Effect of punctate pressure stimulation on the sole of the foot on autonomic nervous function: examination of neural mechanisms in reflexology

Abstract

Manual therapy for the sole of the foot is called by various names such as “reflexology” and “foot zone therapy”, and is performed all over the world as one of complementary and alternative medicines. However, few basic medical studies have been performed on the mechanism of its effect, and the existence of the reflex that is the origin of the name has not been confirmed. Therefore, we performed experiments to confirm the neural mechanism and the existence of specific reflex zones using the response of pressure stimulation to localized parts of the sole to blood pressure, heart rate, and gastric pressure as indexes. From the results of denervation of the afferent and efferent tracts, it was clarified that the sole stimulus was input from the somatosensory nerve and elicited a reflex response with multiple autonomic nerves as the efferent tract. However, the existence of zones could not be clarified.