VOA双语新闻：13、治疗帕金森氏症的新电击疗法（在线收听）

治疗帕金森氏症的新电击疗法

Modern medicine relies mainly on drugs to cure or alleviate 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.

现代医学主要靠药物来治疗或者缓解病情，不过医生也用电激来治疗某些疾病，比如用起搏器来稳定心率。现在，科学家利用脑电脉冲来缓解帕金森氏症，不久电击疗法可能会用来治疗其他多种疾病。

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

对大卫·杜斯奈普来说，可以走路，和别人互动是一个重大的礼物。

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

他患有帕金森氏症，普通疗法已经不起作用了，所以医生在他脑子深部植入了电极。

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.

深部大脑刺激系统是由美敦力公司（Medtronic Corporation）开发的，有两个部分组成，一个植入控制运动的那部分大脑的纤细线路，一个产生电脉的电池。

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

杜斯奈普说，在植入前，他甚至不能短距离行走。

"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.

他说：“这个装置给了我新的生命，这个手术太奇妙了。你没有看到以前的我，就不会真正理解它有多了不起，以前我身体的左半部是不能动的。”

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

莱斯大学的电子工程师和神经学家加勒·克梅利在老鼠身上做脑部刺激试验。

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

他虽然知道这个方法有效，可是他说，研究人员不知道为什么有效。

"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 tremor to go away," he says.

克梅利说：“虽然这个装置可能没有发挥我们预定的作用，可是却用一种新的方式让运动服从大脑的指挥，或者制止颤抖。”

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

克梅利说，电击疗法可能模拟化学物质多巴胺的作用，诱使脑子控制运动。

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

克梅利希望开发一种脑刺激系统，可以根据反馈调整发出的指令。

"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 modulate the brain stimulation in response to that," says Kemere.

他说： “我们提议，把这个系统扩大成更复杂的处理器，就像手机里的处理器，可以处理像大脑收到的那样的信息，理解这些信息，然后模拟大脑刺激的情况做出反应。”

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

他说，这种系统可以帮助癫痫症、抑郁症和两极化感情障碍症等患者，不过克梅利说，研究人员首先要克服两个小问题。

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

他说：“我们不知道利用什么信号，我们也不知道如何制造信号。”

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.

为了回答这些问题，克梅利获得全国科学基金会的资助。他认为可能在5年之内研发出实验性装置，来缓解一些脑部疾病，就像帮助大卫走路的刺激装置一样。