EAR ACUPUNCTURE AND FMRI

Twenty years ago the hypothesis was introduced that acupuncture stimulation may activate specific areas of the brain. However only recently this diagnostic procedure has become more and more appealing for investigating some crucial aspects of acupuncture, such as the comparison between “verum” and “sham” acupuncture, the intensity of stimulation (with or without deqi effect), the differences between points located on the same meridian or on different meridians. Most studies of the literature suggest that acupuncture can modulate the activity of the brain, both with activating and deactivating specific areas. With regard to ear acupuncture it is not clear to us why in the same period only three fMRI studies have been published applying this technique, one in 2002 and two in 2014. In the first study Dr. David Alimi demonstrated with a Block Design that auricular stimulation of the thumb point activated the somesthetic area S1 contralaterally in 6 subjects and bilaterally in 3 subjects. In the second study, performed by Romoli and coll., for the first time the specificity of auricular points was explored, choosing two points (thumb and brain stem) which are topographically distant from each other and have different therapeutic indications. In the same year a second study was organized by Dr. Alimi and Dr. Bahr the purpose of which was to evaluate the differences stimulating the knee point according to Nogier-Bahr or according to the current Chinese auricular map. The aim of this article is to promote further investigations with fMRI on a series of fundamental or particularly active points regulating the neuroendocrine and vegetative functions such as Nogier’s Zero point, Shenmen, Endocrine, Occiput etc.