Electroacupuncture Stimulation of Language-Implicated Acupoint Tongli(HT 5) in Healthy Subjects: An fMRI Evaluation Study

Objective： To explore brain activations associated with electroacupuncture simulation at Tongli（HT 5） and its comparison with brain activations during picture-naming task. Methods： Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Half of them received electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5（ACUP group） and the other half of them received stimulation at a nonmeridian sham acupoint（SHAM group）. All subjects performed picture-naming task. Each subject finished two runs of functional magnetic resonance imaging examinations in one session and picture-naming task was performed before electroacupuncture stimulation. Subjective brain activations were obtained using generalized linear model and inter-group analyses were performed after that. Results： The electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 induced significant brain activations in both the anterior and posterior language regions, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, which was in consistent with activations induced during picture-naming task. Group analysis showed a tendency of increased activation of ACUP group in left inferior frontal gyrus compared with SHAM group（P〈0.05 FDR corrected）. Conclusions： Electroacupuncture treatment at the acupoint HT 5 has modulation effect on typical language-implicated brain regions in healthy subjects, which provides supporting evidence for beneficial effects of needling at HT 5 for recovery of language function in aphasia.