FMRI and physiological monitoring is used to study the effects of Acupuncture on the central and peripheral nervous systems. Acupuncture mobilizes a limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network, with great overlap with the default mode network, to modulate neurological activity, possibly related to its autonomic effect in the peripheral nervous system.
Hui, K. K. S., Napadow, V., Liu, J., Li, M., Marina, O., Nixon, E. E., Claunch, J. D., LaCount, L., Sporko, T., Kwong, K. K. Monitoring Acupuncture Effects on Human Brain by fMRI. J. Vis. Exp. (38), e1190, doi:10.3791/1190 (2010).