Cerebral FMRI Study On Treating Myopias By Operating Electroacupuncture At Guangming (GB37)

Objective:The first part of this study aims to find differences in regional brain activation between subjects with normal sight and those with myopia while electro-acupuncture is performed on both legs via acu-points GB37.The second part of this study aims to compare differences in regional brain activation between subjects with myopia who have been treated and those primarily did not have treatment.Methods:Twenty right-handed,volunteer adults,ages 20-30 years old w were divided into two groups. These groups included 9 subjects with normal sight consisting of 4 males and 5 females and 11 subject with myopia consisting of 6 males and 5 females.During the first part of this study, fMRI was used to investigate the differences in regional brain activation between the normal sighted subjects and subjects with myopia while the electro-acupuncture was performed in both legs via acu-points GB37.The second part of this study was giving a course treatment to the subjects with myopia.The treatment was done at the same time of everyday,and electro-acupuncture was performed in both legs via acu-points GB37 of the myopias by a same doctor.The needle was inserted perpendicular to the skin's surface to a depth of approximately 1.0 cun.Electro-acupuncture stimulation was administered using a continuous rectangular wave form of 8Hz.One course of treatment consisted of 10 days.After which,the differences in regional brain activation between the subjects with myopia who were given a course of treatment and those who received no treatment were compared.The data was canalized and the results displayed by SPM2.Results:(1)The first part of this study shows that stimulating the acu-points GB37 of both groups can be lead to the functional changes in specific brain areas but not the optical center.The activated areas of the two groups are different and all of them are diffused distributions which are mainly presented in left brain.The normal sighted group's active regions are larger,and the signal is higher than the subjects with myopia.The two groups have some same active regions. These are in BA6 and BA9 which are related with soma-sentation and motion.Subjects with myopia experience activation in regions of the cerebellum and corps callous which is different from the normal sighted group.(2)The second part of this study shows that when the 8 subjects with myopia have a course of treatment,their visual capacity and diopter was unchanged and 5 of 8 subjects with myopia who finished the treatment responded that their quality of sleeping is better than before and they do not get tired as easily when they read.Bonding to such clinical effects to explain why the myopias that has treatment whose active region is remodeling.After the acupuncture treatment, the subject's cerebellum and limbic systems were mainly active.Furthermore,before and after treatment the left frontal lobe(otherwise known as the "happy lobe") was active,the left frontal lobe is a key part of emotion regulation.Conclusion:There can be different fMRI images during the same acu-point stimulation to physiological and pathologic status.When the patients receive a certain course of treatment,the active regions can be changed;all of these meridian regulation changes are reflected in nerve centre.