Research Summary Sheet Country of Origin: Japan

Research Summary sheet Country of origin: Japan

Title / Somatotopical relationships between cortical activity, reflex areas in reflexology: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Journal / Neuroscience Letters
Authors / Tomomi Nakamaru, Naoki Miura, Ai Fukushima and Ryuta Kawashima
Reference / Volume 448, Issue 1, 19 December 2008, Pages 6-9
Disease / illness / Healthy volunteers
Type of study / Functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI
Number of clients / 25 right handed healthy subjects
Control type / Penfield’s Homunculus
Usefulness rating / 5 very important

Methods

25 right handed Japanese speaking individuals were subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI of the brain. During the scan three reflexology points were separately stimulated. The three reflexology points were chosen because of their distinction on the foot chart and on the projection areas on the somatosensory cortex as defined by Penfield’s homunculus (this is a map of the points of stimulation for the various physical parts of the body on to the brain cortex). The three reflexology areas used were the eye, the shoulder and the small intestine. The stimulation was applied separately on all three points on each individual with a wooden stick by an ‘experimenter’ under auditory instruction via headphones from the imaging technician. All points stimulated were on the left hand food. The experimenter kept hold of the instep of the LHS foot while applying the stimulation.

Note

This was not much like a traditional treatment, it was very clinical, noisy and there was no therapist to reflexology point contact as they used a wooden stick, it is not even clear if the experimenter was a reflexologist.

Results

The sensory stimulation was measured by locating a region of interest as a peak in the haemodynamic response that appeared. Ie they looked for area of greatest blood flow within the brain.

Eye specific point gave most activity in the middle part of the left post central gyrus.

Small intestine gave most activity in the superior part of the left post central gyrus.

The shoulder stimulation was not significant but gave a tendency for there to be an increased local activity in the superior part of the right post central gyrus.

Also there are two common areas that activate, firstly relating to a tactile sensation in the LHS foot and a second one that may be involved with the perception of reflexology.

In layman’s terms this means:

If there is stimulation of the left hand foot eye reflexology point, the area of the brain that is responsive to the tactile (touch) stimulation of the eye or neighbouring area responds in the left brain.

If there is stimulation of the left hand foot small intestine reflexology point, the area of the brain that is responsive to the tactile stimulation of the trunk responds in the left brain.

If there is stimulation of the left hand foot shoulder reflexology point, the area of the brain that is responsive to the tactile stimulation of the upper limb has a tendency to activation in the right brain.

It seems that usually if the LHS is stimulated in MRI studies then the RHS of the brain is activated, but in this study the LHS stimulation results in LHS brain activation from the results obtained from the eye and small intestine. This finding agrees with reflexology point of view that LHS stimulation results in LHS activation.
However, in the case of the stimulation of shoulder reflex area, tendency of RHS activation was observed. But this was also the point that showed a tendency to activation rather than significant activation.
Therefore, the laterality of activation is not conclusive from this result.
Further research may increase clarification.

Comments

This research is the beginning of understanding how reflexology can cause changes in the body. This is the reflexology point to brain end of the equation and it is not yet complete, as further research into this area is required especially to confirm the lateral effects. The other end of the equation is to see how the changes of blood flow in the brain as shown by this research effects the organs themselves. This still needs to be looked at, as does the whole equation - reflexology point to brain to organ. But it’s an exciting start.

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