VOA慢速英語:一種電刺激而非藥物可以幫助治療大腦疾病

From VOA Learning English this is the Health Report.

美國之音英語教學(xué)，這里是健康報(bào)道。

Modern medicine mainly uses drugs to cure disease. But what if drugs were replaced with electricity? Pacemakers, small machines that doctors surgically place in the body, already use electric signals to help weak hearts beat right.

現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)主要用藥物來治療疾病。但是藥物如果換成電能的話會(huì)是什么樣呢?醫(yī)生通過外科手術(shù)將心臟起搏器植入人體，而這就是已經(jīng)開始使用電信號(hào)幫助微弱的心臟恢復(fù)正常跳動(dòng)。

And now, scientists are using electricity on the brain to ease the effects of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease causes uncontrollable shaking, or tremors.

而現(xiàn)在，科學(xué)家們正在通過對(duì)大腦過電來緩解帕金森綜合征的影響。帕金森可以導(dǎo)致身體不受控制的搖晃或者顫抖。

Simply walking down the street is a great gift for David Dewsnap.

對(duì)于David Dewsnap來說能簡(jiǎn)單的沿著街道散步是對(duì)他最大的恩惠了。

The usual drug treatment did not help his Parkinson's disease. So, doctors cut open his skull and placed wires, or electrodes, deep in his brain.

平常的藥物治療并沒有緩解他的帕金森。因此醫(yī)生打開他的頭骨將電線或電極植入他的大腦深處。

The Deep Brain Stimulation System is a two part medical device. One part is thin wires that doctors place in the part of the brain connected with movement. The other part is a battery pack. The battery produces the electric signals.

腦深部電刺激系統(tǒng)是一種含兩部分的醫(yī)療設(shè)備。一部分是醫(yī)生植入與大腦運(yùn)動(dòng)相連的一根細(xì)線。另一部分是一組電池組。電池組產(chǎn)生電子信號(hào)。

Before doctors wired his brain, Mr. Dewsnap could not even take a short walk.

在醫(yī)生植入電線之前，Dewsnap先生基本無法行走。

DAVID DEWSNAP: "This procedure has been just amazing for me. Without seeing me before, you don't really understand what it was like. I couldn't use ... the left side of my body. I couldn't (could not) use it really."

DAVID DEWSNAP先生說：這一步對(duì)我來說真是太不可思議了，沒有見過我之前的樣子，你不會(huì)真正理解我的意思。我的左半邊身體不受控制，我真的不敢相信。

Caleb Kemere is an electrical engineer and brain scientist at Rice University. He has been using brain stimulation in his experiments on rats.

Caleb Kemere是萊斯大學(xué)的一位電力工程師和腦專家。他曾經(jīng)在小白鼠身上運(yùn)用大腦刺激做過實(shí)驗(yàn)。

He knows this treatment works. What he doesn’t know is how.

他知道這種治療有效，但并不知道怎樣起效的。

CALEB KEMERE: "We are probably making it work not as it is supposed to work, but in a new way that allows for movements to happen faithfully or for a tremor to go away."

CALEB KEMERE說我們可能使大腦并不像它預(yù)想的那樣工作，但是用一種新方法使得它的運(yùn)動(dòng)更加正常，或者說使身體不再顫抖。

Mr. Kemere says the small electric shocks may trick the brain. The shocks copy the work of a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine helps control movement – or motor activity.

Kemere先生表示小的電刺激會(huì)欺騙大腦，這種刺激復(fù)制大腦的一種叫多巴胺的化學(xué)成分。多巴胺幫助控制大腦運(yùn)動(dòng)，或者肌動(dòng)活動(dòng)。

Mr. Kemere wants to develop a brain stimulation system to treat other disorders. He explains that the system would process signals coming from the brain in real-time and then use those signals to control its own electrical output.

Kemere先生想要進(jìn)一步研究大腦刺激系統(tǒng)以治療其他的一些疾病。他解釋道這個(gè)系統(tǒng)將同步處理來自大腦的信號(hào)，然后用那些信號(hào)來控制它本身的電力輸出信號(hào)。

CALEB KEMERE: "We propose to take this and then expand into something that has a much more complicated processor like the one that is found in yourcell phone that can process incoming signals that we actually would be gettingfrom the brain in real time, understand what’s (what is) going on and thenmodulate the brain stimulation in response to that."

CALEB KEMERE說：我們打算采用這項(xiàng)技術(shù)，然后進(jìn)一步發(fā)展成為一個(gè)像你手機(jī)中有的一個(gè)更為復(fù)雜的處理器。它可以同時(shí)處理我們實(shí)際從大腦接到的入射信號(hào)，了解發(fā)生了什么，然后調(diào)整大腦對(duì)信號(hào)的反應(yīng)。

Mr. Kemere says first researchers need to settle some small problems suchas what electrical signal to use.

Kemere先生說,研究人員首先需要解決一些小問題,比如使用什么樣的電信號(hào)。

CALEB KEMERE: “We don’t know what signal to use and we don’t know how to do that modulation.”

CALEB KEMERE說：我們不知道使用什么信號(hào)，我們也不知道怎樣調(diào)整它。

The National Science Foundation gave Caleb Kemere money to work on such research. He believes there could be experimental devices that help people suffering from other mental disorders within five years.

國家科學(xué)基金會(huì)為Caleb Kemere的研究提供資金。他相信會(huì)有一種實(shí)驗(yàn)設(shè)備幫助人們5年之內(nèi)不再患上其他的精神疾病。

And that the Health Report. I’m Anna Matteo.

這就是今天的健康報(bào)道。我是Anna Matteo。