Objective To observe the effect of clinical acupuncture practice on practitioner's finger fine touch

so as to analyze the perceptive procedure of the arrival of qi and to explore its key factors.Methods Fifteen healthy acupuncturists and 15 healthy non-acupuncturists volunteers were recruited in the present study.All the participants were ordered to take a sitting position in a quiet room and to have their eyes covered with two eyeshades first.Then

they were asked to receive two general sensory-perceptual acuity tests:the von Frey hair tests for measuring their cutaneous sensation threshold and two-point discrimination tests of the thumb

index and middle fingers of both hands.Results In acupuncturists

the average cutaneous sensation thres-holds of the thumb and index finger of the handedness and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb

index finger and the middle finger of the handedness were lower than those of the handedness in non-acupuncturists in spite of no significant differences(P>0.05).In addition

in acupuncturists

the average cutaneous sensation thresholds of the thumb and index finger and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb

index finger and the middle finger of the handedness were also slightly lower than those of their non-handedness.While in the non-acupuncturists

both the average cutaneous sensation thres-holds and the average two-point discrimination thresholds of the thumb

index finger and the middle finger of the handedness and non-handedness were comparable.Conclusion The acupuncturists' finger fine touch of the handedness is relatively more sensitive than that of non-acupuncturists

suggesting an increase of the sensitivity of fingers in perceiving "Deqi" through long-term acupuncture clinical practice.