Study of Magnetic Acupuncture on Drivers' Autonomic Nervous Activities During Long-Term Driving on a Highway

The objective of this study was to assess the effects of magnetic acupuncture applied to Dazhui (DU14) and Neiguan (PC6) points on drivers' autonomic nervous activities by power spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) during long-term driving on a highway at the speed of 80 km/h. 20 healthy male drivers were randomly divided into two groups: A (study group) and B (control group). All drivers were required to be well rested before the experiment s. All subjects of both groups were required to drive the car on A20-highway for 4 hours. During the driving, magnetic acupuncture were applied to the DU14 and PC6 points for group A while the subjects drove the car for 3.5 hours, and for group B magnetic acupuncture were applied to non-acupuncture points which were 1.5 cm away from the two acupuncture points respectively over the same time. Subjective evaluation to a questionnaire was obtained after the driving task in two groups. After the driving task, low frequency (LF) component, high frequency (HF) component and their ratio LF/HF of HRV in normalized units (NU) were calculated and compared between both groups and between the beginning and the end of the task. Finally it could be determined whether magnetic acupuncture could change drivers' autonomic nervous activities during long-term driving on highway at a speed of 80 km/h. The findings also represent physiological evidence that magnetic acupuncture reduces mental fatigue in healthy drivers.