Title: The neurological principle: how traditional Chinese medicine unifies body and mind

Authors: Stefan Jaeger

Addresses: National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA

Abstract: The unity of body and mind is an important concept in Chinese philosophy. Traditionally, the concept is informal and fuzzy, with no well defined meaning in the mathematical sense. This paper proposes a formal information-theoretical model for neural signal processing, arguing that physical principles are neural phenomena. For example, using the proposed model, the paper shows that time-dilation in Einstein's theory of relativity and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle can both be observed in neural signal processing. The paper therefore proposes a new concept, the neurological principle, which subsumes different natural principles. In particular, the paper shows that Yin and Yang, the two forces that according to Chinese philosophy pervade the universe and every entity therein, can be explained with the proposed model. These results provide Chinese medicine with a stronger mathematical foundation.

Keywords: neurological principle; traditional Chinese medicine; TCM; body and mind; Yin-Yang; neural networks; information theory; learning; theory of relativity; uncertainty principle; anthropic principle; fine-structure constant; golden ratio; acupuncture; Chinese philosophy; mathematical foundation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIPM.2013.057391

International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine, 2013 Vol.4 No.2, pp.84 - 102

Received: 21 Dec 2012
Accepted: 24 Mar 2013
Published online: 29 Oct 2013 *

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