The NIH-funded"Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions(SPARC)"program has been initiated in Octomber 2016

aiming at developing high resolution neural circuit maps and next generation neural modulation devices.This program has brought great stimulus to acupuncturists and acupuncture researchers both at home and abroad.Is the SPARC program a driving force or a challenge of acupuncture research?In the present study

we introduced the SPARC program and compared it with current acupuncture research.The first step of SPARC is to better map neural circuits associated with disease on the anatomical level so as to identify the best points for intervention

and to decode the neural language at these intervention points for developing a dictionary of patterns associated with health and disease states on the signaling level.Similarly

our acupuncture research also focuses on revealing the neural encoding of acupuncture stimulation and its effect on visceral function

seeking suitable stimulation parameters to regulate the abnormal visceral activity precisely.Therefore

the common point of SPARC program and acupuncture research is the scientific basis of peripheral somatic neuronal regulation

and their difference is that acupuncture regulates the visceral function through multiple neural circuits and neural feedbacks by stimulating the sensitized points or acupoints

achieving homeostasis at last.Acupuncture-induced regulation effect is limited and the therapy is safe.Whereas

"stimulating peripheral activity(SPA)"can regulate the visceral organs precisely but without neural feedback.Inevitably

SPA will produce tolerance or side effects.Therefore

there is still much work to be done in terms of the initiation of trigger stimulation and the feedback inhibition of target organ effects.The SPARC program is definitely apowerful force in revealing the mechanisms by which acupuncture works.