the past 4 years including our own studies and looked for the quality of acupuncture design as well as imaging method.
Recently, an increasing number of attempts to further clarify the central pathway of acupuncture by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been made. As can be expected at the outset of preliminary research, the paradigms applied and results obtained are quite heterogeneous. Activation and deactivation patterns of various cortical areas through acupuncture detected by fMRI have been published. As attention processes, pain and somatosensory stimuli accompany acupuncture, cautious interpretation of the results is needed. The lack of appropriate control conditions and controversial results question the specificity of the acupuncture response. Heterogeneity of acupuncture as well as imaging method applied in the studies might contribute to the diversity of the results presented. Another limitation in investigating acupuncture by means of fMRI is created by the set up of an fMRI experiment itself.
A non-invasive imaging method, fMRI, that has proven to be a useful tool in brain research since its introduction in the early 1990s, might open new possibilities in acupuncture research. However, awareness of the potential and limitations of fMRI as well as cautious interpretation of the results are urgent for further research in this field.
