Aditi Shankardass :儿童學習障礙的另類看法

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http://dotsub.com/view/9060c1c6-197f-4a3d-8650-44b8512a800b
Aditi Shankardass :儿童學習障礙的另類看法
我十岁的时候， 我的一个表兄带我参观了他上的医学院。 作为一次特别优待 他带我去了病理学实验室 拿出一个真正的人脑 从一个罐子里 把它放在了我手里。 就是这 这里就是人们意识的载体 人们身体的司令部 它就在我手中 这一天我知道当我长大 我会成为一名研究大脑的医生 科学家，或者是其他的什么，
几年之后，当我真地长大了， 我的梦想实现了。 就在我做 关于儿童阅读障碍的神经学起因 的博士论文时 我发现了一个令人吃惊的现象 今天我想以此与你们分享。 据估计有六分之一的儿童， 六分之一呀， 受发展障碍的影响。 这是一种 妨碍儿童智力发展， 甚至导致智力永久损伤的疾病。 这意味着今天在座的各位中每六个人中就有一个人 知道至少一个孩子正在受 发展障碍疾病的折磨。
但是困扰我的还不是这个。 尽管每一种 每一种疾病 都可以在大脑中找到根源， 但大部分 只能通过可观察到的 行为来确诊。 诊断一种脑部疾病 却不直接查看大脑 就像是治疗心脏病人 根据他们的身体症状， 而不做心电图或者胸部X-光片 来查看心脏。 我凭直觉感到 要准确地诊断治疗脑部疾病 直接查看大脑是很必要的。 直接观察行为本身 就可能错过至关重要的信息 而仅仅提供一种不完整， 甚至能让人误解的构想。 但是，尽管有先进的医疗技术， 要诊断出六分之一 患病儿童的病因 依然不是件容易的事。
之后我便遇到了哈佛大学的一个小组， 他们已经研发出了先进的医疗技术 并最终把这种技术 应用到了诊断儿童脑部疾病中 而不是应用到脑部研究。 他们极具创造力的技术 记录下了脑电图或实时的 脑部电波活动， 这可以让我们观察大脑 在它履行各种功能时 然后就我们就可以发现一些轻微的反常之处 在下面的这些功能中， 视觉，注意力，语言，听觉。 有一项叫做大脑电波 活动图谱的工程 会找出大脑中的 反常的地方 另一项叫做 统计概率图谱的工程 用数学计算的办法 来算出这些反常是否 在临床上有用， 如果有用就给我们提供了一种更准确的 神经诊断方法 对儿童的症状。 就这样我成为了这个团队中 临床分支的领导者。 最终我们可以用这种技术 来帮助那些有大脑障碍的 儿童。 我很高兴现在我正在 将这项技术在印度建立起来。
我想告诉你这样一个孩子， 他的故事也被ABC新闻报道过。 七岁的查斯丁 西尼加 来到我们诊所 他被诊断患有严重的自闭症。 像许多自闭症儿童一样 他的思想被禁闭在身体中。 就曾出现过他经常 独自发呆几秒钟的情况。 医生告诉他的父母 他再也不能 与人交流了， 他可能不太会说话了。
当我们用这种创造性的脑电图技术 查看查斯丁的大脑时 结果令人吃惊。 它显示查斯丁几乎没有自闭症。 他正在受癫痫的折磨 他正在受癫痫的折磨 而这几乎不可能用肉眼发现， 却引起了像自闭症 一样的症状。 在治疗查斯丁的癫痫时， 他的变化很惊人。 60天之内， 他的词汇量从两三个单词 提高到300个单词。 他的沟通和社交能力 也得到了极大地提高， 因而他入学了 并成为了空手道超级冠军。
研究表明一半 几乎一半 被诊断患有自闭症的儿童 实际上是受着隐秘的癫痫的折磨。 这是一些我检测过的 儿童的脸。 有着像查斯丁一样故事的 所有这些孩子 被诊断 患有自闭症，注意力缺失， 智力障碍，语言问题来到我们的诊所。 而我们脑电图扫描显示 他们的大脑中隐藏着一些问题 这些问题很可能不会通过 对他们行为的估测来发现。 因此这些脑电图扫描 让我们对这些孩子做出了 更为准确的精神诊断 更具针对性的治疗。
有发展障碍的儿童被误诊 而他们真正的问题却没有被发现 并变得更严重， 这种情况持续太久了。 这些孩子和他们的父母受挫折和绝望的折磨 太久了。 但现在我们处在一个神经科学的新时代， 在这个时代我们可以 实时地直接查看大脑的功能状态 这不会有危险或副作用，没有侵害性， 并找到如此 这些儿童智力障碍的真正原因。
如果今天我可以 通过与一位孩子患有发展障碍的父母分享 这种先进的诊断办法 让在座的各位中一小部分人 感到备受鼓舞的话 那也许又一个人脑中的疑惑 会被消除。 又一个思想会被解放。 又一个被误诊的或是 没有被该系统诊断的孩子 会意识到他或她的潜力 那就是这仍然还有时间 让他或她的大脑恢复正常。 所有这些只需通过观察这个孩子的脑电波。
谢谢。
（掌声）

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Aditi Shankardass: A second opinion on learning disorders
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.

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.

But here's what really perplexed me. Despite the fact that each and every one 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.

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 say that I'm now in the process of setting up this technology here in India.

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.

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 in a regular school and even became a karate superchamp.

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.

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.

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.

Thank you.

(Applause)