VOA慢速英语:一种电刺激而非药物可以帮助治疗大脑疾病

From VOA Learning English this is the Health Report.

美国之音英语教学，这里是健康报道。

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.

现代医学主要用药物来治疗疾病。但是药物如果换成电能的话会是什么样呢?医生通过外科手术将心脏起搏器植入人体，而这就是已经开始使用电信号帮助微弱的心脏恢复正常跳动。

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.

而现在，科学家们正在通过对大脑过电来缓解帕金森综合征的影响。帕金森可以导致身体不受控制的摇晃或者颤抖。

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

对于David Dewsnap来说能简单的沿着街道散步是对他最大的恩惠了。

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.

平常的药物治疗并没有缓解他的帕金森。因此医生打开他的头骨将电线或电极植入他的大脑深处。

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.

脑深部电刺激系统是一种含两部分的医疗设备。一部分是医生植入与大脑运动相连的一根细线。另一部分是一组电池组。电池组产生电子信号。

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

在医生植入电线之前，Dewsnap先生基本无法行走。

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先生说：这一步对我来说真是太不可思议了，没有见过我之前的样子，你不会真正理解我的意思。我的左半边身体不受控制，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是莱斯大学的一位电力工程师和脑专家。他曾经在小白鼠身上运用大脑刺激做过实验。

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

他知道这种治疗有效，但并不知道怎样起效的。

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说我们可能使大脑并不像它预想的那样工作，但是用一种新方法使得它的运动更加正常，或者说使身体不再颤抖。

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先生表示小的电刺激会欺骗大脑，这种刺激复制大脑的一种叫多巴胺的化学成分。多巴胺帮助控制大脑运动，或者肌动活动。

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先生想要进一步研究大脑刺激系统以治疗其他的一些疾病。他解释道这个系统将同步处理来自大脑的信号，然后用那些信号来控制它本身的电力输出信号。

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说：我们打算采用这项技术，然后进一步发展成为一个像你手机中有的一个更为复杂的处理器。它可以同时处理我们实际从大脑接到的入射信号，了解发生了什么，然后调整大脑对信号的反应。

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

Kemere先生说,研究人员首先需要解决一些小问题,比如使用什么样的电信号。

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

CALEB KEMERE说：我们不知道使用什么信号，我们也不知道怎样调整它。

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.

国家科学基金会为Caleb Kemere的研究提供资金。他相信会有一种实验设备帮助人们5年之内不再患上其他的精神疾病。

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

这就是今天的健康报道。我是Anna Matteo。