VOA慢速英语2010年-Health Report - Study Adds to Understa

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A new study suggests that the brain is even more complex than scientists have recognized

A new study of the brain is helping¹ scientists better understand how humans process language. The study is being done in San Diego, Boston and New York.

One of the patients is a woman with epilepsy. Doctors are monitoring Denise Harris to see if she is a good candidate for an operation that could stop her seizures². They are monitoring her through wire electrodes implanted in her brain.

But while she is in the hospital, she is also helping scientists understand how the brain works with language. The study centers on a part of the frontal lobe³ called Broca's area. Pierre Paul Broca was a nineteenth century French doctor. He first recognized the big part that this small area plays in language.

The electrode implants⁴ have shown that the area very quickly processes three different language functions. Eric Halgren at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine is one of the main investigators⁵. He says they found different regions doing, at different times, different processes all within a centimeter.

The first function deals with recognizing a word. The second deals with understanding the word's meaning within a sentence. And the third lets us speak the word.

Harvard University brain expert Steven Pinker is another author of the study. A report on the work appeared in the journal Science. Ned Sahin, a researcher at Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, was the first author of the paper. He says scientists have known for some time that traditional explanations for how parts of the brain work need to be changed.

One such belief is that there is a separation of language tasks between two very different parts of the brain. One is Broca's area at the front. The other is Wernicke's area farther back in the brain. That area is named after the nineteenth century German neurologist Carl Wernicke.

The belief is that Broca's area is responsible for speaking and that Wernicke's area is responsible for comprehending. But the new study shows that Broca's area is involved in both speaking and comprehension. Neil Sahin says this shows how parts of the brain perform more than one task.

NEIL SAHIN: "Because here's an example of one relatively⁶ small part of the brain that's doing three very different things at three different times, but all within the space of a quarter of a second."

Yet, even with new findings like these, much about the brain still remains⁷ a mystery -- at least for now.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, with reporting by Mike O'Sullivan. I'm Jim Tedder⁸.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 seizures   

n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物

参考例句：

• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year. 今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other causes of unconsciousness predisposing to aspiration lung abscess are convulsive seizures. 造成吸入性肺脓肿昏迷的其他原因，有惊厥发作。 来自辞典例句

3 lobe   

n.耳垂，（肺，肝等的）叶

参考例句：

• Tiny electrical sensors are placed on your scalp and on each ear lobe.小电器传感器放置在您的头皮和对每个耳垂。
• The frontal lobe of the brain is responsible for controlling movement.大脑前叶的功能是控制行动。

4 implants   

n.（植入身体中的）移植物( implant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters. 激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Perhaps the most far-reaching project is an initiative called Living Implants From Engineering (LIFE). 也许最具深远意义的项目，是刚刚启动的建造活体移植工程 (LIFE)。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

5 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网