Electrical acupuncture at a specific neck point prevented migraine-like pain in rats by reducing excessive activity in a key brainstem pain-processing pathway.
Researchers assigned rats to control, migraine-model, electrical acupuncture, non-point stimulation, and saline comparison groups. Migraine-like inflammation was induced by applying an inflammatory solution to the protective membrane surrounding the brain, while control animals received saline. Electrical stimulation was delivered before migraine induction at a neck acupuncture point or at a non-acupuncture site. The investigators assessed facial mechanical pain sensitivity and recorded activity from individual neurons in the upper spinal cord region that receives trigeminal pain signals.
Electrical acupuncture at the neck point increased facial pain thresholds, reduced heightened sensitivity to gentle stimulation, and suppressed excessive firing of neurons in the trigeminocervical complex. These effects indicate that the treatment may prevent migraine-like attacks by dampening abnormal trigeminal pain transmission, whereas stimulation away from the acupuncture point did not show the same targeted benefit.
