fMRI Study

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Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Review Article

Acupuncture, as an adjuvant therapy or monotherapy, can protect and restore dopaminergic neurons, bearing positive implications for the Parkinson's disease treatment.

2015 Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture for Parkinson's Disease: a review of clinical, animal, and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies
Danqing X

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Most studies suggest that acupuncture can modulate the activity within specific brain areas, and the evidence based on meta-analyses confirmed some of these results.

2012 PLOS One Characterizing Acupuncture Stimuli Using Brain Imaging with fMRI - A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Literature
Huang, W., Pach, D., Napadow, V., Park, K., Long, X., Neumann, J., Maeda, Y., Nierhaus, T., Liang, F., & Witt, C. M.

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for fMRI Study" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for fMRI Study" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for fMRI Study" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.

A Review Article published in 2015 in the journal Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine found that Acupuncture, as an adjuvant therapy or monotherapy, can protect and restore dopaminergic neurons, bearing positive implications for the Parkinson's disease treatment. Methodologically, animal studies were used to investigate the effects of acupuncture treatment on Parkinson's disease. An examination was conducted to see if the treatment was neuroprotective, if it could protect dopaminergic neurons from degeneration, and restorative, if it could restore tyrosine hydroxylase positive dopaminergic terminals in the striatum. These pathways were monitored at both molecular and cellular levels. The research also looked into whether the protection was mediated through the same mechanisms as other neuroprotective agents such as anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic pathways. The results indicated that acupuncture was not only neuroprotective and restorative, but also seen to improve motor performance in animal models of Parkinsonism. The protective effect appeared to be mediated through common mechanisms of other neuroprotective agents, while restoration of function involved activation of certain compensatory brain regions to correct the imbalances stemming from the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Furthermore, clinical studies in China and Korea depicted a positive impact of acupuncture in treating Parkinson's disease, specifically by reducing the dosage of dopaminergic medications and the associated side effects.

A Systematic Review published in 2012 in the journal PLOS One found that Most studies suggest that acupuncture can modulate the activity within specific brain areas, and the evidence based on meta-analyses confirmed some of these results. Brain response to acupuncture stimuli encompasses a broad network of regions consistent with not just somatosensory, but also affective and cognitive processing. While published results on acupuncture and fMRI were heterogeneous, from a descriptive perspective most studies suggest that acupuncture can modulate the brain activity within specific brain areas, and the evidence based on meta-analyses confirmed part of these results. Future studies should further improve methodological aspects and reporting related to both fMRI and acupuncture, and strictly control experimental conditions for more robust inference. Specifically, direct contrast analyses should be used to contrast different stimulus conditions (e.g. verum versus sham acupuncture) when evaluating research questions concerning acupuncture specificity.

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