Abstract #3279

Ho T, Chen C, Lu T, Lin J, Duann J, Chen J, Shen W

We performed an fMRI experimental design consisting of single block to avoidbaseline turnover caused by lasting effect of acupuncture sensation. We demonstrated that a De-Qi sensation could last for more than two minutes in a psychophysical test, which could alter the predefined contrast of a multiple block fMRI experiment setting. An fMRI experiment on acupoint ST42 with single-block design and analyzing the image data using GLM with temporally shifting the reference time course to account for possibly different onsets of brain response in different subjects, when compared with the GLM without temporal shifts, demonstrated additional activities in the thalamus and limbic system.