VOA慢速英语2010年-Health Report - Autism Test Could Use

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Doctors currently identify autism disorders² by observing behavior. Autism affects social and communication skills. It usually first appears in young children.

Now, researchers in the United States think they have found a biological test for autism. A team from Harvard University in Massachusetts and the University of Utah developed it.

The test uses an MRI or magnetic resonance³ imaging machine to look for abnormalities in the brain. Other studies have not shown major structural⁴ differences between the brains of autistic people and those without autism.

But the latest study did not look at the large structures of the brain. Instead, Harvard's Nicholas Lange says the team looked at the circuitry -- the chemical and electrical pathways that link the different parts of the brain.

NICOLAS LANGE: "The brain may be OK, the parts that do the work may be OK. But the wiring, the cables between the points in the brain, one to another, may be disrupted in some way."

The scientists did MRI scans on sixty males between the ages of eight and twenty-six. Thirty of them had been identified as having mild autism, a form also known as high-functioning autism.

Ashton Faller doing homework with his mother last year. Ashton has received treatment for autism since he was 2 years old

The researchers looked at the connections in two areas of the brain that control language and social behavior. They used a technique called diffusion⁵ tensor imaging. This way they could observe microscopic⁶ fibers⁷ to see how well the brain circuitry was organized.

Nicholas Lange says the pictures showed a clear difference between the people with autism and those without. He compared it to spaghetti.

NICHOLAS LANGE: "There's a bundle of uncooked spaghetti and there's clear directionality to that. It's nice and well-organized, as opposed to a cooked bowl of spaghetti that's just a tangle⁸ of -- it looks like spaghetti. And that's the way the wiring can be. It can be either very tangled⁹ [or] it can be very organized."

The researchers say the tests were able to predict with ninety-four percent accuracy which of the people had been found to have autism. The researchers repeated their study with new participants and got equally strong results.

The results appear in the journal Autism Research.

But Doctor Lange says the test is not ready yet for general use. The study was small and only involved males. It also used older children and adults.

Doctor Lange says that, in time, the test might be able to identify autism in children under three. Three is currently the youngest age at which most doctors will diagnose an autism disorder¹. But most parents begin to suspect a problem by the age of two.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For podcasts and transcripts¹⁰, go to voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

2 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 resonance   

n.洪亮；共鸣；共振

参考例句：

• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
• The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。

4 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

5 diffusion   

n.流布；普及；散漫

参考例句：

• The invention of printing helped the diffusion of learning.印刷术的发明有助于知识的传播。
• The effect of the diffusion capacitance can be troublesome.扩散电容会引起麻烦。

6 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

7 fibers   

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。

8 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

9 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

10 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句