The "meridian" is the core concept of acupuncture medicine. It can be said that almost all the theories and clinical practice of acupuncture and moxibustion in traditional Chinese medicine are based on this concept. However, up to now, scientists have failed in finding the "meridian" described in Chinese classic textbooks and fall into the dilemma of the meridian essence research. In fact, the meridian is independent of currently known anatomical tissues. Nevertheless, researches obtained highly valuable outcomes of life science through long-term studies, especially the cerebral science endowed the meridian theory with new connotations. The modern meridian theory is composed of new knowledge and traditional meridian knowledge. In the present paper, we put forward a new hypothesis that "the brain controls the meridians", and a new academic paradigm, that is, the meridians research should turn from looking for the structure of meridian to exploring the functions of meridian, which can be realized with the help of brain function.
科学家迄今未能找到教科书中描述的独立于已知解剖组织的“经络”，从而遭遇经络实质研究的困境。不过，在长期的相关研究中获得了极有价值的生命科学发现，尤其是脑科学的发展赋予了经络理论新的内涵。这些新知识与传统的经络知识共同构成了现代经络理论。由此，作者提出“脑摄经络”假说，认为经络研究的学术主旨应该由寻找经络结构转向探索经络功能，而经络功能的研究可以借助脑科学/脑功能研究来实现。.
Keywords: Functional meridians; Hypothesis; Structural meridians; “The brain controls meridians”.