VOA慢速英语，作为国际英语学习者的重要资源，通过清晰缓慢的发音与简洁的词汇，为初学者及中等水平学习者搭建了通往流利英语的桥梁。它不仅帮助提升听力理解能力，还丰富了词汇量，增强了语感，是学习地道英语表达不可或缺的工具，对全球英语学习者的语言提升至关重要。让我们一起进入今天的VOA慢速英语听力训练：自闭症生物测试。
英文原文
Doctors currently identify autism disorders by observing behavior. Autism affects social and communication skills, and it usually first appears in young children. Now researchers 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 resonance imaging machine, to look for abnormalities in the brain. Other studies have not shown major structural 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 Lang says the team looked at the circuitry, chemical and electrical pathways, that link the different parts of the brain. "The brain may be okay, the parts that do the work may be okay, but the wiring, the cables, between the points in the brain one to another, maybe disrupted in some way."
目前，医生通过观察行为来识别自闭症。自闭症会影响社交和沟通能力，通常首次出现在幼儿身上。现在，研究人员认为他们已经找到了一种自闭症的生物测试方法。这一方法由马萨诸塞州哈佛大学和犹他大学的一个团队开发。该测试使用磁共振成像（MRI）机器来寻找大脑中的异常。其他研究并未发现自闭症患者与非自闭症患者的大脑在结构上存在重大差异。但最新研究并未关注大脑的大结构。相反，哈佛大学的尼古拉斯·朗表示，研究团队关注的是连接大脑不同部分的电路、化学和电信号通路。“大脑本身可能没问题，负责工作的部分也可能没问题，但大脑各点之间连接的线路、电缆可能在某种程度上受到了破坏。”
The scientist did MRI scans on 60 males between the ages of 8 and 26. 30 of them had been identified as having mild autism, a form also known as high-functioning autism. The researchers looked at the connections in two areas of the brain that control language and social behavior. They used a technique called diffusion tensor imaging. This way, they could observe microscopic fibers to see how well the brain circuitry was organized. Nicholas Lang says the pictures showed a clear difference between the people with autism and those without. "Compared it to spaghetti: there's a bundle of uncooked spaghetti, and there's a clear directionality to that. It's nice and well organized, as opposed to a cooked bowl of spaghetti that's just a tangle of it. It looks like spaghetti, and that's the way the wiring can be. It can either be very tangled or very organized."
科学家对60名8至26岁的男性进行了MRI扫描。其中30人被诊断为轻度自闭症，也称为高功能自闭症。研究人员观察了控制语言和社交行为的大脑两个区域的连接。他们使用了一种称为扩散张量成像的技术。通过这种方式，他们可以观察微观纤维，以了解大脑电路的组织情况。尼古拉斯·朗表示，图像显示自闭症患者与非自闭症患者之间存在明显差异。“把它比作意大利面：有一束未煮的意大利面，它有明确的方向性。它整齐有序，与煮熟后的一碗意大利面截然不同，后者只是一团乱麻。它看起来像意大利面，而大脑的线路也可能如此。它要么非常混乱，要么非常有序。”
The researchers say the tests were able to predict with 94 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 Lang 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 Lang 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 disorder, but most parents begin to suspect a problem by the age of two.
研究人员表示，这些测试能够以94%的准确率预测哪些人患有自闭症。研究人员用新参与者重复了这项研究，并得到了同样有力的结果。研究结果发表在《自闭症研究》杂志上。但朗医生表示，该测试尚未准备好用于临床推广；该研究规模较小，且仅涉及男性。它还使用了年龄较大的儿童和成年人。朗医生表示，随着时间的推移，该测试可能能够识别出3岁以下儿童的自闭症。目前，3岁是大多数医生诊断自闭症障碍的最小年龄，但大多数父母在两岁前就开始怀疑孩子有问题。
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