Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disease and often accompanied by psychological disorders such as anxiety,depression.It has high morbidity rate and recurrence rate,which seriously affect the patients' work and life.The curative effect of acupuncture therapy on IBS patients is significant but the mechanism of action is still undefined.With the development of neuro imaging technology,more and more scholars study the brain activity of IBS patients with the application of neuro imaging techniques.They found abnormal activities in multiple brain regions of IBS patients,such as the insula,anterior cingulate cortex,the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions which are closely related to the regulation of sensation and emotion in IBS.And acupuncture treatment had certain regulating effect on the functional activities of the corresponding brain regions,which may provide a visual basis for understanding the mechanism of acupuncture on IBS.Hence,this paper reviewed the effect and mechanism of acupuncture treatment on the brain activities of IBS patients with the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging technology.