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Updated: Oct 15, 2025

Bilateral Assessment of the Corticospinal Pathways of the Ankle Muscles Using Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: February 19, 2019
[Correspondence between meridian circuit and somato-segment arrangement]
1Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
Abstract:
The "meridian theory" is the summary and sublimation of long-term medical practice of the Chinese ancient sages. Via reduction and reconstruction about the theoretical system, it has been put forward a doctrine of "binary structure" about the meridian and acupoints which, at the limbs, present a longitudinal arrangement, and those at the head-face and trunk present a horizontal distribution, being closely related to the "dematome" of the body. Centered on the ontogenesis of the embryonic "somite", a closely connected "structure-function unit" complex is formed with the development of the dermis-muscle-ogran-nerve within the homo-segment. This form constitutes the basic characteristics of pathological reaction rules and therapeutic effects of meridian acupoints.
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