RE5 Unit 7B · HUMAN BIONICS (仿生人体·神经义肢)

Reading 7B · HUMAN BIONICS (仿生人体·神经义肢)

神经重分布与仿生科技让截肢患者用意念自如控制机械手臂，并重获真实触感

Paragraph A

Amanda Kitz is mobbed by four and five-year-olds as she enters the classroom.

当阿曼达·基茨走进教室时，一群四五岁大的孩子们蜂拥而至，将她团团围住。“嗨，孩子们，我的小宝贝们今天好吗？”她轻抚着孩子们的肩膀，揉乱他们的头发说道。体态修长、精力充沛的阿曼达经营着这家位于田纳西州诺克斯维尔的托儿所，此外还管理着另外两所，已有近二十年光景。她蹲下身子与一个小女孩交谈，双手自然地撑在膝盖上。

Hey kids, how are my babies today?

She says, patting shoulders and ruffling hair.

Slender and energetic, she has operated this Knoxville, Tennessee daycare center,

and two others for almost 20 years.

Paragraph B

The robot arm, several kids cry.

“机械手臂！”几个孩子兴奋地欢呼起来。“你们还记得这个，对吧？”基茨微笑着伸出左臂。当她翻转手掌朝上时，手臂发出一阵轻微柔和的机械嗡嗡声。如果你不仔细倾听，很容易忽略过去。随后她弯曲肘关节，又伴随有一阵轻细的嗡嗡运转声。

You remember this, huh?

Says kids, holding out her left arm.

As she turns her hand palm up, there is a soft whirring sound.

If you weren't paying close attention, you'd miss it.

She bends her elbow, accompanied by more whirring.

Make it do something silly, one girl says.

Paragraph C

Silly?

“让它做个搞笑的动作吧！”一个小女孩喊道。“搞笑？还记得我是怎么和你们握手的吗？”基茨伸出手臂，轻轻旋转手腕。一个小男孩犹豫着伸出手，轻轻触碰她的手指。他指尖拂过的是肉色的工程塑料外壳，手指微微向内卷曲。外壳之下，包裹着三台微型电机、高强度的金属骨架以及密布的精密电子元件。整个机械装置顶部是一个白色的塑料承窝，紧紧贴合在基茨的残肢上。

Remember how I can shake your hand?

Kitz says, extending her arm and rotating her wrist.

A boy reaches out, hesitantly, to touch her fingers.

What he brushes against is a flesh-colored plastic, fingers curved slightly inward.

Underneath are three motors, a metal framework, and a network of sophisticated electronics.

The assembly is topped by a white plastic cup midway up Kitz's biceps,

Paragraph D

Almost all, but not quite.

当基茨绷紧上臂肌肉时，生物电信号便传导至白色承窝内的电极片。手臂内部的微型计算机处理器解码这些信号并驱动相应电机运转。“它虽谈不上美观，但却是我最得力的依靠，”基茨微笑着说，“总有一天，我能通过它重新感知物体的触觉，能伴随着孩子们唱的歌声自如地鼓掌合拍。”

Within her brain, below the level of consciousness, lives an intact image of that arm, a phantom.

When Kitz thinks about flexing her elbow, the phantom moves,

impulses racing down from her brain are picked up by electrode sensors in the white cup,

and converted into signals that turn motors and the artificial elbow bends.

I don't really think about it.

I just move it, says Kitz, who uses both this standard model

Paragraph E

and a more experimental arm with even more control.

基茨正是“明日先锋”中的一员——这个群体的缺失或损毁的人体器官正被植入神经系统的先进设备所取代，这些设备能够直接响应大脑下达的心念指令。他们所佩戴的机械被称为“神经义肢”，或者借用科幻小说家普及开来的通俗术语——“仿生体（bionics）”。

After my accident, I felt lost.

These days, I'm just excited all the time, because they keep on improving the arm.

One day, I'll be able to feel things with it and clap my hands together in time to the songs my kids are singing.

Kitz is one of Tomorrow's People, a group whose missing or ruined body parts

are being replaced by devices embedded in their nervous systems that respond to commands from their brains.

The machines they use are called neural prosthesis,

Paragraph F

or, using a term made popular by science fiction writers, Bionics.

阿曼达·基茨所使用的义肢完全由她的大脑意念驱动。这项名为“目标神经肌肉重分布（Targeted Muscle Reinnervation, TMR）”的前沿技术，巧妙利用截肢后残存的神经纤维来操控人工机械肢体。该技术于2002年首次在患者身上进行临床尝试。四年后，阿曼达的丈夫汤米·基茨在芝加哥康复研究所（RIC）的一份报道中读到了相关科研进展。当时他的妻子正躺在医院的病房里——那场将她的轿车压得粉碎的卡车车祸，也无情碾碎了她手肘以上乃至整条左臂。

The kind of prosthesis that Amanda Kitz uses is controlled by her brain.

A technique called targeted muscle reinnovation uses nerves remaining after an amputation to control an artificial limb.

It was first tried in a patient in 2002.

Four years later, Tommy Kitz, Amanda's husband, read about the research,

which took place at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, RIC.

His wife lay in the hospital at the time.

Paragraph G

I was angry, sad, depressed.

“那时我终日沉浸在愤怒、哀伤与绝望中，根本无法面对残酷的现实，”她回忆道。直到汤米向她介绍了芝加哥康复研究所的开创性研究，以及开发这项技术的托德·奎肯博士。“那是我灰暗生命中透进来的第一缕曙光，”她动情地说道。

I just couldn't accept it, she says.

But the news Tommy brought her about the Chicago arm gave her some reassurance, and some hope.

It seemed like the best option out there, a lot better than motors and switches, Tommy says.

Amanda actually got excited about it.

Soon, they were on a plane to Illinois.

Paragraph H

was the person responsible for what the Institute had begun calling the bionic arm.

奎肯博士早已洞悉，控制假肢最天然、最理想的途径就是直接接入人体自身的神经网络控制系统。大脑通过脊髓和外周神经向肌肉发送生物电脉冲指令。如果能将这些运动神经精准接驳到电学传感器上，机械义肢就能指挥机电马达驱动肢体运动。然而，实现这种神经与机械的无缝连接却绝非坦途。

He knew that nerves in an amputee stump could still carry signals from the brain,

and he knew that a computer in a prosthesis could direct electric motors to move the limb.

However, making the connection was far from straightforward.

Nerves conduct electricity, but they can't be spliced together with a computer cable.

Paragraph I

could be a dangerous avenue for infections.

神经纤维固然能够传导微弱电荷，但绝无法像铜线一样直接与计算机电缆焊接绞合。（生物神经纤维与金属导线天然互不兼容，且导线穿透皮肤造成的开放性创口极易引发致命的体内感染。）奎肯亟需一种生物学放大器来增强神经信号，从而规避神经与导线直接接触的致命风险。他在人体的骨骼肌中找到了完美的答案。

Kuyken needed an amplifier to boost the signals from the nerves, avoiding the need for a direct contact between nerve and wire.

He found one in muscles.

When muscles tense, they give off an electrical burst strong enough to be detected by an electrode placed on the skin.

He developed a technique to reroute severed nerves from their old damaged spots

to other muscles that could give their signals the proper boost.

Paragraph J

The first step was to salvage major nerves that once went all the way down her arm.

当肌肉收缩绷紧时，会爆发出足够强大的肌电信号，足以被紧贴在皮肤表面的高灵敏电极敏锐捕捉。于是奎肯研发出一种外科手术方案：将截肢残存的神经断端从原来受损的死胡同处分离出来，重新缝合改道至其他完好的肌肉组织上，由这些肌肉作为天然的信号放大中继站。

These are the same nerves that work the arm in hand,

but we had to create four different muscle areas to lead them to, Kuyken says.

The nerves started in kits' brain in the motor cortex, which holds a rough map of the body,

but they terminated at the end of her stump.

In an intricate operation, a surgeon re-routed those nerves to different regions of kits' upper arm muscles.

Paragraph K

At three months, I started feeling little tingles and twitches, says kits.

2006年10月，基茨毅然同意接受奎肯博士在她身上施行这项全新的手术试验。首要关键步骤是抢救原来一路延伸至指尖的主干神经束。“这些神经原本负责人体手臂与手掌的一切运动，但我们必须在大臂开辟出四个不同的独立肌肉区域来接纳它们，”奎肯解释道。这些神经发源于基茨大脑中的运动皮层（其内映射着人体肌肉的微观躯体图谱），但在截肢残端骤然中断。在一次极其精巧复杂的外科显微手术中，外科医生将这些离断神经分别改道嫁接在基茨上臂的不同肌群上。

And by four months, I could actually feel different parts of my hand when I touched my upper arm.

I could touch it in different places and feel different fingers.

What she was feeling were parts of the phantom arm that were mapped into her brain,

now reconnected to flesh.

When kits thought about moving those phantom fingers, her real upper arm muscles contracted.

A month later, she was fitted with her first bionic arm,

which had electrodes in the cup around the stump to pick up the signals from the muscles.

Paragraph L

A storm of electrical noise was coming from the small region on kits' arm.

在接下来的数月里，神经末梢以每天一毫米的速度悄然生长，深深扎根到它们被重新分派的肌肉新居中。“到了第三个月，我开始隐隐感到阵阵刺痛与轻微抽搐，”基茨回忆道，“到了第四个月，当我轻触自己的上臂时，竟然能够清晰地感应到手掌的不同部位！触碰上臂的不同点，我能真切感到自己正在抚摸不同的大拇指或食指。”她所感受到的，正是大脑皮层中未曾磨灭的“幻肢”记忆重新与鲜活肌肉搭通的奇迹。每当基茨动念想要活动那些幻肢手指时，她上臂对应的肌肉肌群便会随之真实收缩。

Somewhere in there was the signal that meant straighten the elbow or turn the wrist.

A microprocessor inserted in the prosthesis had to be programmed to differentiate the right signal

and send it to the right motor.

Kits practised using her arm one floor below Kuyiken's office in an apartment set up by occupational therapists.

Paragraph M

Things people use every day without a second thought, but that posed huge obstacles to someone missing a limb.

一个月后，她装配上了自己的第一具仿生手臂，承窝内侧密布电极，专门捕捉肌肉收缩时释放的电信号。此时的核心挑战在于如何将这些复杂的肌电信号精准翻译为控制肘部与手腕运动的机器指令。基茨手臂残端的狭小区域内交织着海啸般的生物电杂波，而控制“伸展手肘”或“旋转手腕”的微弱特征信号就潜藏其中。安装在义肢内的微处理器必须经过精密算法训练，准确分辨出真正的运动指令并分发给对应的驱动电机。

Watching kits make a peanut butter sandwich in the kitchen is a startling experience.

With her sleeve rolled back to reveal the plastic cup, her motion is fluid.

Her live arm holds a slice of bread, her artificial fingers close on a knife, the elbow flexes

and she swipes peanut butter back and forth.

It wasn't easy at first, she says.

I would try to move it and it wouldn't always go where I wanted.

Paragraph N

What kits would really like now is sensation.

就在奎肯博士办公室正下方的楼层里，基茨在一间由康复治疗师精心布置的模拟公寓中反复演练操作。这里有配备炉灶的厨房、抽屉里的银制餐具、卧床、挂着衣架的衣橱、独立卫浴以及楼梯——这些健全人日常不假思索便能使用的设施，对于失去肢体的人而言却是难以逾越的天堑。

That would be a big help in many actions, including one of her favourites, gold pink coffee.

The problem with a paper coffee cup is that my hand will close until it gets a solid grip.

But with a paper cup, you never get a solid grip, she says.

That happened at Starbucks once.

It kept squeezing until the cup went pop.

Paragraph O

In partnership with Bioengineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,

在厨房里目睹基茨亲手制作花生酱三明治是一段令人惊叹的非凡体验。她卷起衣袖露出承窝，仿生机械手稳稳捏住一片吐司，健侧右手利落地拧开果酱罐盖，随后用黄油刀将花生酱均匀涂抹在面包上。整套动作流畅协调得令人叹为观止。

RIC has been developing a new prototype for kits and other patients that not only has more flexibility,

more motors and joints, but also has pressure sensing pads on the fingertips.

The pads are connected to small rods that poke into kits as stump, the harder the pressure,

the stronger the sensation in her phantom fingers.

I can feel how hard I'm grabbing, she says.

Paragraph P

like glass, by how fast the rods vibrate.

然而，目前的仿生臂仍存在显著局限——它缺乏实时的力学触觉反馈。有一次，当她拿着一杯盛满咖啡的纸杯时，由于感受不到握力，机械手指越攥越紧，直到纸杯“啪”的一声爆裂开来，热咖啡洒了一地。“我当时完全感觉不到自己究竟使了多大劲，”她解释道。

I go up to Chicago to experiment with it, and I love it, she says.

I want them to give it to me already so I can take it home.

But it's a lot more complicated than my take-home arm, so they don't have it completely reliable yet.

Today, kits has a new, more elastic cup atop her arm that better aligns electrodes with nerves that control the arm.

It means I can do a lot more with the arm, she says.

A new one up in Chicago lets me do lots of different hand grasps.

Paragraph Q

These are reasonable hopes for a substitute body part, Kui Ken says.

为了攻克这一难题，奎肯团队为基茨及其他截肢患者研制了名为Proto1及下一代Proto2的高级仿生原型机。它不仅灵活性大幅跃升（配备了更多的伺服电机与活动关节），还在指尖集成了高灵敏度的压力传感器衬垫。这些衬垫与微型传动顶针相连，顶针顶靠在基茨残臂皮肤上。外物施加的压力越大，顶针在残肢上引发的压迫感就越强，直接投射出真实的幻肢指尖触觉。

We are giving people tools and they are better than what previously existed, but they are still crude, like a hammer,

compared with the complexity of the human body.

The work of neural prosthesis is extremely delicate, a series of trials filled with many errors.

As scientists have learned that it's possible to link machine and mind, they have also learned how difficult it is to maintain that bond.

Paragraph R

That's really what this work is about.

“如今我能真真切切地感到自己抓握得有多紧了，”她欣喜地表示。她甚至可以通过顶针高频微振的速率，清晰分辨出指尖擦过的是砂纸等粗糙表面，还是玻璃等光滑材质。“我常去芝加哥配合测试，我太爱它了，”她说，“我真巴不得他们马上交给我带回家。但它内部比我日常佩戴的义肢复杂精细得多，目前在全天候环境下的可靠性还没达到万无一失。”

Restoration, says Joseph Pancrasio, program director for Neural Engineering at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

When a person with a spinal cord injury can be in a restaurant feeding himself and no one else notices, that is my definition of success.

Bionic Man

Paragraph S

and a video camera in glasses are converted to signals and sent wirelessly to an implant in the eye.

如今，基茨换装了更具弹性贴合的新型承窝，使电极能够更精密地锁定控制手臂运动的神经靶点。“这意味着我能完成更多复杂操作，”她说，“芝加哥实验室里的最新研发机能做出数十种截然不同的手部抓握手势——那正是我梦寐以求的。我希望能随手捡起硬币、挥舞铁锤，能陪伴我的孩子们一起抓玩各式玩具。”对于一个生活曾被一场飞来横祸彻底撞碎的人而言，这些质朴的心愿是如此合情合理。

Electrodes in the eye send the signals to the optic nerve, which sends them to the brain, and a person is able to see the images.

Paragraph T

3. Signals are sent from the brain to the bionic arm via electrodes attached to nerves in the injured arm.

奎肯博士审慎地指出，要彻底重塑人类肢体浑然天成的运动能力，依然是一项长期的系统性工程。“我们现在本质上是在赋予患者实用的生活工具，”他由衷强调，“虽然它们当下仍稍显笨拙、并不完美，但与二十年前的医学技术相比，已经跨越了划时代的万里长征。”

The result, a person is able to grasp and manipulate objects.

4. A bionic ankle copies the action of a real one by pushing the wearer forward, helping the person to walk again.

Paragraph U

Other researchers, such as Joseph Pancrazio, share that measured optimism. 'If people with spinal cord injuries can feed themselves and live independently, and nobody even notices they're injured—that is our definition of triumph.'

其他顶尖科学家，如约瑟夫·潘克拉齐奥博士，同样抱持着这份清醒而笃定的乐观：“如果脊髓损伤与截肢人群能够自理起居、独立生活，在外人眼里甚至察觉不到他们受过重创——那便是我们科研团队心目中至高无上的全面胜利。”

💡 审辩式思维 (Critical Thinking: Justifying Opinions)

1. People with bionic parts may have an unfair advantage over others.

观点探讨：未来装配高性能仿生肢体的人是否会在体力、速度或感知上对普通人形成不公平的竞争优势？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 竞技与职场层面：在残奥会或特定高强度体力作业中，碳纤维弹性脚或强劲马达确实可能输出超越常人的力量；但目前研发初衷完全是弥补身体残缺，生活自理仍居首位。

2. Bionic research will likely only benefit wealthy people.

观点探讨：高昂的显微神经手术与微处理器义肢研发成本，是否会导致先进仿生技术沦为少数富裕阶层的特权？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 科技普惠规律：如同智能手机和心脏起搏器，早期原型机造价极其昂贵，但随着工业量产、医保报销机制与标准化电极普及，成本必然大幅下探惠及大众。

3. There is a danger of creating a new race of bionic 'superbeings.'

观点探讨：如果健全人主动要求截肢换装超强仿生器官，是否会引发人造“超级人类”的伦理与社会危机？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 医学伦理红线：全球执业医师法严禁为健康个体截肢；生化机器无论多么精巧，目前在灵敏度、触觉细致度与抗疲劳度上仍难与数十亿年自然进化的人体完美媲美。

📝 课文理解深度练习 (Comprehension & Skills)

Reading Comprehension: Multiple Choice (P.153) Reading Comprehension: Summarizing (P.154) Reading Skill: Fact or Opinion (P.155) Reading Skill: Identifying Sources (P.155)

预习练习得分: 0 / 26 题

Reading Comprehension Part A: Multiple Choice (P.153)

READING COMPREHENSION · GIST

1. The best alternative title for this reading would be:

READING COMPREHENSION · VOCABULARY

2. In paragraph C, the phrase 'brushes against' is closest in meaning to:

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

3. In paragraph F, who does 'tomorrow's people' refer to?

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

4. According to the author, the term 'bionics':

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

5. In paragraph J, the amplifier proposed by Kuiken:

READING COMPREHENSION · REFERENCE

6. In the last sentence of paragraph M, the word 'it' refers to:

READING COMPREHENSION · INFERENCE

7. In paragraph P, the author implies that the paper coffee cup went 'pop' because Kitts:

Reading Comprehension Part B: Summary Completion (P.154)

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

1. In her subconscious, Amanda Kitts has an image of an arm called a(n) ___.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

2. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago first described a prosthetic limb as a(n) ___.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

3. One problem with trying to control a prosthetic limb with your brain is the fact that ___ and wires are not compatible.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

4. Kitts said she could feel ___ in her arm three months after surgery.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

5. It took time and a lot of hard work before Kitts felt she could make the motions in her bionic arm ___.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

6. Todd Kuiken says that he is giving people ___, though these devices are still quite limited.

READING COMPREHENSION · SUMMARIZING

7. The work being done in prosthetics is, in many ways, a series of ___ with lots of mistakes.

Reading Skill Part A: Distinguishing Fact from Opinion (P.155)