An Study On Specificity Of Waiguan Based On FMRI Data Analysis

Acupuncture is an important component of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Its validity has been proved by long term clinical practices. The meridian and acupoints are the foundation of acupuncture, it have been used for thousands of years in China, because the existence and mechanisms of acupoints is not precisely known, some scholars think that it may exist the corresponding relation between acupoints and nerve centre, acupuncture treatment work through the nerve center. We can find the corresponding relation of cerebral cortex though the study of the meridian-specific brain function defined model, then establish the meridian specific brain function definition model, thus finding the principles of medical science from brain function aspects. It has important significance to popularize and apply the meridian and acupoints by explanting the theory of acupuncture from the western medicine. Because of its existence and mechanism which has not been confirmed by experimental medicine, although it has applied for thousands of years in Chinese clinical, it has not been widely acknowledged, which limits its acceptance by the mainstream medicine. In recent years, as a strong tool, functional magnetic resonance imaging which is non-invasive and can real-time response brain regions affected by specific stimulate active state provide beneficial information for it.The human brain is one of the most important organ of human body, and it is the most complicated and precision organ in the human body structure and function. The cerebral cortex is related not only with human body sensory and motor, but also with the language, words and so on. So the brain research is one of the most meaningful research. Now it mostly focuses on the study of the higher cognitive function. People usually study the human brain function by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology, It detect the functional areas and find the position of the functional areas in brain by testing some physiological signals, such as cerebral blood oxygen content, cerebral blood flow of the spatial distribution of time or tasks related. Functional magnetic resonance imaging technology is a new technology on the basis of the magnetic resonance imaging technology in the 1990s, it can accurately, non-invasively find the position, and it has higher spatial and temporal resolution and good repeatability. Using the fMRI image processing and analysis technology, it can more accurately locate the functional brain areas and internal structure through the observation of the cerebral blood flow characteristics, glucose metabolism and receptor. Because of its non-invasion, it is more and more widely applied.This research purpose that through the Waiguan acupuncture, non-acupoint acupuncture, Waiguan sham-acupuncture of the healthy volunteers and Waiguan acupuncture of ischemic stroke patients based on the fMRI to observe the cerebral activating of brain, and compare the cerebral activating of brain to study the specificity of Waiguan.This paper first introduces the principle of the brain functional magnetic resonance imaging technology, characteristics, development of the application and the theoretical knowledge of the SPM spatial preprocessing technologies and statistic analysis. Block design including the two blocks which are retaining and twisting the needle, the date obtained by MRI analyzed by SPM2 software, we finally get the brain active regions, Brodmann district, three dimensional coordinates. Data processing process mainly includes head correction, space registration, space smooth, statistical model design and statistical inference. Experiments results show that in physiological state the frontal and cerebellum is specifically activated, to a certain extent, it proved that Waiguan can treat the diseases of upper limbs and cerebellar function. In pathologic state needing in Waiguan of the ischemic stroke patients can activate the cerebral regions of sense and sport, and it specifically point to increasing activation/decreasing activation, it may be one of the treatment mechanism of the ischemic stroke. So Waiguan VS other points and sham point has its specific, to a certain extent it confirms "Meridian specificity".