VOA标准英语2014--Study: Electric Brain Stimulation Alleviates Some Disorders

 

Study: Electric Brain Stimulation¹ Alleviates³ Some Disorders⁵

HOUSTON — Modern medicine relies mainly on drugs to cure or alleviate² disorders, but for some conditions doctors apply electrical stimulation.  The pacemaker, for example, helps weak hearts maintain a steady beat.  Scientists are now using electrical pulses in the brain to relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease. With such advances, electrical stimulation may soon be used for a variety of other conditions.

Just being able to walk and interact with people is a great gift for David Dewsnap.

His Parkinson's disease was resistant⁶ to standard treatments, so doctors planted electrodes deep in his brain.

The Deep Brain Stimulation System developed by the Medtronic Corporation consists of two parts: thin wires implanted in the region of the brain associated with movement and a battery pack that produces electrical pulses.

Before the implants⁷, Dewsnap says he could not even take a short walk.

"It has given me my life back. This procedure has been just amazing for me.  Without seeing me before, you don't really understand what it was like. The left side of my body, I could not use it really," says Dewsnap.

At Rice University, electrical engineer and neuroscientist Caleb Kemere has been using brain stimulation in experiments on rats.

But while he knows this treatment works, he says researchers still are not sure how.

"We are probably making it work not as it is supposed to work, but in a new way that allows movements to happen faithfully or for a tremor⁸ to go away," he says.

Kemere says the electrical stimulation may trick the brain by mimicking⁹ the function of the chemical dopamine in controlling motor activity.

To attack other disorders, Kemere wants to develop a brain stimulation system that would work with a feedback loop to adjust its own output.

"We propose to take this and then expand into something that has a much more complicated processor like the one that is found in your cell phone that can process incoming signals that we actually would be getting from the brain in real time, understand what is going on and then modulate¹⁰ the brain stimulation in response to that," says Kemere.

He says such a system could help people with epilepsy, depression, bipolar disorder⁴ and other problems,. But Kemere says, first, researchers need to overcome a couple of small problems.

"We don't know what signal to use, and we don't know how to do that modulation," admits Kemere.

In trying to answer those questions, Caleb Kemere is being helped by a grant from the National Science Foundation. He believes within five years there could be experimental devices to alleviate some mental disorders, just as a stimulation device helped David Dewsnap walk again.

1 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

2 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。

3 alleviates   

减轻，缓解，缓和( alleviate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Heat often alleviates pain. 热常常能减缓疼痛。
• A cold compress often alleviates pain. 冷敷常会减轻疼痛。

4 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

5 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

7 implants   

n.（植入身体中的）移植物( implant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters. 激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Perhaps the most far-reaching project is an initiative called Living Implants From Engineering (LIFE). 也许最具深远意义的项目，是刚刚启动的建造活体移植工程 (LIFE)。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

8 tremor   

n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震

参考例句：

• There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
• A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。

9 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句

10 modulate   

v.调整，调节(音的强弱)；变调

参考例句：

• Please modulate the sound on the TV.请调节一下电视的音量。
• This system could modulate the voice signal effectively.这个系统可以对语音信号进行有效的调制。