VOA标准英语--专家发现大脑记忆的秘密

 

Brain Researchers Uncover Secrets of Memory

In Memorial-Hermann hospital at the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston, Neurosurgeon Nitin Tandon visits 26-year-old epilepsy patient Tyler.

Dr. Tandon has placed platinum¹ electrodes on the surface of Tyler's brain so that he can monitor electrical signals when Tyler is having a seizure².

"Before we can even understand how we would come up with prosthetic devices that we may be able to use to supplant³ certain brain functions that have been lost, we have to model those and understand those at a computational level," Tandon said.

Since such studies contribute to the understanding of epilepsy, Tyler is a willing participant.

"I think the more education there is about it, the better off the rest of the people will be," Tyler said.

Patients like Tyler have also contributed to a study of how the brain forms memories of events in terms of time and space.

“It has been a puzzle how the brain communicates both with the "where" and the "when" areas,” Tandon said.

Dr. Tandon had patients with implanted electrodes carry out learning tasks that involved both space and time to see how the brain handled the information.

"The way the brain does this, that it accomplishes communication with these two different areas at the same time, is by using two different frequencies coming from the same part of the brain, the hippocampus," he said.

The hippocampus is a structure on the lower side of the brain that regulates the formation of memories that are then stored in separate areas of the brain.

“It is very much like saying that you have a radio station that is sending out signals to two different groups of listeners at the same time and it does that by using two different frequencies,” Tandon said.

At the University of California, Davis, neuroscientist Arne Ekstrom analyzed⁴ data from the brain scans -- applying graph theory techniques used to study information flow.

He, Tandon and their colleagues hope to pursue this investigation⁵ in future studies.

Since memory loss is one of the problems associated with epilepsy, Dr. Tandon says this research holds promise for epileptics as well.

“We are setting ourselves up for being able to restore memory dysfunction much better than we have with these electrodes in patients with epilepsy and also, potentially, at some point, being able to restore normal network dynamics,” Tandon said.

Dr. Tandon hopes that one day such advances could help epileptic patients like Tyler lead more normal lives. 

1 platinum   

n.白金

参考例句：

• I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
• Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。

2 seizure   

n.没收；占有；抵押

参考例句：

• The seizure of contraband is made by customs.那些走私品是被海关没收的。
• The courts ordered the seizure of all her property.法院下令查封她所有的财产。

3 supplant   

vt.排挤；取代

参考例句：

• Electric cars may one day supplant petrol-driven ones.也许有一天电动车会取代汽油驱动的车。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

4 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。