Objective: To prove the priority of music electroacupuncture (EA) in inducing analgesia by comparing its effect with that of pulse EA from behavior and neuroelectrophysiology. Methods: 120 Wistar rats anesthetized with 5% urethane + 0.5% chloralose (i.p.

10 mL/kg) were randomized into behavior part and neuronal reaction observation which were subdivided into control group

music-EA group and pulse-EA group respectively with 20 cases in each group. Pain reaction to radiation-heat irradiation was observed by using tail flick latency (TFL) test. Electric pulse EA and music (music sound waves) EA (6 Hz

2 V and a suitable strength able to induce local muscular tremor) were applied to bilateral “Zusanli”(ST 36) and “Sanyinjiao”(SP 6) for 30 min/time

6 times altogether

followed by detecting TFL. Extracellular discharges of neurons of the left caudate nucleus (CN) and the right hippocampus (HIP) were recorded by using glass micropipettes. Reactions of neuronal firing to electric stimulation of sciatic nerve (5 mA

duration of waves 0.3 ms

interval 5 ms

5 pulses/train) or EA were fed to Power-Lab/8s data processing system. Results: In comparison with control group and pre-EA

TFL values of pulse EA from the 1 st to 3 rd time of EA

and those of music EA from the 1 st to 6 th time of EA delayed significantly (P<0.05～0.01). TFL values of music EA group were significantly bigger than those of pulse EA and control groups from the 1 st to 6 th time of EA (P< 0.05～0.01 ). Compared with the latency values of pain excitement reaction of firings of CN and HIP neurons of control group

those of both pulse EA and music EA groups increased significantly (P<0.05)

while the net increase values of the firing frequency of the two EA groups were markedly smaller (P<0.05～0.01); and the effects of music EA were significantly better than those of pulse EA from the 1 st time of EA on (P< 0.05～0.01 ). The effects of music EA and pulse EA on pain inhibitory reaction of neuronal firings were similar to those of pain excitement neurons. Results showed that the analgesic effect of music EA was significantly superior to that of pulse EA and the analgesic effect of pulse EA was weakened gradually after multiple times of EA stimulation. Conclusion: Music EA has a better analgesic effect and has no marked tolerance phenomenon which may favor functions of acupoint stimulation.