英语听力精选进阶版 13924

Scientists hope to record dreams

Summary

29 October 2010

US researchers say they want to record dreams electronically. Writing in the journal¹ Nature, scientists in California developed a system that can record a higher level brain activity. The lead researcher believes that it could possibly be used to study dreams.

Reporter:

Pallab Ghosh

Report

The idea of a machine recording² dreams sounds fanciful but a research team in California is to explore whether it might be possible, at least in a limited way.

A study by the team suggests that the activity of individual brain cells, or neurons, is associated with specific objects: for example when a volunteer was thinking of the actress Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron lit up.

By showing volunteers a series of images, the team was able to identify neurons associated with a wide range of objects and concepts³.

The next step for the researchers is to see whether they can make sense of the brain waves of sleeping volunteers and if so, whether they correlate⁴ with the accounts of the volunteers' actual dreams.

Pallab Ghosh, BBC News

1 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 concepts   

n.概念( concept的名词复数 )；观念；想法；总的印象

参考例句：

• He speaks in concepts rather than specifics. 他讲话时尽用抽象概念，而不谈具体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The word "beauty" comprehends various concepts. “美”这个词包括许多概念。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 correlate   

n.相互关联的事物；v.（with，to）（使）互相关联

参考例句：

• These figures seem to correlate.这些数字看来是相关的。
• Research workers find it hard to correlate the two sets of figures.研究人员发现很难使这两组数字互相关连。