６０秒科學

“60秒科學”是一個電臺節(jié)目，用一分鐘的時間為大家?guī)硇迈r、有趣的科學新聞，聽眾只需花一分鐘便能輕松掌握科技發(fā)展新方向。有些同學一看到補充句子的題目就頭疼，根據(jù)上文提示補充缺失的單詞似乎挺難辦的。然而，出人意料的是，原來我們的大腦每天都在進行這種猜謎游戲呢！一起來剖析個中原理吧！Got a minute?

While I’m talking， you’re not just passively listening. Your brain is also busy at work， guessing the next word that I will sa…vor before I actually speak it. You thought I was gonna say “say，” didn’t you? Our brains actually consider many possible words – and their meanings – before we’ve heard the final sound of the word in quest…of being understood.

Language comes flying at you at up to five syllables[音節(jié)] per second. So it was thought that listeners keep pace by anticipating[預期] a small subset[子集] of all words that the listener is familiar with. Think of how a Google search anticipates words based on the first few letters you type in. But now scientists have used functional magnetic resonance[共振] imaging to actually watch the brain consider different words. They report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that you narrow the choices by considering words that begin with the same sound. So if I say， “I tasted the sweetest can…” Your brain might already be priming[使準備好] itself to hear “candy.” Or maybe “cantaloupe[甜瓜].” But not “candle.” Who needs the Game Show Network注? You’re always playing Match Game in your head.

我在說話的時候，你并不僅僅是在被動地聽著 。你的大腦同樣也在忙碌地運轉著，在我說出下一個詞之前，猜想著我要……展示什么。你以為我要說“說”這個字，對吧？事實上，在我們聽到要獲得理解的這個詞的最后發(fā)音之前，我們的大腦會考慮很多有可能的詞語——還有它們的意義。

語言（詞匯）會以每秒高達五個音節(jié)的速度朝你的大腦襲來。因而，我們認為，傾聽者通過預先感應他們熟悉的所有詞語中的一部分，以保持與說話人同步。想象一下谷歌的搜索引擎是如何基于你首先鍵入的幾個字母來預見可能的詞語吧。不過，現(xiàn)在科學家已經使用功能磁共振成像技術來實際觀測大腦思考不同詞語組合的過程。他們把研究結果發(fā)表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上，指出人類是通過思考開頭發(fā)音相同的詞語來縮小選擇范圍的。所以，如果我說：“我品嘗到了一種最美味的特……”你的大腦可能已經把這個詞語整理成“糖果”，或者也有可能是“甜瓜”，卻不可能是“筒燭”。誰還需要收看“游戲節(jié)目網絡”頻道（GSN）呢？