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Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Monitoring Acupuncture Effects on Human Brain by fMRI
Published on: April 8, 2010
[Neuroimaging-based study of scalp acupuncture targets for common psychiatric diseases]
Jin Cao1, Siyi Yu2, Fangyuan Cui3
1School of Life Science, Beijing University of CM, Beijing 100029, China.
Abstract:
Scalp acupuncture is a unique acupuncture method, developed based on the cerebral cortex localization. Neuroimaging technology enables the combination of contemporary brain science findings with the studies of scalp stimulation sites. In this study, based on the neuroimaging literature retrieved from Neurosynth platform, the scalp stimulation targets of common psychiatric diseases are developed, which provides the stimulation target protocol of scalp acupuncture for anxiety, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The paper introduces the functions of the brain areas that are involved in each target and closely related to the diseases, and lists the therapeutic methods of common acupuncture and scalp acupuncture for each disease so as to provide the references for clinical practice. These targets can be used not only for the stimulation of scalp acupuncture, but also for the different neuromodulation techniques to treat related diseases.

