2018年经济学人 “一孕傻三年”有科学依据(2)

 

Pregnancy¹, then, does indeed do things to a woman’s brain.

那么怀孕确实对母亲的大脑有影响。

But what exactly those things mean is hard to tease out.

但是具体对大脑有什么影响很难弄清。

Neuroscientists do not really understand how the brain works.

神经系统科学家还未弄清大脑是如何工作的。

That makes it difficult to predict how a change in the organ’s structure will alter the way it functions.

这致使科学家很难预测器官结构的变化是如何改变其功能。

Some of the changes took place in the hippocampi.

这些变化也包括海马体的变化。

These are a pair of small, banana-shaped structures buried deep in the brain, one in each hemisphere, that are known to be important for forming memories.

海马体是大脑深处分处两个半球的一对香蕉型的小组织。众所周知海马体在记忆形成方面有非常重要的作用。

Administering a few simple cognitive² tests to the new mothers—including tests of memory—revealed no obvious changes in performance.

他们对一些新妈妈进行了一些包括记忆力测试在内的简单认知测试，测试显示她们的感知能力并没有明显的变化。

And the hippocampi had partially³ regrown within two years.

并且海马体的某些部位在两年内会再生。

But DrHoekzema and her colleagues point out that most of the more permanent reductions in grey matter happened across several parts of the brain that,

但是赫克塞马博士和她的同事们指出，大部分的灰质永久性减少是发生在大脑的一些区域，

in other experiments, have been found to be associated with the processing of social information, and with reasoning about other people’s states of mind.

在其他的实验中，她们发现大脑中的这些区域与处理社会信息以及推测其他人的心理状态密切相关。

That would make sense from an evolutionary⁴ point of view.

从进化的角度来看，这是有道理的。

Human babies are helpless, and, in order to care for one, a mother must be good at inferring what it needs.

人类的婴儿是弱小的，为了照顾他们，母亲必须善于判断他们的需要。

The rewiring may also affect how well women bond with their infants.

神经的重塑也可能影响母亲与新生儿的联系。

After the women in DrHoekzema’s study had given birth, the research team administered a standard psychological test designed to measure how attached those women had become to their babies.

参与DrHoekzema研究的女性分娩后，研究团队进行了一项标准心理测试，旨在测量这些女性对其婴儿的依恋程度。

The ones with the greatest reductions in grey-matter volume were, on the whole, the most strongly bonded⁵.

总体上，脑灰质体积减少最大的对婴儿的依恋程度最强。

Ascribing all this to a reduction in grey-matter volume, rather than an increase, sounds counter-intuitive.

将所有这一切归因于脑灰质体积的减少而不是增加听起来好像不对。

But DrHoekzema reckons it is probably evidence of a process called synaptic pruning⁶, in which little-used connections between neurons are allowed to wither⁷ away, while the most-used become stronger.

但是DrHoekzema猜想这可能是突触修剪过程的证据。在突触修剪过程中神经元之间很少使用的连接逐渐萎缩，而最常用的连接则变得更强。

That is thought to make neural⁸ circuitry more efficient, not less so.

这样可以提高而非降低脑回路的效率。

She points out that the surge of sex hormones⁹ people experience during adolescence¹⁰ is thought to cause a great deal of synaptic pruning, moulding a child’s brain into an adult one.

她指出青少年期间性激素的激增会造成大规模的突触修剪从而将儿童的大脑塑造成成人的。

So it is reasonable to assume that the even greater hormonal¹¹ surge experienced during pregnancy might have a similar effect.

因此推测怀孕期间更强的激素激增可能具有类似的效果是合理的。

When it comes to the brain, after all, bigger is not necessarily better.

毕竟当谈到大脑，更大不一定意味着更好。

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 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。

3 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

4 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

5 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

6 pruning   

n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分

参考例句：

• In writing an essay one must do a lot of pruning. 写文章要下一番剪裁的工夫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A sapling needs pruning, a child discipline. 小树要砍，小孩要管。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 wither   

vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡

参考例句：

• She grows as a flower does-she will wither without sun.她象鲜花一样成长--没有太阳就会凋谢。
• In autumn the leaves wither and fall off the trees.秋天，树叶枯萎并从树上落下来。

8 neural   

adj.神经的，神经系统的

参考例句：

• The neural network can preferably solve the non- linear problem.利用神经网络建模可以较好地解决非线性问题。
• The information transmission in neural system depends on neurotransmitters.信息传递的神经途径有赖于神经递质。

9 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

10 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

11 hormonal   

adj.激素的

参考例句：

• Some viral diseases are more severe during pregnancy, probably tecause of hormonal changes. 有些病毒病在妊娠期间比较严重，可能是由于激素变化引起的。
• She underwent surgical intervention and a subsequent short period of hormonal therapy. 他接受外科手术及随后短暂荷尔蒙治疗。