题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通
河南省洛阳市2018-2019学年高二下学期英语期中考试试卷
Scientists have found an unexpected use for virtual reality headsets (耳机). The devices (装置), widely used by computer gamers, show pictures that can be used to test the navigational (导航的) skills of people, who were thought to be at risk of dementia (痴呆). Those who do worse in the tests will be the ones more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life, scientists now believe.
The discovery that the loss of navigational skills was associated with Alzheimer's was made several years ago by Dennis Chan and his colleagues based at several centers in the UK. These studies used computers to test navigational tasks. But now scientists plan to take their tests to a new level with the use of the virtual reality headsets in which wearers are placed in man-made environments through which they must navigate.
Around 300 people, aged between 40 and 60, will be arranged to participate in the study. Some will have a gene that puts them at risk of the condition or will come from a family with a history of Alzheimer's. Not all will certainly be affected by the disease, however. Chan's project aims to find out who will. Wearing the headsets, participants will be asked to navigate their way through a series of different environments and then remember the details.
Researchers recently pointed out the significance of a tiny area of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex (an important memory center in the brain). It acts as a center in a widespread brain network that controls navigation. This now appears to be the first part of the brain that seems to be easily harmed by Alzheimer's.
The goal of the work is to help people as they develop the disease. "So far, drug trials for Alzheimer's have been applied when people have already got dementia, by which time considerable damage to the brain has already occurred," Chan told the Obsenver. "If we can develop drugs and use them earlier, for example, before the disease has spread beyong the entorhinal cortex, then this would have the potential to prevent the dementia."
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