美国国家公共电台 NPR Heat Making You Lethargic? Research Shows It Can Slow Your Brain, Too

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

For now, we’re going to turn to a story about a heat wave that is affecting much of the country this summer. NPR’s Allison Aubrey reports that all of this warmth can slow us down in ways we might not even realize.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE¹: Angela Montes (ph) is in her mid-30s and very fit. Right now, she's training for Ragnar, a long-distance relay² race. So when she went on a training run one afternoon last week in Oakland, Calif., where she lives, she never guessed that the unusually hot day would give her any trouble.

ANGELA MONTES: Two and a half miles in, I just started feeling really dizzy and nauseous. More than anything, I was just really, really nauseous, and then I just started vomiting³.

AUBREY: After a few hours of rest in a cool place, she felt OK. But she says she was taken aback by the experience.

MONTES: When I imagine a heatstroke or heat-related illness, I actually imagine workers that are out working on the roads or farmers that are outside for hours a day.

AUBREY: Outdoor workers are at risk, but they can be more acclimated⁴ to the heat and may take precautions, such as staying hydrated. Jack⁵ Der-Sarkissian is a family doctor with Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. He's seen a lot of cases of heat-related illness similar to Angela Montes, people who work and live in air-conditioned spaces and are caught off guard when they exercise during a heat wave.

JACK DER-SARKISSIAN: Under normal conditions, they would feel fine, but under the heat, humidity⁶, felt really ill. So that kind of came unexpectedly, and they think something else is going on.

AUBREY: It's not just our bodies that can feel lethargic⁷ during a heat wave. A new study from the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard finds high temperatures can muddle⁸ our thinking, too. Here's Joseph Allen, the co-director of the center. He says research on heat-related health effects tend to focus on the elderly, but this study is different.

JOSEPH ALLEN: Here, what we were interested in doing was trying to look at, what's the impact on a young, healthy, resilient population?

AUBREY: They studied students living in college dorms during a summer heat wave in Boston. Half of them lived in buildings that had central AC. The other half lived in dorms that did not.

ALLEN: So during the entire study, in the morning when they woke up, we pushed cognitive⁹ function tests out to their cellphones, and we have them take these standardized¹⁰ cognitive performance tests.

AUBREY: One was basic arithmetic. Another is designed to measure attention and cognitive speed.

ALLEN: And we found that the students who were in the non-air-conditioned buildings actually had slower reaction times - 13 percent longer reaction times, 13 percent lower performance on basic arithmetic tests and nearly 10 percent reduction in the number of correct responses per minute.

AUBREY: Now, the temperature difference was not huge - about 80 degrees in the un-air-conditioned dorms compared to 71 degrees in the modern dorms. But the surprise is that this difference in temperature can have a significant effect. Allen says people don't sense that their thinking has slowed down. It's subtle¹¹.

ALLEN: I think it's a little bit akin¹² to the frog in boiling water - this slow, steady, largely imperceptible rise in temperature, and you don't realize it's having an impact on you.

AUBREY: There's a growing body of evidence that documents the impact of heat on performance both in schools and workplaces. For instance, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that when office temperatures rise above the mid-70s, workers' performance begins to drop off a bit. And Allen and his colleagues have documented similar results.

ALLEN: When indoor temperature conditions are not in typically comfortable range, we perform 5 percent worse on cognitive function tests. So that's an impact you see just in a regular office building without even extreme temperature ranges.

AUBREY: Now, slowing down a bit is part of the fun of summer, so on weekends and vacations when we want to relax, we benefit from that, but at school and work, maybe not so much. So as our climate changes, Allen says, we need to be more aware of all the ways heat can influence our health and well-being¹³. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 relay   

n.接力赛，中继转播（设备）；vt.转述，转播

参考例句：

• They will relay your message.他们会转达你的口信。
• This metal tower is used to relay television signals to distant villages.这个金属塔是用于向遥远的村子转播电视讯号的。

3 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

4 acclimated   

v.使适应新环境，使服水土服水土，适应( acclimate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The rice has been acclimated in this area. 水稻已能适应这一地区的环境。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Have you become acclimated to Taiwan yet? 你已适应台湾的环境了吗？ 来自辞典例句

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 humidity   

n.湿度，潮湿，湿气

参考例句：

• The house is not comfortable tonight ,because of the high humidity.由于湿度高，今晚屋子里不舒服。
• It's difficult to work because of the humidity.由于空气潮湿，工作很困难。

7 lethargic   

adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的

参考例句：

• He felt too miserable and lethargic to get dressed.他心情低落无精打采，完全没有心思穿衣整装。
• The hot weather made me feel lethargic.炎热的天气使我昏昏欲睡。

8 muddle   

n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱

参考例句：

• Everything in the room was in a muddle.房间里每一件东西都是乱七八糟的。
• Don't work in a rush and get into a muddle.克服忙乱现象。

9 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

10 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

11 subtle   

adj.难于觉察或描述的，精巧的

参考例句：

• Her whole attitude had undergone a subtle change.她的整个态度发生了微妙的变化。
• There's a subtle hint of garlic in the sauce.调味汁里稍微有一点蒜味。

12 akin   

adj.同族的，类似的

参考例句：

• She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.她画一些同早期女画家类似的花鸟画。
• Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.听他的人生故事犹如阅读一本精彩的冒险小说。

13 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。