When I was 10 years old, a cousin of mine took me on a tour of his medical school. And as a special treat, he took me to the pathology lab and took a real human brain out of the jar and placed it in my hands. And there it was, the seat of human consciousness, the powerhouse of the human body, sitting in my hands. And that day I knew that when I grew up, I was going to become a brain doctor, scientist, something or the other.
我十歲的時候, 我表哥帶我參觀他所就讀的醫學院。 他特別 帶我到病理實驗室參觀, 並從一個罐子裡 拿出一個真實的人腦 放在我的手上。 就這樣 人類意識行為的所在地、 人體的發電站 就放在我手中了。 這樣的經驗讓我當下就決定,長大以後 一定要當一個腦科的醫生 或科學家,或其他相關的職業。
Years later, when I finally grew up, my dream came true. And it was while I was doing my Ph.D. on the neurological causes of dyslexia in children that I encountered a startling fact that I'd like to share with you all today. It is estimated that one in six children, that's one in six children, suffer from some developmental disorder. This is a disorder that retards mental development in the child and causes permanent mental impairments. Which means that each and every one of you here today knows at least one child that is suffering from a developmental disorder.
幾年之後,我長大了, 我的夢想成真了。 當我做有關 造成兒童誦讀困難的神經 因素的博士研究時, 我遇到一個讓人驚心的狀況, 我希望在今天演講中和大家分享。 據估計,每六個兒童就有一個 也就是六分之一的兒童 都有某一類的發展障礙問題。 這種發展障礙會 阻礙兒童的心智發展, 並造成永久性的心智減損。 這就是說今天在座的各位 最少會認識一個 有發展障礙的孩子。
But here's what really perplexed me. Despite the fact that each and every one of these disorders originates in the brain, most of these disorders are diagnosed solely on the basis of observable behavior. But diagnosing a brain disorder without actually looking at the brain is analogous to treating a patient with a heart problem based on their physical symptoms, without even doing an ECG or a chest X-ray to look at the heart. It seemed so intuitive to me. To diagnose and treat a brain disorder accurately, it would be necessary to look at the brain directly. Looking at behavior alone can miss a vital piece of the puzzle and provide an incomplete, or even a misleading, picture of the child's problems. Yet, despite all the advances in medical technology, the diagnosis of brain disorders in one in six children still remained so limited.
但有一件事情我一直覺得很困惑, 因為儘管每一個 發展障礙的個案 都是起源於腦這個器官, 但是大部分的診斷 都只建立在 可觀察的患者行為之上。 但是診斷腦部障礙 卻沒有直接觀察腦部情況, 就好像治療心臟病患, 只根據病患的生理症狀來判斷, 而不看心電圖或是胸腔 X 光片一樣。 我直覺的認為, 要精確的診斷和治療腦部障礙問題, 直接觀察腦部信號是一定必要的, 單只觀察患者的行為, 將會遺漏掉解讀這個拼圖相當重要的部分, 因而導致資訊不完整, 甚至錯誤解讀 病童的問題, 然而, 儘管醫學技術已經很先進了, 但是對於有六分之一兒童 可能罹患腦部障礙之診斷方法, 卻依然非常有限。
And then I came across a team at Harvard University that had taken one such advanced medical technology and finally applied it, instead of in brain research, towards diagnosing brain disorders in children. Their groundbreaking technology records the EEG, or the electrical activity of the brain, in real time, allowing us to watch the brain as it performs various functions and then detect even the slightest abnormality in any of these functions: vision, attention, language, audition. A program called Brain Electrical Activity Mapping then triangulates the source of that abnormality in the brain. And another program called Statistical Probability Mapping then performs mathematical calculations to determine whether any of these abnormalities are clinically significant, allowing us to provide a much more accurate neurological diagnosis of the child's symptoms. And so I became the head of neurophysiology for the clinical arm of this team, and we're finally able to use this technology towards actually helping children with brain disorders. And I'm happy to say that I'm now in the process of setting up this technology here in India.
後來我遇到哈佛大學的一個團隊, 他們不用過去的研究腦部的方式, 而改使用一種先進的醫療技術, 並將之應用 在診斷兒童的腦部障礙方面, 這個突破性的技術 能夠即時的紀錄腦部的腦波圖, 或其他腦部活動的電子信號, 由此我們可以觀察到腦部 在進行各種不同功能活動, 並偵測到在進行這些功能時, 非常細微的異常狀態, 如視覺、注意力、語言及聽覺等功能中的異常現象。 (方法是) 先以一個名為「腦部電子 活動對映計」, 用三角定位的方式找出。 腦部不正常信號的來源 然後用一個 名為「統計可能性對映計劃」 作數學計算, 以決定這些不正常點 是否有臨床診斷上的意義, 藉此可以對病童症狀 提供更精確的 神經學診斷結果。 因此我擔任了這個團隊 臨床部門的神經生理學領導人, 我們終於能夠應用這項技術, 實際幫助 有腦部障礙的兒童 我也很高興的告訴大家,現在 我正在將這項技術應用在印度這裡。
I'd like to tell you about one such child, whose story was also covered by ABC News. Seven-year-old Justin Senigar came to our clinic with this diagnosis of very severe autism. Like many autistic children, his mind was locked inside his body. There were moments when he would actually space out for seconds at a time. And the doctors told his parents he was never going to be able to communicate or interact socially, and he would probably never have too much language.
我想與各位談一位美國廣播公司(ABC) 曾經報導過的那個孩子, 這位七歲的小孩名叫賈斯丁 (Justin Senigar) , 來到我們診所時是被診斷為 有嚴重自閉症。 就像一般的自閉症的小孩, 他的心智是被限鎖在他自己的身體範圍內。 這是他每次發作時 昏昏沉沉的情形。 醫生對他的父母說 他將永遠無法 和這個社會溝通及互動, 很有可能他不會有多少語言能力 。
When we used this groundbreaking EEG technology to actually look at Justin's brain, the results were startling. It turned out that Justin was almost certainly not autistic. He was suffering from brain seizures that were impossible to see with the naked eye, but that were actually causing symptoms that mimicked those of autism. After Justin was given anti-seizure medication, the change in him was amazing. Within a period of 60 days, his vocabulary went from two to three words to 300 words. And his communication and social interaction were improved so dramatically that he was enrolled into a regular school and even became a karate super champ.
當我們使用這項破天荒的腦波圖(EEC)技術 去觀察賈斯丁的腦部, 結果讓人吃驚, 我們幾乎可以確定賈斯丁 不是自閉症兒, 他是因為被其他腦部毛病所擾 而肉眼看不到這個毛病。 這樣產生的症狀, 看起來和自閉症呈現的現象很像。 在給賈斯丁作抗發作的治療之後, 他的改變非常驚人。 在六十天之內, 他所認識的字彙由三兩個字, 進步到三百個字, 他的溝通以及和社會互動的能力, 更是有戲劇性的發展, 他可以到一般的學校就讀, ,甚至變成空手道優勝者
Research shows that 50 percent of children, almost 50 percent of children diagnosed with autism are actually suffering from hidden brain seizures. These are the faces of the children that I have tested with stories just like Justin. All these children came to our clinic with a diagnosis of autism, attention deficit disorder, mental retardation, language problems. Instead, our EEG scans revealed very specific problems hidden within their brains that couldn't possibly have been detected by their behavioral assessments. So these EEG scans enabled us to provide these children with a much more accurate neurological diagnosis and much more targeted treatment.
研究顯示百分之五十, 接近百分之五十, 被診斷為自閉症兒童, 其實是被其他潛在的腦部疾病所苦, 這些 是我診斷過 有和賈斯丁一樣情況的小孩, 當他們到 我們的診所來時是被誤診 為自閉症、有注意力缺陷、 精神障礙 及語言障礙等 但當我們用我們的EEC作掃描後, 潛藏在他們腦部特定地方的問題就顯現出來了, 而這些問題是不可能用 過去行為評估法可以發現的, 所以EEC掃描 讓我們能過對這些孩童, 提供更精確的診斷 及對症下藥的治療,
For too long now, children with developmental disorders have suffered from misdiagnosis while their real problems have gone undetected and left to worsen. And for too long, these children and their parents have suffered undue frustration and desperation. But we are now in a new era of neuroscience, one in which we can finally look directly at brain function in real time with no risks and no side effects, non-invasively, and find the true source of so many disabilities in children.
長久以來,有行為發展障礙的小孩 一直苦於真正的問題 沒有被檢測出來的誤診中, 因而情況更加惡化。 這些小孩的父母也長久以來 一直處在無窮盡的挫折及絕望之中。 但是現在神經科學的新世紀來臨了, 用這個新科技,我們終於 可以用非侵入性、 沒有風險及副作用、直接且及時的 發現許多失能兒童 真正的病源。
So if I could inspire even a fraction of you in the audience today to share this pioneering diagnostic approach with even one parent whose child is suffering from a developmental disorder, then perhaps one more puzzle in one more brain will be solved. One more mind will be unlocked. And one more child who has been misdiagnosed or even undiagnosed by the system will finally realize his or her true potential while there's still time for his or her brain to recover. And all this by simply watching the child's brainwaves.
所以如果我能激發 今天聽眾中一部分人, 將這一項先進的診斷方式 與患有發展障礙兒童的 一對父母溝通分享, 也許就又有一個腦 的困惑會被解決, 又有一個被鎖住的心智也將被解開, 又有一個被現在診斷系統誤診 或是不曾診斷病因的兒童 能夠在還能補救的時限之前救回來, 而得以將他們的潛力 實際展現出來。 而這一切,只要由觀察小孩的腦波圖就可以做得到。
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
掌聲