首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Whenever I speak to educators and interested laypeople about neuroplasticity—the ability of the adult brain to change in functio
Whenever I speak to educators and interested laypeople about neuroplasticity—the ability of the adult brain to change in functio
admin
2015-01-09
51
问题
Whenever I speak to educators and interested laypeople about neuroplasticity—the ability of the adult brain to change in function and structure—one of the questions I often get is whether neuroplasticity can be tapped to treat truly devastating brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia. After all, neuroplasticity has been used to treat stroke, depression, dyslexia, and other diseases or injuries of the brain. The jury is still out on Alzheimer’s(though since this disease involves massive neuronal death, my bet is that the answer will, sadly, be no).But to my surprise, the answer to schizophrenia might just be yes.
In schizophrenia, which affects about 1.1 percent of American adults, patients suffer from visual and auditory hallucinations, delusions,an absence of emotion, and cognitive deficits. All told, that seemed to be just too much for an approach based on neuroplasticity, which involves retraining the brain, to handle.
But it turns out that at least some of the symptoms of schizophrenia can be lifted with brain training. In a study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, scientists led by Sophia Vinogradov of the University of California, San Francisco, describe what they call "neuroplasticity-based auditory training" to improve memory in people with schizophrenia. Basically, what they did was assign 55 patients with schizophrenia to receive a cognitive-training program developed by Posit Science or to play a computer game that required just as much time and concentration. The Posit program, similar to one the company developed to improve memory in the elderly, emphasizes basic auditory and speech perception; participants used it one hour a day, five days a week, for 10 weeks. The better they got, the harder the program got: it automatically adjusts the level of difficulty to keep the patients’ performance at a constant level so they stay engaged.
Fisher and her colleagues found that the brain-trained group showed noticeably bigger improvements in cognition and verbal working memory than the game-playing control group. The emphasis on auditory training reflects the belief of UCSF’s Michael Merzenich, a pioneer in neuroplasticity and cofounder of Posit, that this is the portal to improved memory and, possibly, cognition. The idea is that if you hear more clearly, then your brain makes fewer errors in encoding the information contained in speech.
It’s hard to argue with even preliminary success, odd as it seems that merely hearing better could bring about such improvements in memory(and not just memory for heard words; it improves memory for seen words as well). "This emphasis on perceptual processes is a critical insight of the Posit Science approach and a clear distinction from other cognitive-training programs,"says Green."The significance of the new study," he says, is that "it addresses cognitive training at a more basic neurobiological level than any previous strategy. We can hope that the dramatic effects they have reported will prove to be replicable and durable and that they will extend to meaningful effects for patients’ lives."
Hope is all well and good. But schizophrenia is notable not only for its severity, but for the yawning gap between what’s known to be effective and what treatments patients actually receive. Green asks rhetorically, "if cognitive training for schizophrenia worked, would we not all know it by now?" In fact, researchers do know it, and some clinicians know it, but by one estimate fewer than 15 percent of schizophrenics get it(or other treatments, rehabilitation and support that would let them live independently). In fact, in a paper earlier this year in Schizophrenia Bulletin, scientists led by Robert S. Kern of the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, were quite upbeat in their assessment of treatments for schizophrenia—none of them the problematic antipsychotic medications that in too many cases are all that people with schizophrenia receive.
Take cognitive-behavior therapy. Its basic premise is that people can be taught to think about their thoughts differently. It is effective in depression where people are taught to think about their tendency to catastrophize—"I had a bad date; no one will ever love me because I am worthless and unlovable". But in something as serious as schizophrenia? Yes, Kern and his colleagues find. It turns out that, with cognitive-behavior therapy, patients who hear voices and feel persecuted can learn to see these symptoms as almost normal in that many people experience them when, say, they are sleep deprived, under extreme stress, drunk or stoned or as "just" the manifestations of a neurobiological glitch and not real. The approach is surprisingly effective, a 2008 review found.
Similarly, exercises to improve attention, learning and memory, reasoning and problem solving—which 90 percent of people with schizophrenia have problems with—also help, as this study found, and make a meaningful difference in whether the person can live independently and hold a job. The tragedy is that—due to an overburdened medical system, inadequate insurance and an inability to pay, as well as simply ignorance about how to find help—few patients with schizophrenia receive what works.
Which does NOT lead to the fact that patients of schizophrenia frequently cannot get effective treatments?
选项
A、There is too much for the medical system to take.
B、Some patients cannot afford the cost of the treatment.
C、Some patients just have no knowledge of the way to get help.
D、Some patients are not well-educated and can not find the way to get help.
答案
D
解析
细节题。定位至最后一段最后一句,原文列举出很少有病人接受到有效治疗的四个原因,选项[D]是对第四个原因的曲解,ignorance指的是“无知”,原文译为“仅仅是因为不知如何寻求帮助”,此处指寻求帮助方面的无知,而非知识水平的无知,[D]“有些病人受教育程度不高,不知如何寻求帮助”与原文不符。故答案为[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/GwdO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Accordingtothenewsitem,"sleepboxes"aredesignedtosolvetheproblemsof
AnAmericansurveyhasshownthateachyeareveryemployedpersonlosesthreetofourworkingdaysfromcoldsandalliedcomplai
In1932,inthedepthofthedepression,theAmericanpeoplechose______astheirnextpresidentwhopromiseda"newdeal"tog
AskanAmericanschoolchildwhatheorsheislearninginschoolthesedaysandyoumightevengetareply,providedyouaskit
TheOriginofMoney Intheearlieststagesofman’sdevelopmenthehadnomoreneedofmoneythananimalshave.Hewascontent
Alinguisticstudyis______ifitaimstolaydownrulesfor"correctandstandard"behaviorinusinglanguage,thatis,totel
A、worldcivilizationB、languagedevelopmentC、physicsandchemistryD、literatureC
Engaginginahobbylikereadingabook,makingapatchworkquiltorevenplayingcomputergamescandelaytheonsetofdementi
Engaginginahobbylikereadingabook,makingapatchworkquiltorevenplayingcomputergamescandelaytheonsetofdementi
Engaginginahobbylikereadingabook,makingapatchworkquiltorevenplayingcomputergamescandelaytheonsetofdementi
随机试题
重大危险源控制标准不同,一级危险源在()以上。
两根纤细、闪亮的铁轨延伸过来了。它勇敢地盘旋在山腰,又悄悄地试探着前进,弯弯曲曲,曲曲弯弯,终于绕到台儿沟脚下,然后钻进幽暗的隧道,冲向又一道山梁,朝着神秘的远方奔去。这景象有何象征意味?
初产妇因第二产程延长,胎吸分娩,胎儿体重4000g,胎儿娩出时伴有阴道大量持续出血,有凝血块。出血原因最可能的是
通常所说的I/O设备指的是()。
《中华人民共和国建筑法》规定,建筑单位必须在条件具备时,按照国家有关规定向工程所在地县级以上人民政府建设行政主管部门申请领取施工许可证,建设行政主管部门应当自收到申请之日起多少天内,对符合条件的申请颁发施工许可证?()
有条件的区域,以特大城市和大城市为龙头,通过()形成若干用地少、就业多、要素集聚能力强、人口分布合理的新城市群。
结合材料回答问题。材料1何桂清奏称,浙省宁商购买火轮船,节次在洋捕盗,实为得力。现在上海商人亦买火轮船一只,请与宁商火轮船来年在东南洋面巡缉,一以截南来盗艇,一以护北运漕艘。此项火轮船只,与洋船相似,是以不令驶至北洋。既据称买自粤东,并
(46)Afavouritepredictionofenvironmentalismhasbittenthedust—toomanynaturalresources,ratherthantoofew,arethecaus
Whenitcametomoral"reasoning,"weliketothinkourviewsonrightandwrongarerational,butultimatelytheyaregrounded
下列叙述错误的是()
最新回复
(
0
)