Authors

Participants

Intervention group

Control/sham group

Outcome Measures

Results

Yang, et al. [27]

10 healthy male and female volunteers.

Crossover design

Single session 30 minutes acupuncture to LI-4, LI-11, LI-10, TB-5,

ST-36, GB-34, SP-6

and Baxie points.

Single session 30 minutes relaxing

Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures, including resting motor threshold, amplitudes of motor-evoked potential, and interhemispheric inhibition, were assessed before and 10 minutes after intervention.

Acupuncture treatment showed significant changes on potential amplitude from both ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres to acupuncture compared with baseline. Also, interhemispheric inhibition from the contralateral motor cortex to the opposite showed a significant decline.

Lo, et al. [130]

8 healthy subjects.

Crossover design

LI-10 for 15 and 10 minutes

An ipsilateral sham point not corresponding to any known acupoint was chosen as a control.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures in amplitudes of motor-evoked potential.

Acupuncture, even with removal of the needling stimulus, led to enduring changes in cortical excitability and plasticity. Significant increases in motor map sizes.

Sun, et al. [25]

20 healthy volunteers.

Acupuncture to ST- 36 for 12 minutes.

The sham point was located approximately 3 cm lateral to the ST-

36.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to measure motor-evoked

potentials at 7 time points.

With acupuncture at ST36, the MEP amplitude was higher at three time points and increased motor cortical excitation compared with the sham point. Acupuncture at ST36 reduced motor cortical inhibition.

Schaechter, et al. [87]

7 chronic hemiparetic stroke patients.

Traditional Chinese Medicine style of acupuncture twice weekly for 10 weeks. No points were mentioned.

Sham acupuncture involved a nonpenetrating, retractable needle and a disconnected electrical stimulator.

fMRI

A significant positive correlation between changes in function of the affected upper limb (spasticity and range of motion) and activation in a region of the ipsilesional motor cortex. Patients treated with verum acupuncture showed a trend toward a greater maximum activation change in the motor cortical area as compared with those treated with sham acupuncture.

Ning, et al. [86]

20 males with left motor hemiparesis and 20 healthy male subjects.

20 males with left motor hemiparesis received MA to GB-

34. No mention of needling time.

20 healthy male subjects received MA to GB-34.

Resting-state fMRI before and after needling at GB-34, and task-evoked fMRI.

Before needling at GB-34, compared with healthy subjects the stroke patients showed significantly decreased FC between the right primary motor cortex and left primary motor cortex (p < 0.05). After needling at GB-34, the stroke patients showed significantly increased FC between the right primary motor cortex and left primary motor cortex in comparison with baseline  (p < 0.05).

Zunhammer, et al. [131]

20 healthy subjects.

Crossover design.

Deep needling to GB-34.

Non-penetrating needling to GB-34 as control group.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures of motor system excitability.

Verum acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture significantly increased resting motor threshold.

He, et al. [92]

18 healthy male and female participants.

Acupuncture to LI- 11 and SJ-5 for

30 minutes.

Single session

Non-invasive acupuncture with blunt, retractable push-back tips needles to LI-11 and SJ-5 for 30 minutes.

Single session

Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures of motor system excitability.

Acupuncture modulated the excitability of the primary motor cortex, and the synaptic plasticity was time dependent. There was no significance change in the sham needling group.

De Brito, et al. [81]

69 participants.

Acupuncture group received needling at LI-4 and LI-3 for

20 minutes at 10 or

100 Hz.

Single session

Control group received needling at LI-4 and LI-3 with a brief 30-second electrical stimulation. Single session

Transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess motor threshold, motor-evoked potential. Short intracortical inhibition and intracortical facilitation were measured.

EA increased corticospinal excitability of the primary motor cortex compared with the control group only when administered with a frequency of 100 Hz at the sensory threshold (p < 0.05).

There were no significant changes in the other measures.

Bai, et al. [83]

9 ischemic stroke patients and 8

healthy subjects.

Acupuncture to GB- 34 in ischemic patients.

Acupuncture to GB-34 in healthy subjects.

fMRI

Acupuncture induced an increased functional connectivity of the left primary motor cortex with the right primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, thalamus, and cerebellum.

Maioli, et al. [28]

15 healthy adults.

Cross over design

Acupuncture to LI-4 and ST-38.

Upper limb non acupoint was located in the proximal third of the thenar eminence on the left side.

Lower limb non acupoint was located on the lateral thigh between vastus lateralis and bicep femoris

muscles.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures of motor system excitability.

Both classical acupoints and non-acupoints are similarly effective in modulating MEP responses to motor cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation.