大脑回路长这样：脑洞俨如盘丝洞（双语）

　　The world’s most detailed scan of the brain’s internal wiring has been produced by scientists at Cardiff University.

　　卡迪夫大学的科学家制作了世界上最清晰的大脑内部回路扫描图。

　　The MRI machine reveals the fibres which carry all the brain’s thought processes.

　　磁共振成像机器显示了携带所有大脑思维过程的纤维图像。

　　It’s been done in Cardiff, Nottingham, Cambridge and Stockport, as well as London England and London Ontario.

　　该实验在卡迪夫，诺丁汉，剑桥和斯托克波特，以及英国伦敦和安大略省伦敦完成。

　　Doctors hope it will help increase understanding of a range of neurological disorders and could be used instead of invasive biopsies.

　　医生希望这能助于增加对一系列的神经系统疾病的认识，并可以用来代替侵入性活检。

　　I volunteered for the project - not the first time my brain has been scanned.

　　我自愿参加了这个项目，而这并不是第一次我的大脑被扫描。

　　The scan took around 45 minutes and seemed unremarkable.

　　扫描大约45分钟，似乎没什么了不起。

　　A neurologist was on hand to reassure me my brain looked normal.

　　神经科医生让我放心，说我的大脑看起来很正常。

　　My family quipped that they were happy that a brain had been found inside my thick skull.

　　我的家人说，他们很高兴在我厚厚的头骨里发现了大脑这个东西。

　　But nothing could have prepared me for the spectacular images produced by the team at Cardiff, along with engineers from Siemens in Germany and the United States.

　　但是，当看到迪卡夫团队以及德国和美国的西门子的工程师制作出的壮观画面，我震惊了。

　　The scan shows fibres in my white matter called axons. These are the brain’s wiring, which carry billions of electrical signals.

　　扫描显示我的白质中称为轴突的纤维。这些是大脑的回路，它携带着数十亿个电波信号。

　　Not only does the scan show the direction of the messaging, but also the density of the brain’s wiring.

　　扫描图像不仅显示信息发射的方向，而且显示大脑回路的密度。

　　Another volunteer to be scanned was Sian Rowlands who has multiple sclerosis.

　　另一名被扫描的志愿者是有多发性硬化症的Sian Rowlands。

　　Like me, she is used to seeing images of her brain, but found the new scan "amazing".

　　像我一样，她对于看自己大脑的图像习以为常，但仍然对新的扫描表示“震惊”。

　　Conventional scans clearly show lesions - areas of damage - in the brain of MS patients.

　　常规扫描清楚地显示多发性硬化症患者脑部的病变，即损伤区域。

　　But this advanced scan, showing axonal density, can help explain how the lesions affect motor and cognitive pathways - which can trigger Sian’s movement problems and extreme fatigue.

　　但是这种先进的扫描显示轴突密度，可以帮助解释病变如何影响运动和认知途径，而这能触发Sian的运动障碍和极度疲劳。

　　Prof Derek Jones, CUBRIC’s director said, "The promise for researchers is that we can start to look at structure and function together for the first time."

　　卡迪夫大学脑研究成像中心(CUBRIC)的主任Derek Jones教授说：“这对研究人员的承诺前所未有的，我们可以开始关注(大脑)结构和功能。”

　　The extraordinary images produced in Cardiff are the result of a special MRI scanner - one of only three in the world.

　　卡迪夫生产的非凡图像来自一部特别的的磁共振成像扫描仪，世界上仅有三台。

　　The scanner itself is not especially powerful, but its ability to vary its magnetic field rapidly with position means the scientists can map the wires - the axons - so thinly it would take 50 of them to match the thickness of a human hair.

　　扫描仪本身并不是特别强大，但是它随着位置的变化磁场也迅速变化的能力，意味着科学家们可以将回路，即细密得只有头发1/50的厚度的轴突，绘制出来。

　　The scanner is being used for research into many neurological conditions including MS, schizophrenia, dementia and epilepsy.

　　该扫描仪正用于许多神经系统疾病的研究，包括多发性硬化症，精神分裂症，痴呆和癫痫。

　　My thanks to Sian, Derek and all the team at CUBRIC.

　　衷心感谢Sian，Derek和CUBRIC的所有团队。