[Research progress on mechanisms of acupuncture regulating limbic system to improve pain-related emotion].

Authors

Renzhen Zhang, Cui Ma, Tingting Dou, Li Li, Xuejiao Ma, Yuting Wei, Xingke Yan

Published in

Zhen ci yan jiu = Acupuncture research. Volume 51. Issue 9. Pages 1219-1226. Sep 25, 2026.

Abstract

Chronic pain is often accompanied by negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and aversion, with structural and functional abnormalities in the limbic system serving as the key pathological basis for this comorbidity. Acupuncture can improve pain-related emotions by modulating multilevel neural centers within the limbic system. At the cortical level, acupuncture can restore the regulatory mechanism of the cortex over pain-related emotions by modulating the neural plasticity of the anterior cingulate cortex, medial cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, and insular cortex； at the subcortical level, acupuncture can act on the amygdala and hippocampus to block negative emotions induced by nociceptive information； at the diencephalic level, acupuncture can inhibit the generation of pain-related emotions by down-regulating the abnormal excitability of thalamic paraventricular nucleus neurons, thereby blocking the transmission of pain signals to the limbic system. From a hierarchical perspective of the limbic system, this review elucidated the mechanisms of acupuncture intervention in pain-related emotions, providing a theoretical foundation and reference for clinical research on acupuncture treatment of pain-related emotions.

PMID:
42779402
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.