[彭蒙惠英语] 人类心思看得更透(1)
A Clearer View of the Human Mind (1/3)
Mind reading has become a serious scientific endeavor. How is it done? With a gigantic magnet!
At 40 tons, the new functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine at the University of Illinois at Chicago is one of the world's Largest and most powerful. What really sets it apart is its ability to track the firing of individual neurons in the brain-that is, to watch thoughts form in real time.
That capability could be a boon to diagnosing and treating strokes, Alzheimer's disease, autism , schizophrenia and other mental disorders. It also could help people become smarter by discovering how the brain learns best. And it could aid scientists in building intelligent computers that function more along the lines of the brain.
Read your thoughts
The ultimate goal, however, said Dr. Keith Thulborn, director of the Center for MR Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which houses the magnet, is to be able to find out what people are thinking.
" We'd like to get to the stage of reading thoughts," he said. "At the moment all we can do is look at the response of the brain to a particular stimulus. The next step, which we'd all like to get to, is what actually has been processed. Is it the time of day? Is he actually reading a sentence? Which word in the sentence is he understanding?"
Magnetic strength
Magnetic resonance machines have revolutionized brain in the last 20 years because of their ability to provide exquisite pictures of the brain's structure and broad function. The biggest MRI machines typically used in medical research generate a field of up to 3 tesla, a measure of magnetic strength.
Vocabulary Focus
boon (n) ---something that is very helpful and improves the quality of life
stimulus (n) ---something that causes growth or activity
exquisite (adj) ---describing qualities that are extremely good; great
Specialized Terms
Magnetic resonance imaging (n phr) --- 磁共振成像 a medical diagnostic technique that works by putting the patient inside a type of magnet and then using radio waves to obtain images of the body's soft tissues
neuron (n) --- 神经元 a nerve cell that carries information between the brain and other parts of the body
