Functions of the human body in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are described in terms of Yin-Yang and the five elements. These ideas tend to be ignored in current research on TCM, since they are based on ancient Chinese philosophies which are considered incompatible with modern science. However, they may provide us with some new insights into human health and disease. In this paper, I will compare the characteristic view of human beings in TCM with that of western medicine.The view of brain function is a distinctive characteristic of TCM. In TCM, the functions of the brain are dispersed to five zang organs, including heart and liver, and are maintained by comprehensive functional interactions among the five zang organs. Therefore, in contrast to modern western medicine, brain diseases are regarded as systematic diseases in TCM, and their treatments are aimed to normalize not only the activity of the organs, but also the balance of functional interaction. Another characteristic of TCM is that much importance is attached to the interaction between human beings and the environment. This is in contrast to modern western medicine, which tends to regards human beings as independent of their environment. These features of TCM derive from its theoretical basis in Yin-Yang and the five elements. The whole idea of Yin-Yang theory is expressed by the Tai-Chi symbol (figure). The black and white areas in Tai-Chi symbol means that the whole world, including human beings, consists by two opposing components, namely, Yin (black area) and Yang (white area). Importantly, each component exists within the other component; the white and black areas contain small back and white circles, respectively. The world is considered to be infinitely divided into Yin and Yang, and each part has a similar structure to the Tai-Chi symbol. The world, including the human body, in Yin-Yang theory, therefore, has fractal geometry. In addition, interestingly, the functional interaction between the five zang organs in TCM resembles a biological model based on chaos theory.In conclusion, TCM had co-opted the basic idea of a complex system for the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases thousands years ago. Research into TCM should not only evaluate the effects of herbal medicine or acupuncture, but should take into consideration the view of human beings in TCM. Such studies may help us to understand disease in terms of the relationship between humans and the environment.
Human ; Medicine ; Yin-Yang ; symbol ; Environment

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It remains unclear whether language tasks in one's first (L1) or second (L2) language can cause stress responses and whether frontal, autonomic and behavioral responses to stressful tasks are correlated. In this study, we studied 22 Chinese subjects whose L2 was English and measured the cerebral blood oxygenation in their frontal lobe by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as participants engaged in a mental arithmetic task (MAT) and verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) in L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English). To examine the activated cortical areas, we estimated the channel location based on Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard brain space by using a probabilistic estimation method. We evaluated heart rate (HR) changes to analyze autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning. We found that the MAT and VFTs induced greater increases in HR than did the control (Ctrl) task. Furthermore, subjects developed greater increases in HR in the MAT and VFTL2 than they did in the VFTL1. Compared with the Ctrl task, the MAT and both VFTL1 and VFTL2 produced robust and widespread bilateral activation of the frontal cortex. Interestingly, partial correlation analysis indicated that the activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) [Brodmann's area (BA) 47] was consistently correlated with the increases in HR across the three tasks (MAT, VFTL2, and VFTL1), after controlling for the performance data. The present results suggested that a VFT in L2 may be more stressful than in L1. The LIFG may affect the activation of the sympathetic system induced by stressful tasks, including MATs and VFTs.

It remains unclear whether language tasks in one's first (L1) or second (L2) language can cause stress responses and whether frontal, autonomic and behavioral responses to stressful tasks are correlated. In this study, we studied 22 Chinese subjects whose L2 was English and measured the cerebral blood oxygenation in their frontal lobe by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as participants engaged in a mental arithmetic task (MAT) and verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) in L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English). To examine the activated cortical areas, we estimated the channel location based on Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard brain space by using a probabilistic estimation method. We evaluated heart rate (HR) changes to analyze autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning. We found that the MAT and VFTs induced greater increases in HR than did the control (Ctrl) task. Furthermore, subjects developed greater increases in HR in the MAT and VFTL2 than they did in the VFTL1. Compared with the Ctrl task, the MAT and both VFTL1 and VFTL2 produced robust and widespread bilateral activation of the frontal cortex. Interestingly, partial correlation analysis indicated that the activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) [Brodmann's area (BA) 47] was consistently correlated with the increases in HR across the three tasks (MAT, VFTL2, and VFTL1), after controlling for the performance data. The present results suggested that a VFT in L2 may be more stressful than in L1. The LIFG may affect the activation of the sympathetic system induced by stressful tasks, including MATs and VFTs.
Adult ; Autonomic Nervous System ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; methods ; Female ; Functional Laterality ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Oxyhemoglobins ; metabolism ; Prefrontal Cortex ; metabolism ; physiology ; Psychomotor Performance ; physiology ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods ; Stress, Psychological