BACKGROUND: Balanced acupuncture treatment for the disease has a significant effect, but lack of modern scientific theories relate to the mechanism.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the central mechanism of balancing technique acupuncture by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers and 10 backleg pain patients with lumbar disc protrusion were examined by fMRI before and after balancing technique acupuncture. The encephalic regions which remarkably related to bilateral amygdala were analyzed by AFNI software, and the differences in brain functional connectivity of healthy volunteers and the lumbar disc protrusion patients were investigated after balancing acupuncture.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After balancing acupuncture treatment, the pain of 10 lumbar disc protrusion patients has been improved. The brain region of increased functional connectivity included thalamus, brain stem, ventral anterior nucleus, ventral lateral nucleus, medial frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, frontal supraorbital gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus and insula. Bilateral middle temporal gyrus,supraorbital gyrus,head of caudate nucleus, insula and left dorsal thalamus,bilateral superior frontal gyrus,left middle frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule of the healthy volunteers cenhanced their connection with amygdala after balancing acupuncture. And bilateral dentate body of cerebellum, vermis, left cerebellum slope, bilateral lingual gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, right superior parietal lobule, and right postcentral gyrus decreased their connection with amygdale. The research on amygdale through resting state fMRI is helpful to deeply comprehend the central mechanism of balancing technique acupuncture on backleg pain.