VOA慢速英語:猴子可以用意念移動虛擬的胳膊

[ti:Monkeys Use Their Minds to Move Virtual Arms] [ar:June Simms] [al:Technology Report] [by:www.chinavoa.com] [01:07.48]From VOA Learning English, [00:01.52]this is the Technology Report. [00:04.97]Monkeys have learned to move the arms [00:08.63]of a monkey on a computer screen [00:10.95]just by thinking about moving them. [00:14.21]The work moves forward efforts [00:17.11]to develop brain control devices [00:20.14]for people who are paralyzed [00:22.68]or unable to move certain parts of their body. [00:27.54]Researchers have developed software [00:30.64]that runs between the monkey's brains and a machine. [00:34.99]They hope it could someday be used to let someone [00:38.90]with the spinal cord injury control an artificial arm [00:43.73]or leg just by thinking about it. [00:46.58]The software was developed by researchers [00:50.23]at the Center for Neuroengineering [00:53.14]at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. [00:57.83]Early vesions of the software could control [01:01.38]only one artificial limb. [01:04.34]But the new software let rhesus monkeys [01:07.85]move two arms at the same time, [01:10.65]as they watch a likeness of themselves on a computer screen. [01:15.56]Miguel Nicolelis is a Neurobiology professor at Duke. [01:21.66]He says the monkeys first learned to control the limbs [01:26.77]on the computer screens using joysticks, [01:30.17]then they were trained not to move. [01:33.48]"They are trained just to imagine the movements. [01:35.92]And we get the signals from both parts of their brains [01:39.88]- both hemispheres - to be routed to a computer [01:43.97]that's running a computer algorithm [01:46.28]that translates their voluntary will [01:49.82]to move into movements of a virtual body," Nicolelis said. [01:52.63]Professor Nicolelis says scientists [01:55.92]are now developing a clothing that can be controlled by the brain. [02:00.51]It would permit the person wearing the clothing [02:04.17]to control artificial limbs. [02:07.38]The device changes electrical signals from the brain into commands, [02:13.13]and then into digital signals [02:16.14]that machine in the clothing can understand. [02:20.34]Professor Nicolelis says the vest will be showed [02:24.70]at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil later this year. [02:30.50]"And we hope to make a demonstration [02:32.45]during the opening ceremony by having a young paraplegic, [02:36.44]a Brazilian adult, to walk into the field using this vest, [02:44.35]controlled by brain activity [02:46.29]and being in charge of the opening kick-off of the World Cup," he said. [02:50.94]You can find an article on the research [02:54.19]in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [02:57.61]In a separate but related story, [03:01.21]a Danish man has become the first amputee [03:04.82]to experience feeling in his artificial hand. [03:09.22]Dennis Aabo lost his hand to fireworks nine years ago. [03:14.62]Since then, he has used a prosthetic hand. [03:18.48]Last year, researchers in Italy and Switzerland [03:22.74]attached sensors to the fingers of the artificial hand. [03:27.59]They then wired the sensors to the nerves in Aabo's upper arm. [03:33.11]Researchers say the experiments proved promising, [03:37.51]but they say many years of work remains. [03:41.21]An article on that research also appears [03:45.31]in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [03:49.26]And that is the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. [03:55.12]I'm June Simms.

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