New prospect of reversing Alzheimer's disease raised

 　　BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists in Canada have raised a prospect¹ of reversing Alzheimer's disease by deep brain stimulation², according to media reports Monday.

　　The technique here is known as deep brain stimulation -- applying electricity directly to regions of the brain. It has been used in tens of thousands of patients with Parkinson's as well as having an emerging role in Tourette's Syndrome³ and depression.

　　The study at the University of Toronto took six patients with the condition. Deep brain stimulation was applied⁴ to the fornix -- a part of the brain which passes messages onto the hippocampus.

　　Lead researcher Prof Andres Lozano said you would expect the hippocampus to shrink by five per cent on average in a year in patients with Alzheimer's.

　　After 12 months of stimulation, he said one patient had a five per cent increase and another had an eight per cent increase.

　　Prof Lozano told BBC: "This is the first time that brain stimulation in a human being has been shown to grow an area of your brain."

　　"It was an amazing finding for us," he said.

　　The findings were presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in November but they have yet to be published in an academic journal.

　　To test whether this is really working, rather than being a fluke result, the researchers are going to perform a larger trial.

1 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

2 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

3 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

4 applied   

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。