Differential localization of pain-related neural responses during acupuncture stimulation using Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) fMRI in a canine model.

The objective of this study was to differentiate the neuronal responses, which was related or unrelated, to pain associated with acupuncture stimulation, and to localize the brain regions with response to stimulation that is unrelated to pain by using Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI). BOLD fMRI was performed in six normal healthy beagle dogs, during placebo and verum acupuncture stimulations, at the right side of BL60 (KunLun) acupoint before and after local anesthesia of the acupoint. The order of the four sessions was placebo; verum acupuncture stimulation; before local anesthesia; and followed by the same stimulation after local anesthesia. One-sample t-test analysis was performed to localize the activated or deactivated areas, during both pre-anesthesia and post-anesthesia. In order to compare the pre-anesthesia to post-anesthetic responses, and placebo to verum acupuncture stimulation, within-subject analysis was performed. The post-anesthetic verum acupuncture stimulation re...