2017考研英语拓展阅读：揭秘大脑语言图谱

Scientists in the US have mapped out how the brain organises language.

美国科学家已经绘制出了语义图谱，该图谱能展示人类大脑如何组织语言。

Their "semantic atlas" shows how, for example, one region of the brain activates in response to words about clothing and appearance.

他们的“语义图谱”展示了大脑的某个区域是如何响应诸如服装和外貌之类的语言的。

The researchers found that these maps were quite similar across the small number of individuals in the study, even down to minor details.

研究者发现，这些图谱在一小部分受试者中十分相似，甚至微小的细节都十分相似。

The work, by a team at the University of California, Berkeley, is published in the journal Nature.

加州大学伯克利分校的一个研究小组主导该项研究，并将结果发表在《自然》杂志上。

It had previously been proposed that information about words’ meaning was represented in a group of brain regions known as the semantic system.

之前就曾有人提出，语言含义的信息由大脑一部分区域呈现，我们称之为语义系统。

But the new work uncovers the fine detail of this network, which is spread right across the outer layer of the human brain.

但这项新的研究揭示了这个网络的详细信息，即它们在人类大脑外层进行传递。

The results could eventually help those who are unable to speak, such as victims of stroke or brain damage, or motor neuron diseases.

该研究结果也许能够帮助不能说话的人，比如中风、脑损伤或运动神经元疾病患者。

Volunteers - including lead author Alex Huth - listened to more than two hours of stories from a US radio programme while remaining still inside a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner.

包括该研究主要作者亚历克斯胡斯在内的志愿者们一边收听美国广播节目里长达两个多小时的故事，一边在功能核磁共振成像扫描仪下保持静止。

Higher’ functions

高级功能

The team collected data on changes in blood flow and oxygenation - indicators of activity - in different areas of the cerebral cortex.

该小组收集了大脑皮层不同区域内活跃性指标-血流量以及充氧作用的变化情况数据。

The cerebral cortex is the brain’s outer layer of tissue, playing a key role in higher functions such as language and consciousness.

大脑皮层是大脑最外层的组织，在语言和意识等高级功能中扮演着重要角色。

The brain imaging data were matched against time-coded transcriptions of the stories. The researchers then used a computer algorithm that scored words according to how closely they are related in terms of meaning.

研究者们将脑成像数据和按时间编码的故事文本相对比，然后使用计算机演算法，根据词语和意思的匹配程度进行打分。

The results were converted into a thesaurus-like map where the words were arranged on the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

结果被转化成一张类似分类辞典的图谱，不同的单词分布在大脑的左半球和右半球。

They show that the semantic system is distributed broadly in more than 100 distinct areas across both halves - hemispheres - of the cortex and in intricate patterns that were consistent across individuals in the study.

结果表明，在大脑皮层的两个半球中，语义系统被明显地分为一百多个不同区域，其模式复杂，但不同受试者却保持一致性。

The maps show that many areas of the human brain represent language describing people and social relations rather than abstract concepts.

这张图谱表明人类大脑的多数区域呈现了描述人类和社会关系的语言，而不是一些抽象的概念。

But the same word could be repeated several times on different parts of the brain map. For example, the word "top" was represented in a part of the brain that responds to words about clothing and appearance, and also in a region that deals with numbers and measurements.

但在大脑图谱中，有一些词语会在大脑不同区域多次重复出现，例如“顶部”这个词，它出现在大脑中一个对服饰和外貌有反应的区域，同时还出现在处理数据和尺寸的区域内。

"Our semantic models are good at predicting responses to language in several big swaths of cortex," said Dr Huth.

“我们的语义模型擅长预测大脑皮层大的褶皱处对语言的反应。”胡斯博士说。

"But we also get the fine-grained information that tells us what kind of information is represented in each brain area. That’s why these maps are so exciting and hold so much potential."

“但我们同时会得到详细的信息，它能告诉我们大脑每个区域呈现什么样的信息。这也是为什么这些图谱如此激动人心且潜力巨大的原因。”

Scientists could track the brain activity of patients who have difficulty communicating and then match that data to language maps to determine what their patients are trying to express.

科学家能够追踪有交流障碍的病人的大脑活动，将这些数据与语言图谱对比，即可确认这些病人想要表达什么。

"Although the maps are broadly consistent across individuals, there are also substantial individual differences," said the study’s senior author Jack Gallant.

“尽管这些图谱在不同个体身上大致一致，但仍存在巨大的个体差异。”该研究资深作者杰克加仑特说。

"We will need to conduct further studies across a larger, more diverse sample of people before we will be able to map these individual differences in detail."

“要想弄清楚个体化差异的细节，我们需要在一个更大、更多元化的人群中展开进一步研究。”