脑植入突破可能逆转瘫痪

脑植入突破可能逆转瘫痪

When a person becomes paralyzed, whether by traumatic injury or as the result of a disease, there’s usually precious little hope for reversing it. Ian Burkhart became almost entirely paralyzed after an injury in 2010, and now he’s one of the first patients to show promise using a new system that combines a brain implant with signal-reading software to restore motion and, incredibly, the sense of touch.

当一个人瘫痪时，无论是由于外伤还是疾病，通常都很难逆转。伊恩·布克哈特在2010年受伤后几乎完全瘫痪，现在他是第一批使用新系统显示希望的患者之一，该系统将脑植入物与信号读取软件结合起来，来恢复运动，更难以置信的是，恢复触觉。

As Syfy Wire reports, Burkhart’s progress is the subject of a new paper published in Cell, and it could change how doctors approach the difficult process of treating paralyzed patients.

Syfy Wire报道，布克哈特的进展是《细胞》杂志上发表的一篇新论文的主题，它可能会改变医生处理瘫痪病人的困难过程的方式。

Spinal cord injuries can be absolutely devastating. They can completely shut down motor function and sensory inputs in affected limbs. Researchers at the Battelle Memorial Institute developed a new type of system to tackle these tragic cases, and it begins with a brain implant. The system works by picking up on the incredibly mild signals that seem to persist between the brain and paralyzed muscles even after a traumatic injury.

脊髓损伤绝对是毁灭性的。它们能完全关闭患肢的运动功能和感觉输入。巴特尔纪念研究所的研究人员开发了一种新型的系统，并将之植入大脑来处理这些悲惨的案例。这个系统的工作原理是，即使在遭受创伤后，大脑和瘫痪的肌肉之间也能接收到令人难以置信的微弱信号。

The idea here is that while the strong, easy-to-detect sensory signals are cut off when a person experiences paralysis, some much milder signals that facilitate the sense of touch are still being sent. Using a new technique, the researchers actually amplified those faint signals enough that they could be picked up by the brain. Using a brain-computer interface, the system picked up on signal activity via the brain implant and acted as a go-between to translate the signal into impulses that were routed to the patient’s arm via a series of bands.

这里的想法是，当一个人经历瘫痪时，虽然强烈的、易于察觉的感觉信号被切断，但一些更温和的、有助于触觉的信号仍在发送。通过一项新技术，研究人员实际上放大了这些微弱的信号，使它们能够被大脑接收到。利用脑-机接口，系统通过大脑植入物接收到信号活动，并充当中间人，将信号转换成脉冲，通过一系列波段传送到患者手臂。

Put simply, the signals to and from the Burkhart’s brain got some extra computer processing along the way, resulting in a closed-loop where the patient could both feel and move again. In a video by the researchers, Senior Research Scientist Gaurav Sharma says that the change was so dramatic that patients are able to grasp items and even play a game as dexterity-dependant as Guitar Hero.

简单地说，往返于伯克哈特大脑的信号在传输过程中得到了一些额外的计算机处理，从而形成了一个闭环，病人可以在这个闭环中再次感觉和移动。在研究人员的一段视频中，资深研究科学家高拉夫·夏尔马(Gaurav Sharma)表示，这种变化非常显著，患者可以抓东西，甚至可以玩像《吉他英雄》(Guitar Hero)那样依赖灵巧度的游戏。

It’s an incredible development and the research here is obviously very promising. The challenge for the researchers will be to further perfect their hardware and software and, at some point in the future, shrink it to the point that it could possibly be worn by a paralyzed individual. Ultimately, returning a person to a more normal lifestyle is the goal, but there’s a lot of work left to be done.

这是一个令人难以置信的发展，该研究显然很有前途。研究人员面临的挑战将是进一步完善他们的硬件和软件，并在未来的某个时候，将其缩小到可能被一个瘫痪的人戴上的程度。最终的目标是让一个人回归更正常的生活方式，但还有很多工作要做。