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Title

Oscillatory neuronal dynamics associated with manual acupuncture: a magnetoencephalography study using beamforming analysis

Author(s)

Asghar, Aziz U. R.;  Johnson, Robyn L.;  Woods, William;  Green, Gary G. R.;  Lewith, George;  MacPherson, Hugh

Abstract

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) enables non-invasive recording of neuronal activity, with reconstruction methods providing estimates of underlying brain source locations and oscillatory dynamics from externally recorded neuromagnetic fields. The aim of our study was to use MEG to determine the effect of manual acupuncture on neuronal oscillatory dynamics. A major problem in MEG investigations of manual acupuncture is the absence of onset times for each needle manipulation. Given that beamforming (spatial filtering) analysis is not dependent upon stimulus-driven responses being phase-locked to stimulus onset, we postulated that beamforming could reveal source locations and induced changes in neuronal activity during manual acupuncture. In a beamformer analysis, a two-minute period of manual acupuncture needle manipulation delivered to the ipsilateral right LI-4 (Hegu) acupoint was contrasted with a two-minute baseline period. We considered oscillatory power changes in the theta (4-8Hz), alpha (8-13Hz), beta (13-30Hz) and gamma (30-100Hz) frequency bands. We found significant decreases in beta band power in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex and superior frontal gyrus. In the ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere, we found significant power decreases in beta and gamma frequency bands in only the superior frontal gyrus. No significant power modulations were found in theta and alpha bands. Our results indicate that beamforming is a useful analytical tool to reconstruct underlying neuronal activity associated with manual acupuncture. Our main finding was of beta power decreases in primary somatosensory cortex and superior frontal gyrus, which opens up a line of future investigation regarding whether this contributes towards an underlying mechanism of acupuncture.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre (BPsyC)

Source

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 6 (Nov 2012), article no. 303

Publication year

2012

Keyword(s)

Acupuncture;  Beamforming;  Magnetoencephalography;  Oscillations;  Somatosensory cortex

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

ISSN

1662-5161

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00303

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 Asghar, Johnson, Woods, Green, Lewith and MacPherson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use,distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc. The published version is reproduced in accordance with this policy.

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