Brain

Also head marrow. Extraordinary organ located in the skull. According to traditional doctrine of visceral manifestation, the brain is the sea of marrow; all marrow belongs to the brain, flowing up to the brain and down to the coccyx. The brain is most closely related to the kidney, which engenders the marrow. Modern observation shows that diminished cerebral function can manifest in signs of insufficiency of kidney essence. The Magic Pivot (灵枢 líng shū), If the sea of marrow is insufficient, the brain turns and the ears ring, there is aching in the neck, dizziness, poor vision, and lethargy. Later, Lǐ Shí-Zhēn (1518–1593), Jin Zheng-Xi, and others explicitly stated, The brain is the seat of the original spirit, and believed that the senses and control of physical movement were related to the brain. However, the main functions of the brain as perceived by Western medicine are ascribed in the doctrine of visceral manifestation to the heart, liver, kidney, and other viscera. The heart stores the spirit refers basically to the brain’s function of mental activity and thought. Such conditions as heat entering the pericardium and phlegm confounding the orifices of the heart correspond to what Western medicine describes as disorders of the central nervous system. Imbalance of heart yīn and heart yáng, and heart qì and heart blood, are explained in Western medicine as disturbance of the brain function. The liver governs free coursing and the liver governs the sinews corresponds to what in Western medicine are brain functions. Disease patterns such as liver qì depression and ascendant liver yáng may also be partly explained in Western medicine as being associated with the nervous system.