Seeing the Body: A New Mechanism for Acupuncture Analgesia?

Abstract

The use of visual illusions to study how the brain gives rise to a representation of the body has produced surprising results, particularly in relation to modulation of pain. It seems likely that this research has relevance to how we understand acupuncture analgesia. Acupuncture supplies several different kinds of signal to the brain: touch in the preliminary examination for tender areas; needle stimulation, mainly of Aδ fibres; and sometimes visual input from the patient's sight of the needle insertion. In the light of recent research, all these are likely to modulate pain. There are implications here for clinical practice and for research. Acupuncture may be more effective if patients can see the needles being inserted. The use of non-penetrating stimuli to the skin or minimal needle insertion at non-acupuncture points as control procedures becomes more than ever open to question and this, in turn, has relevance for claims that acupuncture is indistinguishable from placebo.

Psychophysical and neurophysiological responses to acupuncture stimulation to incorporated rubber hand

“…From a neurological point of view, the sensations induced by acupuncture are not only the product of the bottom-up modulation of simple needling at somatosensory receptors, but also of the reciprocal interaction of top-down modulation from the brain, such as the incorporation of focused attention and accentuated bodily awareness [21]. The use of multisensory modalities to study the body schema is an emerging field of research that offers the development of promising approaches designed to increase the current understanding of acupuncture and to enhance its effectiveness [6]. A previous study from our group found that the degrees of change in the neurophysiological responses following acupuncture stimulation to the real hand were similar to the responses observed in the rubber hand following modification of body ownership [8].…”

Perioperative acupuncture modulation: more than anaesthesia

“…Reviews are continually updated. [59][60][61][62][63][64] Clinicians are primarily concerned with the duration and intensity of acupuncture-induced postoperative analgesia. Depending on the study design, controversial results have been reported.…”

Brain Responses to Acupuncture Stimulation in the Prosthetic Hand of An Amputee Patient

“…4 The study of body schema using multisensory modalities is an emerging field of research that may provide insights into the mechanisms underlying acupuncture therapy. 5 Previously, we used the rubber hand illusion (RHI) to show that modification of bodily self-awareness resulted in different physiological responses to the same acupuncture stimulation in healthy volunteers. 6 This study led to a new research question: what would the brain responses be if an upper limb amputee received acupuncture on his prosthetic hand?…”