They're being called the "Benjamin Button" pothers—a reference to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the 2008 movie in which Brad Pitt plays a man who ages in reverse。
他们被称为“本杰明·巴顿”兄弟—这样称呼的依据来自2008年的电影《返老还童》。该电影由布拉德·皮特主演，剧中男子演绎了返老还童的人生经历。
Matthew Clark, 39, of Lincoln, England and his pother Michael Clark, 42, last year were reportedly given a vague diagnosis of terminal leukodystrophy. The pothers' particular version of the disorder caused them to lose the ability to think and behave as adults, The Telegraph reported。
每日电讯报在去年报道称，39岁的马修·克拉克和他42岁的哥哥迈克尔·克拉克被初步诊断为脑白质病变晚期。兄弟俩这种特殊病变会使他们失去像成人般思考和行为表现的能力。
After a phase of throwing temper tantrums and watching cartoons, the pothers have gradually lost the ability to talk and walk, leaving them crawling around their parents' home。
他们发脾气，也看动画片。一段时间后，这对兄弟俩渐渐失去了谈话和走路的能力，只好留他们在父母亲家里任由他们四处爬行。
The two men still look their age, albeit with a disarming air of innocence about them, but they are beginning to exhibit physical signs of their regression back into childhood。
这对双胞胎兄弟看起来还是年纪如常，但是他们的身上却散发出明显的童真和幼稚。他们的日常行为已经有迹象表明他们的身体退化至孩童时期的状态。
For their parents, Christine and Anthony Clark, it is heartpeaking. “There are no words to describe how we feel. It’s devastating,” says Mr Clark, the man who watched both of his sons grow up and marry, who looked on proudly as Michael joined the RAF and Matthew became a father himself。
对于他们的父母克拉克夫妇来说，这样的消息无疑令人心碎。“我无法描述我们现在的感受，太让人绝望了”。安东尼·克拉克这样说。这位父亲曾经眼看着自己的儿子长大成人成家立业，迈克尔加入英国皇家空军，马修自己也成了父亲，这些曾经都让他很自豪。
“It’s a devastating disease," the men's father, Anthony Clark, told The Telegraph. "Both of them are very childlike now。”
“这是一种可怕的疾病，现在他们俩的表现就像小孩子一样。”克拉克先生对每日电讯报如是说。
Neither paper indicated which form of leukodystrophy the men have—there are about 40 known types of the largely genetic pain cell-damaging disorder—or who diagnosed the pothers。
不管是媒体还是为兄弟俩诊断的人都没有指明他们患的是哪一类型的脑白质病变—可知的关于大脑细胞损伤性病变大约就有40种。
Is it really possible for adults to revert to a childlike state? Experts in the U.S. told The Huffington Post that it is—though it occurs very rarely。
返老还童真的可能吗？美国专家对赫芬顿邮报的记者说，它确实存在，尽管这样的现象很罕见。
"'Leukodystrophy' is a term used for progressive disorders that causes damage or deterioration to the white matter of the pain," Dr. Robert Marion, chief of genetics and developmental medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, told The Huffington Post。
“脑白质病变是一个专业术语，它是一种引发脑白质损害和衰变的渐进式病变。”来自纽约市爱因斯坦医学院遗传学和发展医学科室的主任罗伯特·马里恩博士这样对赫芬顿邮报的记者说。
Dr. Marion, who said he had no specific knowledge of the pothers, added that the disorder they reportedly have is hereditary and that the mental deterioration happens gradually。
马里恩博士说他对兄弟俩的情况还并不完全了解，此外他还补充说，他们患有的病变是遗传性的，而且大脑智力在逐渐衰变。
There are infantile, juvenile and adult forms of leukodystrophy. As for cases that apparently arise in adulthood, Dr. Marion said, "It’s possible that nobody has really noticed it until its gotten so bad that it's reached this level of detection. They reach adulthood or later adolescence and they’ve attained everything they could, then start having neurological symptoms. They can have dementia, they start losing their memory or their ability to function...they’ll lose their ability to walk, wind up wheelchair-bound."
脑白质病变分幼儿期、青少年期和成年期。对于出现在成年期的许多案例来说，马里恩博士表示，“常见的情况是没人会真的留意到它的存在直到它恶化到了能被察觉的程度。病变到了成年期或是青少年期的最后时期时，影响的范围就放大了，然后开始出现神经系统方面的症状。他们中有的人会患上痴呆症，他们开始出现失忆现象，或是失去了行动能力……他们会失去走路的能力，依靠轮椅行走。”
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