Primitive Reflexes, Sinew Channels, and Eight Extraordinary Vessels

 Primitive Reflexes, Sinew Channels, and Eight Extraordinary Vessels

1. Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR)

   • Corresponds to:
     • Tai Yang Sinew Channels (Urinary Bladder and Small Intestine)
     • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
   • Role: TLR influences the development of muscle tone and balance by responding to changes in head position relative to gravity. This reflex is foundational for the activation of the deep spinal muscles and upright posture, aligning with the functions of the Du Mai and Tai Yang channels.

2. Landau Reflex

   • Corresponds to:
     • Tai Yang Sinew Channels
     • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
   • Role: The Landau Reflex helps in the extension of the spine and the posterior chain, which are essential for maintaining an upright posture. This reflex integrates well with the Du Mai and the Tai Yang sinew channels, contributing to spinal extension and stability.

3. Head Righting Reflex

   • Corresponds to:
     • Ren Mai (Conception Vessel)
     • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
   • Role: The Head Righting Reflex helps maintain proper head alignment in response to changes in body position. The Ren and Du Mai work together to stabilize the body’s central axis, ensuring that the head remains aligned with the spine and body during movement.

4. Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR)

   • Corresponds to:
     • Tai Yang Sinew Channels
     • Ren Mai (Conception Vessel)
   • Role: STNR helps the infant transition from lying to sitting and crawling by coordinating the movements of the upper and lower body. The Tai Yang sinew channels support the back muscles, while the Ren Mai coordinates the core.

5. Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR)

   • Corresponds to:
     • Shao Yang Sinew Channels (Gallbladder and San Jiao)
     • Dai Mai (Belt Vessel)
   • Role: ATNR affects the body’s lateral movements and rotational stability. It aligns with the Dai Mai and the Gallbladder sinew channel, which contribute to the body's ability to rotate and stabilize during movement.

6. Spinal Galant Reflex

   • Corresponds to:
     • Tai Yang Sinew Channels
     • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
   • Role: This reflex is activated by stimulation along the sides of the spine, promoting flexibility and movement of the hips. It aligns with the Du Mai and the Urinary Bladder sinew channel, which support the spine and back muscles.

7. Core Tendon Guard Reflex (CTG)

   • Full-Body Version:
     • Corresponds to:
       • Ren Mai (Conception Vessel)
       • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
       • Dai Mai (Belt Vessel)
   • Role: The CTG Reflex involves a full-body contraction in response to a perceived threat, engaging the core muscles to protect the spine and internal organs. The Du Mai and Ren Mai provide upright support, while the Dai Mai stabilizes the midsection, making them integral to the full-body CTG reflex.
   • Achilles Version:
     • Corresponds to:
       • Urinary Bladder (Leg Tai Yang) Sinew Channel
       • Kidney (Leg Shao Yin) Sinew Channel
   • Role: The Achilles version of the CTG Reflex relates to the body's response to stress or impact on the lower limbs. The Urinary Bladder sinew channel influences the Achilles tendon, while the Kidney sinew channel is crucial for grounding and stabilizing the body.

8. Palmar Grasp Reflex

   • Corresponds to:
     • Lung (Arm Tai Yin) Sinew Channel
     • Large Intestine (Arm Yang Ming) Sinew Channel
     • Yin Qiao Mai (Yin Heel Vessel)
   • Role: The Palmar Grasp Reflex involves the reflexive clenching of the fingers when the palm is stimulated. The Lung sinew channel governs the inner aspect of the arm and hand, while the Large Intestine sinew channel influences the outer arm and hand. This reflex is essential for early motor development and grasping behavior.

9. Plantar Grasp Reflex

   • Corresponds to:
     • Kidney (Leg Shao Yin) Sinew Channel
     • Spleen (Leg Tai Yin) Sinew Channel
     • Yin Qiao Mai (Yin Heel Vessel)
   • Role: The Plantar Grasp Reflex, which involves the toes curling in response to stimulation of the sole, is related to the Kidney and Spleen sinew channels. These channels run along the inner legs and connect to the feet, playing a vital role in grounding and stabilizing the body, particularly in preparation for standing and walking.

10. Rooting Reflex

    • Corresponds to:
      • Stomach (Leg Yang Ming) Sinew Channel
      • Large Intestine (Arm Yang Ming) Sinew Channel
      • Ren Mai (Conception Vessel)
    • Role: The Rooting Reflex, where an infant turns its head and opens its mouth in response to cheek stimulation, is related to the Yang Ming sinew channels. The Stomach channel runs along the face, while the Large Intestine channel influences the side of the face and mouth. This reflex is essential for feeding and early development.

11. Moro Reflex

• Corresponds to:
  • Small Intestine (Arm Tai Yang) Sinew Channel
  • Urinary Bladder (Leg Tai Yang) Sinew Channel
  • Du Mai (Governing Vessel)
• Role: The Moro Reflex, or startle reflex, involves the sudden extension and then flexion of the arms in response to a startling stimulus. The Tai Yang sinew channels govern the back and outer arms, facilitating this protective, whole-body response to sudden changes in the environment.

Part B: Channels of Secondary Ancestry: Postnatal Vessel Function and the Neurobiology of Relational Emergence

I. The Classical View

In classical physiology, the Qiao and Wei vessels are said to come online after birth, distinguishing them from the prenatal eight extraordinary vessels. They belong to what is sometimes called the “secondary ancestry”—that which is shaped through life rather than inherited.

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These channels are responsible for:

• Modulating upright posture and movement (Yang Qiao)
• Regulating internal receptivity and sleep–wake cycling (Yin Qiao)
• Emergence of social patterning )attachment style) and reactive postural tone (muscle reflexes) (Yang Wei)
• The active interface with time, posture, and environment:  Vestibular System and ANS (Yin Wei)

This is not just poetic—it matches the neurodevelopmental timeline of vestibular, limbic, and cortical integration that unfolds in the first two years of life.  They act above the waist, in the domain of emergent volition, orientation, and cortical regulation.

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II. Developmental Neurophysiology Behind the Myth

This classical framework parallels what we now understand about postnatal neurodevelopment:

• Vestibular and midbrain systems become active in the first months, enabling tracking, uprightness, and alertness.  The vestibular system matures rapidly and integrates with visual tracking and head-righting reflexes.
• Limbic structures (especially amygdala, anterior cingulate, insula) begin encoding safety, familiarity, and rhythm.

• Interoceptive-motor loops solidify the experience of “I am here, I can move, I can rest.”

• The brainstem–midbrain axis (PAG, reticular formation, superior/inferior colliculi) becomes highly active, regulating orientation, arousal, and reflex gating.

The Qiaos and Weis track this precisely:

Vessel	Developmental Function	Neural Parallel
Yang Qiao	Upright posture, extensor tone, visual tracking	Vestibulo-spinal tracts, reticular activating system, superior colliculus,
Yin Qiao	Flexor tone, sleep–wake cycling, inward gaze	Hypothalamic-limbic regulation, melatonin circuits (Hypothalamus, pineal body, limbic gating centers)
Yang Wei	External rhythm regulation Response to environmental rhythms, threat or stress anticipation – vigilance	Circadian entrainment, Thalamic relay, HPA axis regulation
Yin Wei	Emotional regulation - resonance with internal state. Do my insides match the outside?  Is my response in proportion to the perceived threat?	Interoceptive processing, insular awareness, vagal tone:  Insular cortex, anterior cingulate, vagal-affective circuitry

 

These channels do not originate purely from congenital blueprint—they are shaped in response to experience, especially social and environmental regulation in the early years.

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III. Why This Matters Clinically (and Historically)

When a practitioner works with these vessels, they are engaging the body's interface layer—not the constitutional core, but the adaptive scaffolding that forms as the nervous system learns how to survive, relate, and organize action in a complex world.  They are the vessels of adaptive interface—responding to the world once the self has landed in gravity.

 The secondary channels were historically used to treat:

• Psychoemotional states
• Sleep disorders
• Seizure-like movement
• Disorientation
• Trauma patterns involving posture, alertness, or relational contact

Now we understand why: they interface with precisely the systems that emerge postnatally to manage social engagement, movement timing, and regulation of the FF response.  So we can expand their use to include neuroscience and PVT:

• Dysregulation of sleep, arousal, and circadian rhythm
• Postural disintegration or torque-based disorders, spasticity and sensory processing disorders along with PR demonstration in the sinew channels
• Reactive states linked to threat anticipation, withdrawal, or looping internal states

Their therapeutic effect arises not from "resetting channels" but from communicating with systems that still believe adaptation is incomplete.

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IV. Energetic Thesis: The Channels of Second Ancestry Are the Architecture of Relational Time

These vessels are not simply pathways. They are living signatures of how the body learned to:

• Move toward or away from the world
• Anchor attention or release it
• Time its responses based on perceived stability

The extraordinary vessels form the blueprint.  In post-freeze or chronic vigilance states, these are often the channels still running the original contingency plan—a plan based on over readiness, distrust, and the absence of stable anchoring.  This is retained in the sinew channels in the form of spasticity, cranial nerve involvement, and PR demonstration.

• The Qiaos and Weis execute the negotiation of this body with the world—in time, in posture, in vigilance.
• They are transitional: shaped by both Heaven (template) and Earth (experience).

And clinically, this is why they can be used to modulate limbic tone, threat anticipation, sleep gating, and trauma-induced motor incoherence. Because that’s what they are.

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V. Integration into the Map

The Qiao and Wei systems form the lateral and midline scaffolding of the broader neuro-somatic arc of striving, control, and the loss of effortless being. They explain how and why the striving persists—because the systems built to orient and stabilize never fully came to rest.

Their restoration is not about technique. It’s about recognizing that relational timing, safety, and surrender are functions of structure—not will.

    References

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·         Fratkin, J. (n.d.). More Divergent Channel Treatment (Part 4). Dr. Jake Fratkin. Retrieved March 13, 2025, from https://drjakefratkin.com/3-level-najom/part-4-more-divergent-channel-treatment/

·         Keleman, Stanley. Emotional Anatomy: The Structure of Experience. Berkeley: Center Press, 1985.

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·         Moffitt, J. (2025). The Role of TCM Sinew Channels in Emotional Integration and Vagal Tone Restoration. LinkedIn. January 2025.

·         Myers, T. W. (2020). Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Churchill Livingstone.

·         Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. Norton & Company.

·         Pryor, K. (2020). Ten Fingers, Ten Toes, Twenty Things Everyone Needs to Know: Neuroplasticity for Children. Karen Pryor Publications.

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