面肌痉挛是一侧面部肌肉阵发性、不自主抽搐为特征的面神经疾患，难以自行缓解且易反复发作，导致患者出现自卑、挫折感、抑郁、焦虑等心理精神障碍，严重危害患者的身心健康，目前缺乏理想的治疗手段。脑可塑性的最新研究成果表明，大脑运动皮层手面区之间存在竞争性的抑制作用。我们的前期工作亦证实，合谷穴和口面部之间存在特异性联系，针刺合谷穴可能对手面区间的相互作用具有调节作用。为此，我们提出科学假说：针刺合谷穴可能产生竞争性抑制效应（兴奋被过度抑制的运动皮层手区，同时抑制相毗邻且过度兴奋的面区），导致运动皮层手区和面区发生功能重组，抑制面部肌肉的过度兴奋，从而促进面肌痉挛恢复。本研究应用经颅磁刺激（TMS）和功能磁共振（fMRI）等脑功能研究手段，采用交叉设计和随机双盲平行试验等设计，从大脑运动皮层功能重组这一全新的角度探讨针刺治疗面肌痉挛的生物学机制，国内外尚无人涉及，对面肌痉挛的治疗具有重要的临床意义。

Hemifacial spasm (HFS) is a movement disorder with unilateral, involuntary and intermittent contractions of facial muscles. HFS initially occurs in the orbicularis oculi muscle, gradually spreads to other facial muscles. HFS is difficult to recover spontaneously and easy to recrudesce not physically disabling, leading to psychological disorders including self-abasement, frustration, depression and anxiety and dangerous to patients’ physical and mental health. No optimal therapeutic modality has been found yet. Studies on brain plasticity indicated that there was competitive inhibitory effect between hand and face representation in motor cortex. Moreover, our previous work also showed that there was specific relationship between Hegu acupoint and orofacial area and acupuncture at Hegu acupoint regulated the interaction between hand and face representation in the cortex. Therefore, we proposed the scientific hypothesis of the project: acupuncture at Hegu acupoint may produce competitive inhibitory effect (i.e., facilitating excitability and area in hand representation and simutaneously inhibiting that in face representation), which will result in functional reorganization in hand and face representation and promote recovery of HFS. Techniques of brain functions including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and some novel designs such as cross-over design and double-blinded, sham-controlled, randomized, parallel-group study will be used in this study to investigate the biological mechanism of HFS, which can be programmed to benefit the treatment of HFS.