第三篇
Controlling Robots with the Mind
Belle， our tiny monkey， was seated in her special chair inside a chamber at our Duke University lab. Her right hand grasped a joystick （操纵杆） as she watched a horizontal series of lights on a display panel. She knew that if a light suddenly shone and she moved the joystick left or right to correspond to its position， she would be sent a drop of fruit juice into her mouth.
Belle wore a cap glued to her head. Under it were four plastic connectors， which fed arrays of microwires-each wire finer than the finest sewing thread- into different regions of Belle’s motor cortex （脑皮层）， tile brain tissue that plans movements and sends instructions. Each of the 100 microwires lay beside a single motor neuron （神经元）。 When a neuron produced an electrical discharge， the adjacent microwire would capture the current and send it up through a small wiring bundle that ran from Belle’s cap to a box of electronics on a table next to the booth. The box， in turn， was linked to two computers， one next door and the other half a country away.
After months of hard work， we were about to test the idea that we could reliably
translate the raw electrical activity in a living being’s brain-Belle’s mere thoughts-into signals that could direct the actions of a robot. We had assembled a multijointed robot arm in this room， away from Belle’s view， which she would control for the first time. As soon as Belle’s brain sensed a lit spot on the panel， electronics in the box running two real-time mathematical models would rapidly analyze the tiny action potentials produced by her brain cells. Our lab computer would convert the electrical patterns into instructions that would direct the robot arm. Six hundred miles north， in Cambridge， Mass， a different computer would produce the same actions in another robot arm built by Mandayam A. Srinivasan. If we had done everything correctly， the two robot arms would behave as Belle’s arm did， at exactly the same time.
Finally the moment came. We randomly switched on lights in front of Belle， and she immediately moved her joystick back and forth to correspond to them. Our robot arm moved similarly to Belle’s real arm. So did Sriniwlsan’s. Belle and the robots moved in synchrony （同步）， like dancers choreographed （设计舞蹈动作） by the electrical impulses sparking in Belle’s mind.
In the two years since that day， our labs and several others have advanced neuroscience， computer science and microelectronics to create ways for rats， monkeys and eventually humans to control mechanical and electronic machines purely by “thinking through，” or imagining， the motions. Our immediate goal is to help a person who has been unable to move by a neurological （神经的） disorder or spinal cord （脊髓） injury， but whose motor codex is spared， to operate a wheelchair or a robotic limb.
41 Belle would be fed some fruit juice if she
A.grasped the joystick.
B.moved the joystick to the side of the light.
C.sat quietly in a special chair.
D.watched lights on a display panel.
42 The wires fixed under Belle’s cap were connected to
A.a plastic box next door.
B.a computer at Cambridge University，
C.a box of electronics in the booth.
D.a box which， in turn， was linked to two computers
43 Which of the following is NOT true of the robot built by Srinivasan？
A.It was directed by signals converted from the electrical activity in Belle’s brain
B.It converted the electrical patterns into instructions for the other robot.
C.It was six hundred miles away from where Belle was.
D.It could perform the same function as Belle did.
44 Which of the following statements indicates the success of the experiment？
A.Belle responded to the robots successfully.
B.Belle and the robots danced beautifully.
C.Belle and the robots responded to the lights at the same time.
D.The two robots moved the joysticks successively.
45 The short-term goal of the research is to help a person
A.whose motor cortex is seriously damaged.
B.who can operate a wheelchair but not a robotic limb.
C.who has spinal cord injury but is able to move a wheelchair.
D.who is unable to move but whose motor cortex is not damaged