在线英语听力室

VOA标准英语2012--Fighting Their Way to Brain Disease?

时间:2012-04-19 07:59:14

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

Fighting Their Way to Brain Disease?

 
It’s long been known that boxers1 and other athletes can develop brain damage from repeated blows to the head. Now a new study is trying to find out when that damage begins and how long it takes for symptoms to appear. Researchers say it could help make contact sports safer.
The ongoing2 Professional Fighters Brain Health Study follows so-called combat sports. Participants currently include 109 boxers and mixed martial3 artists with an average age of 29.
Study author Dr. Charles Bernick says combat sports have long been linked to degenerative brain disease called chronic4 traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
When and how
“Nobody really knows how one goes from having repetitive blows to the head to developing long-term brain disease. So how that actually happens,” he said.
Bernick is associate director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. He said the study focuses on three things.
“One is to see if we can detect these earliest or most subtle changes of brain injury occurring in athletes or individuals exposed to head trauma5 - then to be able to identify those that may be developing this disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. And then finally determine what factors make one individual more likely to develop it than others because certainly not all fighters or athletes exposed to head trauma develop this,” he said.
Bernick said the more head trauma a person has the greater the risk of developing CTE, also known as dementia pugilistica.
“What we don’t know is if there’s a certain point of no return. The brain can tolerate so much and then if you go beyond that that’s when you’re going to run into this development of a disease process. So one question is to look at that and the second is: are changes occurring in the brain in these athletes even though they’re not having any symptoms?”
Taking a toll6
The more than 100 boxers and mixed martial artists were divided into three groups, based on the number of years they’ve fought.
Bernick said, “So those that fought less than six years. Those that fought six to 12 years and then those that fought more than 12 years. And then we looked at each group top see if there was any relationship between the number of fights these guys had and changes either in the size of certain areas of the brain or their performance on tests of reaction time, memory and so on.”
The first year of the study yielded results regarding brain size.
“In those that have fought for greater than six years, the more fights they had there seemed to be shrinkage in certain areas of the brain that we can measure. However, it was only in those that had fought more than 12 years that we started to see the performance changes. This would suggest two things. One, again, there may be a threshold. That is, the brain may be able to accommodate a certain amount of head trauma and then if you exceed that you actually can start seeing shrinkage occur in the brain. But that occurs actually many years before you even start having symptoms,” he said.
Researchers used brain scan images, taken with an MRI machine, to study two areas of the brain. One is the hippocampus, which is associated with memory. The other is the thalamus. It’s associated with relaying sensory7 and motor signals and helps regulate sleep and alertness among other functions.
“Indeed those areas were shrinking even very early on when these guys are active fighters,” he said.
Bernick said it’s possible other parts of the brain were affected8, but they were not studied. He likened the consistency9 of the brain to gelatin and says brain fibers10 can be twisted and whipped around in head trauma.
The reason boxers and mixed martial artists are being examined has to do with the study’s location.
“We’re in Las Vegas. So Las Vegas is the fight capital of the world. A lot of fighters train here and of course we have a lot of fights here,” he said.
He added the study has the full support of the fight industry, as well as promoters and the Nevada Athletic11 Commission.
“We hope to give regulatory agencies, the athletic commissions --could be another sport, NFL, hockey -- objective guidelines on how they protect their athletes. So in other words, if a 35-year-old fighter comes and wants to be licensed12 in Nevada how does our Athletic Commission decide if he should? There really are no objective markers,” he said.
While the overall study results have been released, all the fighters were given their individual results in confidence. The study will continue to follow them.
Bernick said the goal is not to eliminate any sports, but to help make conditions safer for athletes. For example, the boxers could take fewer fights per year. The results can be applied13 in other fields as well. Bernick says they may be used to help the many head trauma victims in the military.

分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 boxers a8fc8ea2ba891ef896d3ca5822c4405d     
n.拳击短裤;(尤指职业)拳击手( boxer的名词复数 );拳师狗
参考例句:
  • The boxers were goaded on by the shrieking crowd. 拳击运动员听见观众的喊叫就来劲儿了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The boxers slugged it out to the finish. 两名拳击手最后决出了胜负。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 ongoing 6RvzT     
adj.进行中的,前进的
参考例句:
  • The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
  • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。
3 martial bBbx7     
adj.战争的,军事的,尚武的,威武的
参考例句:
  • The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
  • The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。
4 chronic BO9zl     
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的
参考例句:
  • Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
  • Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。
5 trauma TJIzJ     
n.外伤,精神创伤
参考例句:
  • Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
  • The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。
6 toll LJpzo     
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
参考例句:
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
7 sensory Azlwe     
adj.知觉的,感觉的,知觉器官的
参考例句:
  • Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
  • The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。
8 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
9 consistency IY2yT     
n.一贯性,前后一致,稳定性;(液体的)浓度
参考例句:
  • Your behaviour lacks consistency.你的行为缺乏一贯性。
  • We appreciate the consistency and stability in China and in Chinese politics.我们赞赏中国及其政策的连续性和稳定性。
10 fibers 421d63991f1d1fc8826d6e71d5e15f53     
光纤( fiber的名词复数 ); (织物的)质地; 纤维,纤维物质
参考例句:
  • Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上,以硫酸钠为凝固剂,对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝,制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
  • Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。
11 athletic sOPy8     
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的
参考例句:
  • This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
  • He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。
12 licensed ipMzNI     
adj.得到许可的v.许可,颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
  • Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗?
13 applied Tz2zXA     
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用
参考例句:
  • She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
  • This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。