时差N小时 大脑与记忆(上)

Did you ever wonder what occurs inside your body when something funny happens?

你有没有想过当有趣的事情发生时你身体里面会发生什么?

What is this thing we have in our brains that makes us say “ha-ha” when someone slips on a banana?

当有人踩到香蕉皮滑倒时我们大脑中是什么让我们发出“哈哈”的大笑声呢?

One way to find out is to watch the brain laugh.

寻找答案的其中一个方法就是观察大脑对于笑的反应。

That's pretty much what Dartmouth neuroscientist William Kelley did.

达特茅斯大学神经学家威廉·凯利所进行的就是这样的研究。

He and his team had a number of volunteers watch an episode¹ of Seinfeld while being monitored by an MRI-that's a machine that allows researchers to see which parts of the brain are active at any given time.

他和他的团队让志愿者们收看一集搞笑电视剧《宋飞正传》,而研究人员通过监控机器观察大脑的哪个部分在任何给定的时间是呈现活跃状态。

They then synchronized² the MRI data with the laugh track to see how the brain changes when it's registering something funny.

然后研究人员们将笑的数据同机器进行同步，进而跟踪观察有趣的事情发生时大脑的变化。

There's no one “funny center” in the brain–but the findings were pretty suggestive.

大脑中并非存在这样一个“有趣中心”，但这项研究结果却具有启发意义。

1 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

2 synchronized   

同步的

参考例句：

• Do not use the synchronized keyword in Managed Objects. 不要在管理对象上使用synchronized关键字。 来自互联网
• The timing of the gun was precisely synchronized with the turning of the plane's propeller. 风门的调速与飞机螺旋桨的转动精确同步。 来自辞典例句