Brain Responses to Acupuncture Are Probably Dependent on the Brain Functional Status

Figure 4

Intergroup comparison analysis results between the patients and the normal controls (𝑃≤0.01, 𝛼≤0.05, corrected with the Monte Carlo method). With the comparison of early versus normal, decreased activations (early < normal) were demonstrated in the early group on both sides of parahippocampal gyrus (A1 and A2). With the comparison of later versus normal, increased activations (later > normal) were demonstrated in the later group in the lingual gyrus (B1), middle frontal gyrus (B2 and B4), thalamus (B3), precentral gyrus (B5), and lobule VIIa (B6). With the comparison of recovery versus normal, no activated areas were found above the threshold (𝑃≤0.01, 𝛼≤0.05).

(a) Early versus normal

(b) Later versus normal

(c) Recovery versus normal