A new journal article summarizes the results of over 100 studies using brain scans to measure the activity caused by inserting needles into 18 specific acupuncture points. They found that the points increased activity in some areas while decreasing activity in others.

They even found correlation between acupuncture points known to benefit vision and activity in the visual areas of the brain.

You can read the summary on Gizmodo or you can read the abstract of the Journal article.

Pretty exciting stuff. Hopefully this will open the door to Western science accepting Chinese medicine in a greater role.