[ti:Device Uses Brain Waves of Paralyzed Man to Help Him Communicate]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Researchers say they have used brain waves of a paralyzed man
[00:06.40]who cannot speak to produce words from his thoughts onto a computer.
[00:13.44]A team led by Dr. Edward Chang
[00:17.56]at the University of California, San Francisco, carried out the experiment.
[00:25.20]The study results were published July 15
[00:29.24]in the New England Journal of Medicine.
[00:33.80]"Most of us take for granted how easily we communicate through speech,"
[00:40.32]Chang told The Associated Press.
[00:44.60]"It's exciting to think we're at the very beginning of a new chapter,
[00:50.08]a new field" to ease the difficulties of patients who lost that ability.
[00:57.84]The researchers admit that such communication methods
[01:02.60]for paralysis victims will require years of additional research.
[01:08.80]But, they say the new study marks an important step forward.
[01:15.96]Today, paralysis victims who cannot speak or write
[01:20.92]have very limited ways of communicating.
[01:25.08]For example, the man in the experiment used a pointer attached to a hat
[01:32.44]that lets him move his head to touch words or letters on a screen.
[01:39.36]Other devices can pick up a person's eye movements.
[01:44.04]But such methods are slow and a very limited replacement for speech.
[01:51.04]Using brain signals to work around disabilities
[01:55.88]is currently a hot field of study.
[01:59.48]In recent years, experiments with mind-controlled prosthetics
[02:05.40]have permitted paralyzed individuals to shake hands with someone
[02:10.48]or take a drink using a robotic arm.
[02:14.28]The process involves people imagining movements
[02:19.52]and those brain signals are sent through a computer to the prosthetic.
[02:27.28]Chang's team built their experiment on earlier work.
[02:32.96]They developed a method called "speech neuroprosthetic."
[02:38.08]The process uses brain waves
[02:41.28]that normally control the vocal tract, or voice system.
[02:47.72]This includes the small muscle movements of the lips, jaw,
[02:53.32]tongue and larynx that form each consonant and vowel.
[03:00.16]The person who volunteered to test the device was a man in his late 30s.
[03:08.00]He suffered a brain-stem stroke 15 years ago
[03:12.48]that caused widespread paralysis and left him unable to speak.
[03:19.64]The researchers implanted electrodes on the surface of the man's brain,
[03:25.64]over the area that controls speech.
[03:30.28]A computer observed the patterns when he attempted
[03:34.48]to say common words such as "water" or "good."
[03:39.80]Over time, the computer became able to differentiate between 50 words
[03:46.36]that could form more than 1,000 sentences.
[03:50.52]Repeatedly given questions such as "How are you today?" or "Are you thirsty,"
[03:58.00]the device enabled the man to answer "I am very good" or "No, I am not thirsty."
[04:06.84]The words were not voiced, but were turned into text on the computer.
[04:12.96]It takes about three to four seconds for a word to appear
[04:18.20]after the man tries to say it, said the study's lead writer, David Moses.
[04:25.08]He is an engineer in Chang's laboratory.
[04:30.48]While that rate is not nearly as fast as speaking,
[04:35.04]it is quicker than current methods.
[04:38.88]In an opinion article published with the study,
[04:42.28]Harvard brain doctors Leigh Hochberg and Sydney Cash
[04:47.64]called the work a "pioneering demonstration."
[04:51.84]The two doctors said the technology might one day help people with injuries,
[04:59.24]strokes or diseases like Lou Gehrig's.
[05:03.84]People with such diseases have brains that "prepare messages for delivery,
[05:10.80]but those messages are trapped," they wrote.
[05:14.88]The researchers say their next steps will include
[05:20.12]seeking ways to improve the device's speed,
[05:24.48]correctness and vocabulary size.
[05:29.32]They also plan to one day develop a computer-produced voice
[05:35.08]that could replace text on a computer.
[05:39.12]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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