TED演讲:我们的大脑是如何交流的?(6)

 And we think that this alignment¹ is necessary for communication.  我们认为有效沟通必须有这样的较准。

For example, as you can tell, I am not a native English speaker.  举个例子，你们都听得出来英语并不是我的母语。

I grew up with another language, and the same might be for many of you in the audience.  我在另一种语言环境中长大，你们当中很多人可能也是如此。

And still, we can communicate. How come?  尽管如此，我们依然可以沟通，为什么呢？

We think we can communicate because we have this common code² that presents meaning. 我们认为，能沟通是因为我们有表达语意的共通代码。

So far, I've only talked about what's happening in the listener's brain,  目前为止，我只谈到听者大脑里发生的情况，

in your brain, when you're listening to talks.  以及你聆听时大脑内的情况。

But what's happening in the speaker's brain, in my brain, when I'm speaking to you?  但讲者脑内的情况，在我对你们说话时，我的脑内是什么情况呢？

To look in the speaker's brain, we asked the speaker to go into the scanner,  为了观察讲者的大脑，我们请求讲者进入仪器接受扫描，

we scan³ his brain and then compare his brain responses to the brain responses of the listeners listening to the story.  然后比较他的大脑和听者听故事时的大脑反应。

You have to remember that producing speech and comprehending⁴ speech are very different processes.  要记得，发言和理解话语的过程是大不相同的。

Here we're asking: How similar are they?  我们可能会问：它们有多相似呢？

To our surprise, we saw that all these complex patterns within the listeners actually came from the speaker brain.  令我们惊讶的是，我们看到，听者之间的所有这些复杂波形，实际上都源自演讲者的大脑。

So production and comprehension rely on very similar processes.  所以，讲话和理解依赖非常类似的过程。

And we also found the stronger the similarity between the listener's brain and the speaker's brain, the better the communication. 我们也发现，听者和讲者的大脑越是近似，他们的沟通就越顺畅。

So I know that if you are completely confused now,  所以我知道，如果你们现在完全听不懂我的话，

and I do hope that this is not the case, your brain responses are very different than mine.  我希望不会出现这种情况，那么，你们的大脑反应就会与我的非常不同。

But I also know that if you really understand me now,  但我也知道，若你此刻真正理解我所说的，

then your brain ... and your brain ... and your brain are really similar to mine. 那么，你的脑、你的脑和你的脑，就会与我的非常相似。

1 alignment   

n.队列；结盟，联合

参考例句：

• The church should have no political alignment.教会不应与政治结盟。
• Britain formed a close alignment with Egypt in the last century.英国在上个世纪与埃及结成了紧密的联盟。

2 code   

n.代码，代号，密码；法典，法规，规划

参考例句：

• What's the code for Tianjin?天津的代号是多少？
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

3 scan   

n.审视，浏览，扫描，押韵，细查；vt.细看，浏览，扫描，详细调查，信件扫描（指BBS处理直递邮件或会议邮件时，对所有或特定信区做检查的动作）

参考例句：

• The first scan was bad, so I had to do it again.第一次扫描不好，所以我得重做。
• A scan determines the position of the baby in the womb.扫描可以确定胎儿在子宮中的位置。

4 comprehending   

v.理解，领会( comprehend的现在分词 )；包括

参考例句：

• Nothing slipped past his vigilant ear, or his comprehending mind. 他的听觉非常灵敏，头脑反应很快，所以什么事都瞒不了他。 来自辞典例句
• This approach entails solving a problem by first comprehending it. 要运用这个方法去解决问题，首先要理解它。 来自辞典例句