application): Pain is one of the major complaints of those seeking professional healthcare. Although recent advances have been made in pharmacological and invasive approaches to relief pain, many patients suffering pain chose alternative healing modalities, such as acupuncture. This application focuses on determining the neurobiological mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia (the relief of pain) in people who suffer from fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic pain condition. All proposed work will occur at the University of Michigan. The first year of funding of this proposed K award would coincide with the final year of funding of the R01 grant, allowing an opportunity to use both the research subjects and information from the existing grant to obtain preliminary data for the remainder of the K award. During the first two years of the K award, the applicant will: 1) establish the ideal conditions for acupuncture induced analgesia, and 2) begin to elucidate the mechanisms of acupuncture induced analgesia by using both psychophysical and fMRI experiments. In the final three years of the K award, the applicant will focus on the techniques that show the most promise for elucidating neural mechanisms underlying the analgesia. Comparisons will be drawn between analgesia of patient?s clinical spontaneous pain as well as evoked pain. In addition to clinical research experience, the applicant will attend didactic lectures, seminars, and conferences designed to increase his knowledge of clinical research. Although the applicant already has training in acupuncture and a strong basic research training in neuroscience, this career development program is designed to allow the Candidate to become a successful independent clinical investigator. There is a strong institutional commitment to see the applicant succeed in this task due to a tremendous need for well-trained clinical investigators in alternative and complementary medicine.
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