Research works for the effects of acupuncture on cortical evoked potentials were reviewed since 1970 in this article. As a result of the acupuncture anesthesia being applied widely in clinical operation

most of the studies were focused on the evoked potential of somatosensory cortex for elucidating the priciple of the analgesic effect of acupuncture

while less observations were reported on the aspects of auditory and visual cortex. The amplitude of the evoked potential was often used as an index in assessing the excitability of the cerebral cortex in the studies of the effect of acupuncture in the past. An increase in the amplitude of evoked potential means an excitory process of the cortex and a decrease means depression. Based on their work

the authors consider that whether the change in the amplitude of cortical evoked potential could be served as an optional index in reflecting the excitability of the cortex is still a problem in neurophysiology remained for further investigation