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VOA慢速英语2013 音乐与人类大脑

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Music and The Human Brain 音乐与人类大脑

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. I’m Christopher Cruise. Today we tell about experiments at a major university in the United States. Northwestern University researchers are studying how music affects the human brain. Jim Tedder1 has the story.

It doesn’t matter whether you play a guitar, a piano, a horn, or a drum. And what kind of music you play is not important. Maybe you like to play classical music like this.

Or maybe you like to play this kind of music.

Or this…

Or even this…

Just play it! It will do good things for your body because…

“We’ve known for some time that playing a musical instrument can change the anatomy2 as well as the function and the way the brain works.” 

Nina Kraus is a professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, Illinois. She is also the head of the Auditory-Neuroscience Laboratory, where she investigates how music affects the human body.

Recently, she did tests in her lab using forty-five volunteers. Some of them had taken music classes and played an instrument, and others had not.

“People will play and study a musical instrument for some time in their lives and then that’s it! And we wanted to know did this early experience have a lasting3 effect on the way the nervous system responded to sound.”

Professor Kraus began by gently placing electrodes onto the heads of the volunteers. The wires from these electrical devices were then connected to a computer.

“Nerves in your brain that respond to sound give off electricity, and we can capture that electricity, and we can determine how does your nervous system respond to speech, to music, to elements of sound that we think are important for communication.” 

One of the simplest sounds played for the volunteers was “da”. Listen carefully because the sound is very short and quick.

Here is the sound again.

After the human brain processed the sound, it sounded like this.

That sound came through the computer and was played on a speaker. Again…

The volunteers also heard other sounds, like this music from the British rock group Deep Purple. Here is a very small part of the song “Smoke on the Water.”  Listen carefully.

Now, here is what it sounded like on a speaker after going through the brain of a volunteer.

The second sound is not as clear as the first, but it provided the information needed to be studied on a computer screen.  Ms. Kraus says she could see an important difference in the way the processed sounds looked.

“These young adults who received formal music instruction as children had more robust4 neural5 responses to sound than peers who had never participated in music lessons.”  

She says she could look at the computer screen and easily see who was a musician, and who was not. The computer screen’s graph, or picture of the sound, was larger for the volunteers who played music.

Every sound we hear has a main or “fundamental” frequency. This helps us determine the “pitch”. In music, that helps us decide if one sound, or musical note, is higher or lower than another. So, for a musician…

“The responses to this fundamental frequency that carries pitch information was simply larger in magnitude. The voltages, the electrical activity, was larger in response to these pitch elements.” 

Professor Kraus says the people tested in the experiment could have been listening to any kind of sound, or any kind of music. They could even have been asleep. She could still see how their brains were understanding and identifying what they were hearing.

So now we know that the brains of musicians are different from those of other people. What is the big deal? Why is this important? According to Nina Kraus, that matters a lot as we get older. Many people notice that, as the years go by, their hearing gets worse. Just hearing an old friend’s voice in a noisy place can be difficult. But if you have ever played a musical instrument…

“Your nervous system automatically gets good at responding to sounds that the brain has learned are important.”  

So … … …

“If you’re talking to me in a noisy restaurant and my nervous system is very good at locking onto the sound of your voice, then I’m going to be better able to understand what it is that you say.” 

The research at Northwestern University shows that playing a musical instrument is good for your brain. And although our ears may not work as well as we age, the brain remembers how to “lock onto” the important sounds. And that helps us to hear better. 

“Musicians become quite good a being able to pull out the part of the sound that they are interested in listening to. For example, the sound of their own instrument.” 

And there is something else good about playing music…if I could only remember… 

Oh, yes! Our brains get better at remembering things. When we play a piano, for instance, we force our brains to remember the note we just played. If your brain could talk, it might ask itself, is that the right sound? Or is it this one? Should I play the notes like this? Or this? Does this sound better with a major chord…a happier sound? Or a minor6 chord, a sadder sound?

Ms. Kraus says when we play a musical instrument we are exercising and making important electrical connections, or pathways, in our brains. This might even help our brains when we are trying to learn another language, or a new subject in school. So, if learning to play a simple song is good, is it better to try to learn to play something much more complex, like Bach or Chopin, for example? Professor Kraus says she has yet to test that proposal, but …

“We know that pushing ourselves, physically7 or intellectually, is very good for the development of the nervous system. Certainly the more challenging the task and the more engaging the task, the stronger the connections are likely to be.” 

Over 20 years ago, a French scientist wrote about what he called the “Mozart Effect”. He said that just listening to the classical music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could help the human brain. Some researchers said that Mozart’s music would make you smarter, or even help your brain cure some health disorders8. Others said that there was nothing special about Mozart’s music. Any kind of high energy music would work. So if the cost of a musical instrument or music lessons is too costly9, can we get the same brain experience just by listening? Ms. Kraus says…no.

“Usually people do have teachers, or they can teach themselves. But the point is they’re actively10 playing a musical instrument. They’re actively engaging in making music. We’re not talking about the effects of simply passively listening to music. I like to give the analogy that you are not going to get physically fit by watching spectator sports.” 

Professor Kraus thinks it would be a very good thing if young people around the world could take music lessons in school. Even in difficult economic times, she urges school teachers and the administrators11 who control the money, not to cut back on musical training. 

“Music, beyond being inherently a wonderful activity in and of itself, seems to confer benefits that extend outside the music domain12, and extend into areas that are very, very important for human communication.” 

There is much more about Nina Kraus’ work at her website: brainvolts.northwestern.edu. She is sure that playing a musical instrument is a really good and important thing to do. It is fun, and it helps your brain, now and in the future. 

“I’m a biologist and I study learning. Whether it’s music or anything that we engage in, we are what we do. And our nervous system really changes according to how we spend our time.” 

This program was written and presented by Jim Tedder. I’m Christopher Cruise. You can find transcripts13, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at learningenglish.voanews.com. And you can find us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science on the Voice of America.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tedder 2833afc4f8252d8dc9f8cd73b24db55d     
n.(干草)翻晒者,翻晒机
参考例句:
  • Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆?特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
  • Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆?泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网
2 anatomy Cwgzh     
n.解剖学,解剖;功能,结构,组织
参考例句:
  • He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面,他有过许多发现。
  • The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。
3 lasting IpCz02     
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持
参考例句:
  • The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
  • We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
4 robust FXvx7     
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的
参考例句:
  • She is too tall and robust.她个子太高,身体太壮。
  • China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道,中国希望保持经济强势增长,以减少贫困和失业状况。
5 neural DnXzFt     
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。
6 minor e7fzR     
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
参考例句:
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
7 physically iNix5     
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律
参考例句:
  • He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服,心绪也很乱。
  • Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。
8 disorders 6e49dcafe3638183c823d3aa5b12b010     
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调
参考例句:
  • Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告,厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 costly 7zXxh     
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的
参考例句:
  • It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
  • This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用,左不过贵了些。
10 actively lzezni     
adv.积极地,勤奋地
参考例句:
  • During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
  • We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。
11 administrators d04952b3df94d47c04fc2dc28396a62d     
n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 );有管理(或行政)才能的人;(由遗嘱检验法庭指定的)遗产管理人;奉派暂管主教教区的牧师
参考例句:
  • He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员,但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
  • Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
12 domain ys8xC     
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围
参考例句:
  • This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
  • This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。
13 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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