[Effects of acupuncture clinical practice on finger fine touch of practitioners]

To observe the effect of clinical acupuncture practice on practitioners finger fine touch, so as to analyze the perceptive procedure of the arrival of qi and to explore its key factors.

Fifteen healthy acupuncturists and 15 healthy non-acupuncturists volunteers were recruited in the present study. All the participants were ordered to take a sitting position in a quiet room and to have their eyes covered with two eyeshades first. Then, they were asked to receive two general sensory-perceptual acuity tests: the von Frey hair tests for measuring their cutaneous sensation threshold and two-point discrimination tests of the thumb, index and middle fingers of both hands.

In acupuncturists, the average cutaneous sensation thresholds of the thumb and index finger of the handedness and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb, index finger and the middle finger of the handedness were lower than those of the handedness in non-acupuncturists in spite of no significant differences (P > 0.05). In addition, in acupuncturists, the average cutaneous sensation thresholds of the thumb and index finger and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb, index finger and the middle finger of the handedness were also slightly lower than those of their non-handedness. While in the non-acupuncturists, both the average cutaneous sensation thresholds and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb, index finger and the middle finger of the handedness and non-handedness were comparable.

The acupuncturists' finger fine touch of the handedness is relatively more sensitive than that of non-acupuncturists, suggesting an increase of the sensitivity of fingers in perceiving "Deqi" through long-term acupuncture clinical practice.