Trial reportAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2015
Blockade of the brachial plexus abolishes activation of specific brain regions by electroacupuncture at LI4: a functional MRI study.
Trial report in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Laser acupuncture improves cortical excitability and behavioural performance in healthy individuals: a randomized controlled trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Trial
- Effect of acupuncture 'dose' on modulation of the default mode network of the brain.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2016Trial
- Intrapartum Acupuncture Provision in the UK: A Survey of Independent Acupuncture Practitioners.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Anatomical and Physiological Knowledge of theMedical acupuncture · 2024Review
- Activation likelihood estimation identifies brain regions activated during puncturing atFrontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
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- Erratum issuedCorrection.2016
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveOur aim was to test the hypothesis that electroacupuncture (EA) at acupuncture point LI4 activates specific brain regions by nerve stimulation that is mediatied through a pathway involving the brachial plexus.
methodsTwelve acupuncture naive right-handed volunteers were allocated to receive three sessions of EA at LI4 in a random different order (crossover): (1) EA alone (EA); EA after injection of local anaesthetics into the deltoid muscle (EA+LA); and (3) EA after blockade of the brachial plexus (EA+NB). During each session, participants were imaged in a 3 T MRI scanner. Brain regions showing change in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal (activation) were identified. Subjective acupuncture sensation was quantified after functional MRI scanning was completed. Results were compared between the three sessions for each individual, and averaged.
resultsBlockade of the brachial plexus inhibited acupuncture sensation during EA. EA and EA+LA activated the bilateral thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebellum and left putamen, whilst no significant activation was observed during EA+NB. The BOLD signal of the thalamus correlated significantly with acupuncture sensation score during EA.
conclusionsBlockade of the brachial plexus completely abolishes patterns of brain activation induced by EA at LI4. The results suggest that EA activates specific brain regions through stimulation of the local nerves supplying the tissues at LI4, which transmit sensory information via the brachial plexus. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR-OO-13003389.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.