Date of Award

Fall 2008

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Electrical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

Abstract

Acupuncture meridians are said to possess unique electrical characteristics; a characteristic of interest when analyzing systems is frequency response. The Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) response of the Large Intestine (LI) meridian was found by applying a Gaussian pulse signal to LI4 and detecting the signal at LI11; a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis is performed on this signal with a Power Spectral Density (PSD) measuring total power in the 2 -- 100 Hz region. This total power is compared to the total power measurement at a control point by applying the same Gaussian pulse on a control channel; this protocol was tested on 20 participants. There was a greater power measured on the acupuncture channel compared to the control (p = 0.035 using a paired, two sided rank test) but the trend of greater signal propagation on the acupuncture channel was not as substantial as expected with six people giving the opposite result of greater power on the control channel; hence the expected result of greater power along the acupuncture channel is inconclusive.

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