VOA常速英语2014--New Laser Device Helps Parkinson's Patients Walk 新激光设备帮助帕金森患者重获行走能力（在线收听）

New Laser Device Helps Parkinson's Patients Walk 新激光设备帮助帕金森患者重获行走能力

Parkinson’s disease slowly destroys the brain’s ability to control the muscles, depriving the patients of their mobility. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, in Jacksonville, Florida, have developed a laser-based device that helps patients walk again.

帕金森氏症通过逐渐破坏大脑控制肌肉的能力，从而夺取患者行走的能力。佛罗里达州,杰克逊维尔市,梅约诊所的研究人员研发了一种激光设备，使得帕金森患者重获行走能力。

Four years ago, Wayne Puckett could get around only in a wheelchair, because a form of Parkinson’s disease had damaged the connection between his brain and his leg muscles. “It is a hard thing to take and you feel like less of a person. You know, your kids, you are not able to do as much and they see it,” he said.

4年前，由于一种帕金森氏症的破坏了连接大脑和腿部肌肉间的神经，韦恩·帕克特只能靠轮椅四处走动。“这让我难以承受，你会觉得自己不是一个正常人了。你知道，当你无法做足够多的事，你的孩子都看在眼里。”

In 2010, neurologist Jay Van Gerpen, of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, told Puckett about a device that would help him walk again. At first, Puckett did not believe him.

2010年，佛罗里达州,杰克逊维尔市,梅约诊所的神经科医师杰伊·冯·格尔普告诉帕克特有一种设备能让他重新下地行走。一开始，帕克特并未相信。

“He told me that he has a little red line that was going to be able to make me walk. I was like, ain't no way,” said Puckett.

“他告诉我有一种细长红色光线可以让我重获行走能力，我觉得那听起来，不可能。”帕特克说道。

Van Gerpen calls his device ‘the mobilaser.’ A laser, attached to a walker, generates a beam of light, which provides a visual cue for patients with difficulty walking, because of a neurological disease or brain trauma.

冯·格尔普把他的这个设备叫做“能让人行走的激光”。这种激光器套在一个步行者身上，发出一道光线，给因为神经系统疾病或脑外伤而丧失了行走能力的患者提供了一种视觉提示。

“There is a part of the brain when you want to initiate walking in the prefrontal cortex in the basal ganglia, and if those areas get damaged then those signals don't get to the primary motor cortex,” said Van Gerpen.

“大脑中有一部分，在基底神经节的前额皮质激发行走能力，一旦这些区域受到破坏，那些信号便无法到达一级运动皮质。”冯·格尔普如是说。

By watching the laser’s red line, the patient concentrates on a different task. That makes his brain send signals along a different path to the motor cortex, avoiding the damaged areas where those signals get jammed.

通过注视激光发出的红色光线，患者的注意力被引到别处。他的大脑便将信号通过不同的路径发送到运动皮质，避开了信号受到堵塞的受损区。

“We are capitalizing on the parts of the brain that are working quite well to help compensate for those that are not,” he said.

“我们正是利用大脑中正常运作的部分来弥补那些无法正常运作的部分。”他说道。

Van Gerpen said most of his patients improved their mobility, and Wayne Puckett said the mobilaser helped him get back his life.

冯·格尔普说，他大部分病人的行走能力都有很大提高，韦恩·帕克特也说这个激光器让他得以重返正常生活。