Hypothesis of Neural Information Flow about Acupuncture

Ling Yin, xianglan Jin, Tong Li Acupuncture,originated in China more than 3000 years ago, is an important component of Traditional Chinese Medicine and possesses a long-standing history of development. In the ancient medicine, it was originally used as an important approach for medical treatment, and later on gradually developed into a special subject with rich therapeutic experiences and profound theoretical knowledge, including multiple therapeutics such as Hao needle puncturing, moxibustion, electroAcupuncture, cupping therapeutics, etc. At the present time, Acupuncture therapeutics are used widely as treatment modalities for various clinical disorders. They are gaining widespread popularity and professional acceptance in the modern (Allopathic) medicine centres, as well as an alternative and complementary treatment for various conditions. However, the therapeutic mechanism still remains unclear, leading to its limited use in some western countries. A great deal of ancient literature showed that the Meridian Doctrine, known as the theoretical core of Acupuncture Science, laid the theoretical foundation of Acupuncture development. Therefore most scientific research focused on the Meridian to find its characteristic and related substructure, by means of physical, chemical, optical, thermotical, electrical, and molecular biological methods. This yielded lots of experimental evidence on Acupuncture and Meridian. For example, it was found in CB-HRP and PET tracer studies that tracing signals of Acupuncture could convey upward and downward along Meridian “channels”, or pathways. Hence,