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This is Scientific American 60 Second Science, I am Sophie Bushwick, go a minute?

It’s tough to pick a familiar face out of a crowd—but focusing on a known voice in a noisy room is easy. And a new study scanned volunteers’ brains to look at how we solve the so-called cocktail¹ party problem. The work is in the journal Nature.

Researchers recorded the activity of the subject’s cerebral² cortexes while playing them sentences spoken by different voices. First, the subjects listened to individual sentences and reported key features of each one. Then, they heard two different sentences played at the same time, but had to listen to and recall details from only one voice.

Each voice drew a particular response from the auditory cortex. And even with an extra sentence playing simultaneously³, researchers saw that the cortex responded specifically to the voice that the subject was focusing on. This finding indicates that our brains process sound based not only on the audio input⁴ they receive, but also on our listening goals. And it could lead to speech recognition systems that are accurate in crowds—even at a cocktail party.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific Americans 60 second Science, I am Sophie Bushwick.

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1 cocktail
n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物
参考例句：
We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。 At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

2 cerebral
adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的
参考例句：
Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。 He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

3 simultaneously
adv.同时发生地，同时进行地
参考例句：
The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。 The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

4 input
n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机
参考例句：
I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。 All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。