YANG Yiling，HUANG Jianpeng，JIANG Li，LIU Jianhua

（Second Hospital of Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine University, Guangzhou 510000, China）

Abstract:  Previous studies have shown that there were many common structures between the neural  network  of  pain  and  memory,  and  the  main  structure  of the  pain  is also  a  part  of  the memory network.  The chronic pain was characterized by the recurrent attacks and associated with persistent ectopic impulse, which caused the change between the synaptic structure and function  based  on  the  nerve  activity  dependent.  These  changes  might  induce  long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission (one of the important mechanisms of memory formation), and  ultimately  leading  to  the  change  of  central  nervous  system  to  produce  “pain  memory”.Acupuncture  is  one  of  the  effective  means  to  treat  chronic  pain.  It  has  been  proved  that acupuncture can affect the area of spinal cord dorsal horn, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus and other  related  areas.  The  possible  mechanisms  of  action  include  opioid  induced  analgesia, activation of glial cells, and the expression of BDNF. In this paper, we systematically introduce the brain structures and stage of “pain memory” and the mechanisms of acupuncture intervention on synaptic plasticity of chronic pain are also reviewed.

Key words: Acupuncture, Chronic pain, Acupuncture, Plasticity , Memory, Review