Trial reportCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2019
Analgesic Effects Evoked by Real and Imagined Acupuncture: A Neuroimaging Study.
Trial report in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07197710 (Assessing the Efficacy of Imagined Acupuncture for Postoperative Acute Pain Management in Spinal Surgery), which is not on this map. Cited by 30 papers.
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.
Assessing the Efficacy of Imagined Acupuncture for Postoperative Acute Pain Management in Spinal Surgery
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Novel avatar-based video-guided acupuncture imagery treatment for chronic low back pain: a randomised controlled trial in the USA.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Research status and trends of functional magnetic resonance imaging technology in the field of acupuncture: a bibliometric analysis over the past two decades.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Modulation effects of imagery acupuncture and no-touch double-blinded placebo acupuncture, a cross-over pilot study.Brain behavior and immunity integrative · 2024Article
- Review
- The Emotion Regulation of Acupuncture in Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Neuroimaging Protocol.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Thalamocortical Mechanisms Underlying Real and Imagined Acupuncture.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Optimizing and Accelerating the Development of Precision Pain Treatments for Chronic Pain: IMMPACT Review and Recommendations.The journal of pain · 2023Review
- Cognitive and affective interaction with somatosensory afference in acupuncture-a specific brain response to compound stimulus.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- The role of visual expectations in acupuncture analgesia: A quantitative electroencephalography study.Molecular pain · 2022Article
- Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- The effects of acupuncture therapy in migraine: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Effect of Acupuncture on the Cognitive Control Network of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2022Article
- Cognitive components of acupuncture treatment.Integrative medicine research · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Acupuncture Can Play an Antidepressant Role by Regulating the Intestinal Microbes and Neurotransmitters in a Rat Model of Depression.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2021Article
- Evidence of Potential Mechanisms of Acupuncture from Functional MRI Data for Migraine Prophylaxis.Current pain and headache reports · 2021Review
- Test-retest reliability of laser evoked pain perception and fMRI BOLD responses.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Bibliometric Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies on Acupuncture Analgesia Over the Past 20 Years.Journal of pain research · 2021Review
- Cognition and Pain: A Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Acupuncture can provide therapeutic analgesic benefits but is limited by its cost and scheduling difficulties. Guided imagery is a commonly used method for treating many disorders, such as chronic pain. The present study examined a novel intervention for pain relief that integrates acupuncture with imagery called video-guided acupuncture imagery treatment (VGAIT). A total of 27 healthy subjects were recruited for a crossover-design study that included 5 sessions administered in a randomized order (i.e., baseline and 4 different interventions). We investigated changes in pain threshold and fMRI signals modulated by: 1) VGAIT, watching a video of acupuncture previously administered on the participant's own body at baseline while imagining it being concurrently applied; 2) a VGAIT control condition, watching a video of a cotton swab touching the skin; 3) real acupuncture; and 4) sham acupuncture. Results demonstrated that real acupuncture and VGAIT significantly increased pain threshold compared with respective control groups. Imaging showed that real acupuncture produced greater activation of the insula compared with VGAIT. VGAIT produced greater deactivation at the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. Our findings demonstrate that VGAIT holds potential clinical value for pain management.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.