科学家发现大脑衰老者容易早逝 译者&笔记：赵萌萌 校对：马里奥 策划：邹世昌 People whose 'brain age' is older than their real age more likely to die early “脑龄”较实际年龄大者更易早逝 本文选自 The Guardian | 取经号原创翻译 关注 取经号，后台回复“外刊” 获取《经济学人》等原版外刊获得方法 Scientists at Imperial College London used MRI scans and algorithms to produce computer-generated brain age and spot risk of dying young. 伦敦帝国学院的科学家使用磁共振扫描和算法规则，计算机生成人脑年龄，并发现早逝的风险。 Doctors may be able to warn patients if they are at risk of early death by analysing their brains, British scientists have discovered. 英国科学家发现，医生可通过分析患者的大脑发现早逝风险，给患者一个提醒。 Those whose brains appeared older than their true age were more likely to die early and to be in worse physical and mental health, a study by Imperial College London found. 伦敦帝国学院的一项调查发现，脑龄较实际年龄更大的人更易早逝，且生理和心理健康更差。 The research found a way of predicting someone’s “brain age” that could help to spot those at risk of dying young. 这一研究找到了一个预测人们“脑龄”的方法，该方法能够帮助发现早逝风险。 The study, piloted in Scotland, suggests using MRI scans to estimate a person’s brain age compared with their real age could also help to spot who might be at increased risk of poor health as they grow older. 这一在苏格兰试点的实验显示，使用磁共振扫描预测“脑龄”并和真实年龄进行比较，有助于发现随着年龄增大，身体状况变差的高风险人群。 By combining MRI scans with machine learning algorithms, a team of neuroscientists trained computers to predict the age of a person’s brain based on their volume of brain tissue. 一组神经学家通过结合磁共振扫描和机器学习算法，基于人们的脑组织容量，训练计算机预测人脑的年龄。 When the technique was tested on a group of older adults in Scotland, they found that the greater the difference between the computer-generated brain age and the person’s actual age, the higher their risk of poor mental and physical health and the more likely they were to die before they turned 80. 使用这一技术在苏格兰测试一组较老年人发现，计算机生成的大脑年龄与人们的实际年龄差距越大，心理和身体健康情况不佳的风险就越高，且他们更易在80岁之前去世。 Those with a brain age older than their real age also had weaker grip, lower lung capacity and slower walking speed. 那些脑龄较实际年龄大的人理解力较弱，肺活量较低，走路速度更慢。 Researchers say that if the initial findings could be applied to a screening programme, the technique could be used to inform doctors, showing whether or not a patient had a healthy brain age or was above or below the line, similar to how body mass index (BMI) is used. They could then advise patients to change their lifestyle or start a course of treatment. 研究人员表示，如果初期发现可用在筛选程序中，那么这技术就可以用于提醒医生，让他们展示某患者的大脑年龄是否健康，偏大或者偏小，类似于体重指数的应用。医生就可以建议病人改变生活方式或接受一轮治疗。 James Cole, a research associate who led the study, said: “People use the ‘age’ of an organ all the time to talk about health. Smokers are said to have lungs that are 20 years older than they should be, you can even answer online questionnaires about exercise and diet and get a ‘heart age’. This technique could eventually be like that.” 该研究的一位研究员詹姆斯.科尔表示：“人们一直用某器官的‘年龄’讨论健康问题。据说吸烟者的肺比应有年龄老20岁，你甚至可以在回答了与锻炼和饮食相关的问卷后得到一个‘心脏年龄’。该技术最终会像它们一样。” However, it would need more fine-tuning for accuracy before it could be used in this way, Cole said. At present it has a margin of error of about five years. MRI scans are also currently too expensive to be used as a widespread screening tool but researchers hope that costs will come down in the future. 但是，该技术在被使用之前还需更多的微调以提高精准度，科尔如是说。现在，该技术还有约五年的误差幅度。目前，磁共振扫描的价格太高，还不能广泛应用于筛选。但研究者希望未来能够降低磁共振扫描的价格。 “In the long run it would be great if we could do this accurately enough so that we could do it at an individual level,” he said. “However, at the moment, it’s not sufficiently accurate to be used at that sort of individual level.” “长期来看，如果我们能够足够精确地在个人层面使用该技术，那就很棒。”他说。“然而现阶段，该技术还不够精确到足以应用于个人层面。” 学习笔记 MRI也就是磁共振成像，英文全称是：Magnetic Resonance Imaging。在这项技术诞生之初曾被称为核磁共振成像, 因此，为了突出这一检查技术不产生电离辐射的优点，同时与使用放射性元素的核医学相区别，放射学家和设备制造商均同意把“核磁共振成像术”简称为“磁共振成像（MRI）” 与CT一样，磁共振成像也几乎适用于全身各系统的不同疾病，例如肿瘤、炎症、创伤、退行性病变，以及各种先天性疾病等的检查。 |
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