Trial reportMolecular pain2015
The modulation effect of longitudinal acupuncture on resting state functional connectivity in knee osteoarthritis patients.
Trial report in Molecular pain, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 53 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
An Acupuncture fMRI Study on Chronic Pain: Response Reliability and Dose Effect
Brain Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-based Chronic Pain Relief
Auricular Point Acupressure to Manage Chemotherapy Induced Neuropathy
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional brain alterations associated with acupuncture for chronic pain: a scoping review of fMRI studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Coordinate-based (ALE) meta-analysis of acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Neuroimaging Studies of Acupuncture on Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of Chronic Pain Treatment on Altered Functional and Metabolic Activities in the Brain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.The journal of pain · 2018Pooled it
- Effects of Acupuncture-Combined Tuina on Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Trial
- Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with acupuncture therapy on brain network functional connectivity in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a single-center randomized controlled trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Trial
- The effect of self-administered acupressure on pain severity and sleep quality of patients with knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- Analgesic Effects Evoked by Real and Imagined Acupuncture: A Neuroimaging Study.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2019Trial
- Enhancing treatment of osteoarthritis knee pain by boosting expectancy: A functional neuroimaging study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2018Trial
- Acupuncture treatment modulates the corticostriatal reward circuitry in major depressive disorder.Journal of psychiatric research · 2017Trial
- Acupuncture modulates the abnormal brainstem activity in migraine without aura patients.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2017Trial
- Repeated acupuncture treatments modulate amygdala resting state functional connectivity of depressive patients.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2016Trial
- A review of descending pain modulation in humans.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Acupoint Selection Patterns and Potential Mechanisms of Acupuncture in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Combined Data Mining and Network Pharmacology Study.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Novel avatar-based video-guided acupuncture imagery treatment for chronic low back pain: a randomised controlled trial in the USA.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- The Efficacy and Brain Network Mechanism of Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Study Protocol for Randomized Controlled Neuroimaging Trial.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Therapeutic Potential of Acupuncture in Knee Osteoarthritis: Clinical Efficacy and Mechanistic Insights.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Review
- Effect of Acupuncture on Functional Connectivity of the Limbic Network in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Exploration of Key Brain Regions Involved in Acupuncture and Moxibustion Analgesia: An Imaging-Based Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
unlabelledRecent advances in brain imaging have contributed to our understanding of the neural activity associated with acupuncture treatment. In this study, we investigated functional connectivity across longitudinal acupuncture treatments in older patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Over a period of 4 weeks (six treatments), we collected resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans from 30 patients before and after their first, third and sixth treatments. Clinical outcome showed a significantly greater pain subscore on the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) (indicative of improvement) with verum acupuncture than with sham acupuncture. Independent component analysis (ICA) of the resting state fMRI data showed that the right frontoparietal network (rFPN) and the executive control network (ECN) showed enhanced functional connectivity (FC) with the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex, a key region in the descending pain modulatory system, in the verum groups as compared to the sham group after treatments. We also found that the rFPN connectivity with the left insula is (1) significantly associated with changes in KOOS pain score after treatments, and (2) significantly enhanced after verum acupuncture treatments as compared to sham treatment. Analysis of the acupuncture needle stimulation scan showed that compared with sham treatment, verum acupuncture activated the left operculum/insula, which also overlaps with findings observed in resting state analysis. Our results suggest that acupuncture may achieve its therapeutic effect on knee OA pain by modulating functional connectivity between the rFPN, ECN and the descending pain modulatory pathway. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: NCT01079390.
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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.