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鸡能教会听力研究者什么

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。

"It's the truth for all of our senses that they are there to convert physical energy in the surrounding world into electrical responses, which are the common currency that the nervous system uses."

“这是适用于我们所有感官的真理，它们在那里将周围世界的物理能量转化为电反应，而电反应是神经系统使用的通用货币。”

Rockefeller University neuroscientist James Hudspeth.

洛克菲勒大学的神经学科学家詹姆斯·赫德佩思说到。

"So our eyes and the photoreceptors there have to convert light into electricity. Our ears similarly have to convert mechanical vibrations¹ in the air into electrical responses.

“因此我们的眼睛和眼中的光感受器必须把光转换成电。同样，我们的耳朵也必须将空气中的机械振动转化为电反应。

And the way this is done is that there are so called hair cells...these cells have little microscopic² bristles³, about a hundred of them, and on the top of each cell, these bristles vibrate back and forth⁴ in response to sound. That sets up an electrical signal that then goes down a nerve fiber⁵ and into the brain."

转化通过所谓的毛细胞来实现。这些细胞顶部有极小的毛，大约有100根，这些毛会随着声音来回振动。这会产生一个电信号，之后电信号会延着神经纤维进入大脑。”

Hudspeth, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Robert Fettiplace, and the Pasteur Institute's Christine Petit shared the 2018 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, for their work on the molecular⁶ and neural⁷ mechanisms⁸ of hearing. Hudspeth and Fettiplace both spoke⁹ April 9th at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. at an event honoring 10 U.S. Nobel and Kavli Prize Laureates. The evening was sponsored by the Kavli Prize and produced by Scientific American. More from Hudspeth:

赫德佩思与威斯康辛大学麦迪逊分校的罗伯特·费蒂普莱斯和巴斯德研究所的克里斯汀·佩蒂特共同分享了2018年卡弗里神经科学奖，以表彰三人在听力的分子和神经机制方面的研究。4月9日，美国国家科学院在华盛顿特区举行10名美国诺贝尔奖和卡弗里奖获奖者的表彰大会，赫德佩思和费蒂普莱斯在活动上发表了讲话。这场晚会由卡弗里奖赞助，《科学美国人》制作。赫德佩思还表示：

"And the real question is then is, what happens with these hair cells as they degenerate¹⁰? We lose them owing to loud sounds, we lose them owing to certain legitimate¹¹ drugs, we lose just with aging. And what can be done to repair them so that we can restore hearing?"Robert Fettiplace: "Well, I mean there are two aspects to this, one is that in fact you could try and regrow them. Almost all hearing loss is due to death of the hair cells or lack of formation of them in the first place...the cells along the cochlea are all different. And you've not got to just generate a generic¹² hair cell, you've actually got to generate one that's specific for each place, that has the specific properties, which differ along the organ. And will connect up to the nerve fibers¹³..."

“之后真正的问题是，这些毛细胞退化时会发生什么？我们失去毛细胞的原因是吵闹的声音、某些合法药物和年龄增长。那要想修复毛细胞继而恢复听力，我们能做些什么呢？”罗伯特·费蒂普莱斯：我认为有两种方法。其一是可以尝试再生毛细胞。几乎所有听力损失都是由于毛细胞死亡或一开始就未形成而造成的，耳蜗周围的细胞都是不同的。你不是要生成普通的毛细胞，而是要生成每个地方特定的、有特殊性能的毛细胞，耳蜗周围的这些毛细胞各不相同。它们会与神经纤维相连。

Hudspeth: "The problems that Robert has mentioned pertain¹⁴ to mammals, including ourselves. And the situation is very different with other four-legged animals, tetrapods. So, in amphibians¹⁵, in reptiles¹⁶, including birds, this regeneration is going on all the time, same in fish. And in fact you can take a chicken to, ya know, a Motley Crue concert or whatever, blast its ears. And they will quite nicely regenerate¹⁷, even with frequency-specific hair cells, they will reconnect, and the animal will be able to hear normally again."

赫德佩思：“罗伯特提到的问题与包括我们人类在内的哺乳动物有关。这种情况与其它四足动物有非常大的不同。因此，在两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类以及鱼类中，这种再生一直在发生。事实上，你可以将鸡带到克鲁小丑合唱团的演唱会或其他演出现场，破坏鸡的耳朵。鸡的耳朵会很好地再生，甚至还会形成特定频率的毛细胞，这些细胞会重新连接起来，使鸡能恢复正常听觉。

"I agree that there is an enormous challenge, and this is certainly something that won't happen overnight in ourselves. But I don't think it's a hopeless task and I think basically what many people are trying to do is to decode¹⁸ the signals that are sent as these hair cells develop, and by doing so to recognize the signaling pathways that might be reactivated the original development and restore hair cells by that means."

我认为这是一项巨大的挑战，听力再生肯定不会一夜之间就在我们人类身上实现。但我认为这并不是毫无希望的任务，许多人正在尝试解码毛细胞生长时发出的信号，通过这种方法来识别可能重新激活原始发育的信号通路，并以此来恢复毛细胞。”

Just don't take your chicken to a Marilyn Manson concert.

只是不要带鸡去看玛丽莲曼森的演唱会。

For Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。