人工神经网络是20世纪80年代以来人工智能领域兴起的研究热点，其从信息处理角度对人脑神经元网络进行抽象化描述，建立某种简单模型；按不同的连接方式组成不同的网络，实现高级机器和联想记忆的共同作用，广泛应用于计算机、物理、经济、医药等行业。其采用并行分布的处理方式，具有高容错性、智能化、自主学习等特点，模拟处理复杂问题具有得天独厚的优势。而中医药领域研究内容繁杂、影响因素众多，人工神经网络的优势恰恰可以很好地处理这些问题，有着良好的互补性，因此其在中医药研究领域的应用越来越广泛。尝试对人工神经网络在中医药研究领域的应用进行总结，为中医药现代化研究提供支撑和参考。

Artificial neural network (ANN) has been a hot topic in the field of artificial intelligence since 1980s. It abstracts the neural network of human brain from the angle of information processing and establishes some simple model. It is widely used in computer, physics, economics, medicine and other industries to form different networks according to different connection modes to realize the joint action of advanced machine and associative memory. It adopts parallel and distributed processing method, which has the characteristics of high fault tolerance, intelligence, autonomous learning and so on. It has the unique advantage to deal with complex problems. However, the research contents are complicated and numerous in the field of Chinese materia medica (CMM). The advantages of ANN can deal with these problems well and have good complementarity. Therefore, the application of ANN is becoming more and more extensive in the field of CMM research. This paper attempts to summarize the application of ANN in the field of CMM research in order to provide support and reference for the research of CMM modernization.

湖南省重点研发计划项目（2018NK2041）；湖南省教育厅优秀青年基金项目（2015B172）；湖南省中医药科研基金项目（201494）；湖南省教育厅一般项目（2015C1039）；湖南省“十二五”省级药学重点学科开放基金项目（1007）；湖南中医药大学化学工程与技术一流学科建设项目