Objective:To explore brain activations associated with electroacupuncture simulation at Tongli (HT 5) and its comparison with brain activations during picture-naming task.Methods:Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled in this study.Half of them received electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 (ACUP group) and the other half of them received stimulation at a nonmeridian sham acupoint (SHAM group).All subjects performed picture-naming task.Each subjeot finished two runs of functional magnetic resonance imaging examinations in one session and picture-naming task was performed before electroacupuncture stimulation.Subjective brain activations were obtained using generalized linear model and inter-group analyses were performed after that.Results:The electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 induced significant brain activations in both the anterior and posterior language regions,including the left inferior frontal gyrus,which was in consistent with activations induced during picture-naming task.Group analysis showed a tendency of increased activation of ACUP group in left infedor frontal gyrus compared with SHAM group (P＜0.05 FDR corrected).Conclusions:Electroacupuncture treatment at the acupoint HT 5 has modulation effect on typical language-implicated brain regions in healthy subjects,which provides supporting evidence for beneficial effects of needling at HT 5 for recovery of language function in aphasia.