科学家发现人类大脑有“记忆链条”

 　　Reminiscing with friends about the good old days may be fun, but it's unlikely to be accurate. Social pressure when recalling a shared event with somebody else who was also there causes false memories to be formed, according to scientists. People regularly replace their stored memory with the one that is recounted by a friend, a study claims。

　　回忆和朋友们在一起的欢乐时光绝对是令人愉悦的事情，但是人的记忆力不可能做到精确。科学家认为“社会压力”是造成人们形成错误的记忆链条的关键。

　　Researchers from University College London arranged for volunteers to watch a documentary film in small groups. Three days later, they returned to the lab individually to take a memory test, answering questions about the film. They were also asked how confident they were in their answers. They were later invited back to the lab to retake the test while the scientists scanned their brain activity. This time, the subjects were also given a 'lifeline' - the supposed answers of the others in their film viewing group, along with social media-style photos。

　　来自伦敦学院的研究员们安排了一组志愿者观看纪录片来进行实验，3天后，小组的每一个成员分别来到实验室来进行针对他们的记忆力的测试，测试他们对于看过的那部纪录片的记忆程度，以及需要回答他们对于测试的回答的信心程度。紧接着，他们被送到实验室重新开始测试，与此同时，科学家对他们的脑部活动进行扫描。

　　The participants conformed to the group on these 'planted' responses, giving incorrect answers nearly 70 per cent of the time。

　　实验显示，大量承受社会压力的志愿者在回答问题时，70%的答案是错误的。

　　The most outstanding feature of the false memories was a strong co-activation and connectivity between two brain areas - the hippocampus and the amygdala。

　　The hippocampus is known to play a role in long-term memory formation, while the amygdala, sometimes known as the emotion centre of the brain, plays a role in social interaction. The scientists think that the amygdala may act as a gateway¹ connecting the social and memory processing parts of our brain。

　　科学家分析，人体大脑中有两个区域“海马体”“杏仁核”对错误的记忆力有着“不可推卸的责任”，据悉，海马体主要负责学习和记忆，日常生活中的短期记忆都储存在海马体中，如果一个记忆片段，比如一个电话号码或者一个人在短时间内被重复提及的话海马体就会将其转存入大脑皮层，成为永久记忆。杏仁核，附着在海马的末端，呈杏仁状，是边缘系统的一部分。是产生情绪，识别情绪和调节情绪，控制学习和记忆的脑部组织，而且研究发现，幼儿自闭症似乎也与扩大的杏仁核有关。科学家认为杏仁核作为人脑中的“机动门”扮演着社会意识以及记忆力的链接角色。

1 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。