针麻的特点之一是病人在清醒状态下接受手术。近年来针刺镇痛的原理研究多在急性实验条件下进行

并获得一些可贵资料

阐明了中枢神经系统参与针刺镇痛。我们认为在清醒的不麻醉状态下进行慢性动物实验研究也可能是研究针麻原理的另一个方面

条件反射即为其中的方法之一。最早

条件反Investigating the role of the cerebral cortex in acupuncture analgesia

we consider that operant conditioning in a woken and freely moving animal is different from those obtained in an acuteexperiment.In this article operant conditioning was established by stimulating the paw of rats.Therats was conditioned to press a lever and thus interruping the noxious stimulation.This behavior co-uld be changed after electroacupuncture on points “Huantiao” and “Zusanli” for 20 min.

i.e.star-ting to press the lever slow down than before or the rats did not give any response even the noxiousstimulation applied on it's paw.A similar effect was obtained by intravenous injection of dolantin(40mg/Kg)

but the inhibition was stronger than the acupuncture effect.If the cerebral cortex of ratswas partially removed

both the rate of established and the stability of operant conditioning were red-uced or the conditioning reflex could not be formed any longer.From above results we consider thatthe cortex does play a role i the regulation of pain.