Lakoff & Johnson采用基于概念结构的隐喻认知机制处理语言与其它认知观的关系，从而提出概念隐喻理 论。概念隐喻理论对语言与认知进行某种合理的融合，从源域到靶域的映射机制实现了对经验事件的结构化和概念化。然而，概念隐喻理论基本是通过语言使用现象来揭示思维的本质，缺乏对隐喻概念产生和识解大脑内在工作机制 的理解与描写。为弥补概念隐喻理论的不足，近年来学界把概念隐喻机制的研究拓展到神经科学层面，这为处理隐喻 表达与大脑认知机制的关系及其科学的实验方法提供了可能，具有较为明显的理论和方法优势。本文简要论述神经隐喻理论的发展历程及主要内容，并在此基础上对神经隐喻理论的应用前景作出展望。

Lakoff & Johnson treat the relationship between language and other cognitive faculties with his metaphorical cognitive mechanism based on the structure of concept, and develops conceptual metaphor theory. Conceptual metaphor theory forms a sound integration between language and cognition, while the mapping from the source domain to the target domain within a metaphor makes it possible to structuralize and conceptualize experience event. However, conceptual metaphor theory does not show any trace of being adequate as it tries to reveal the essence of mind through linguistic phenomena. Recently, to make up for the deficiency of conceptual metaphor theory, the study of conceptual metaphorical mechanism has been extended to the field of neuroscience, showing more persuading advantages of the theory and methodology in dealing with the relationship between metaphorical expressions and the cognitive mechanism of the brain，and the integration with scientific experimental method. The paper presents a brief review over neural theory of metaphor, covering its development history and main components. In interpretation and discussion, the paper highlights some implications and promising prospect for the future applications of the theory.