大腦的秘密

Your brain controls everything you do. It makes it possible for you to think， learn， create and feel， to blink1 and breathe and for your heart to beat—this fantastic2 control center is your brain. It is so amazing3 that a famous scientist once called it“the most complex4 thing we have yet discovered in our universe5”.

你的大腦控制你所做的一切。它可以讓你思考、學習、創造和感覺，讓你眨眼和呼吸，甚至讓你的心臟跳動——這個神奇的控制中心就是你的大腦。它是如此的神奇，一位著名的科學家曾經把它稱為“我們在宇宙中發現的最復雜的存在”。

Can this small grey organ6， which weighs less than one and a half kilos， really do so much？ Amazingly， your brain contains about 100 billion neurons7—it would take you over 3，000 years to count them all. Believe it or not， the activity in your brain never stops. Your neurons create and send more message than all the phones in the world. And although one neuron creates only a little electricity， all your neurons together can produce enough electricity to power a light bulb8.

這個小小的灰色的器官，重量不到1.5公斤，真的可以做如此多的事情嗎？令人驚訝的是，你的大腦含有大約1000億個神經元——你需要3000多年才能將它們數完。信不信由你，你大腦里的活動從未停止過。你的神經元創建和發送的信息比世界上所有的電話發送的信息還要多。雖然一個神經元只產生一點點電，你所有的神經元共同產生的電力足夠供一個燈泡發亮。

So exactly how fast does your brain work？ Well， imagine this： A bee lands on your foot. Neurons in your skin send this information to your brain at a speed of more than 240 kilometers per hour. Your brain then uses other neurons to send the message back to your foot to shake the bee off quickly. These neurons can send this information at more than 320 kilometers per hour. No computer has your brains unbelievable9 ability to deal with the amount10 of information coming from your eyes， ears and other sensory11 organs.

那么你的大腦工作起來到底有多快呢？好吧，想象一下：一只蜜蜂落在你的腳上。在你皮膚上的神經元以超過240公里的時速將這些信息發送到你的大腦。然后大腦用其他的神經元將信息發送回你的腳，讓你迅速擺脫蜜蜂。這些神經元可以以超過320公里的時速來給你發送這些信息。沒有一臺計算機能有大腦這般令人難以置信的能力來處理來自你的眼睛、耳朵和其他感覺器官的大量的信息。

But how does your brain allow you to learn things that you will use in the future？ The structure12 of your brain changes every time you have a new thought， remember or learn something. For example， riding a bike seems impossible at first， but soon you are able to do it. How？ As you practice， your brain sends “bike riding” messages again and again. Soon， the actions are learned and you are able to ride a bike easily from then on.

但是，你的大腦如何讓你學習一些你在未來會用到的技能呢？當你有一個新的想法、記憶或學新東西的時候，你的大腦結構會發生變化。例如，一開始，騎自行車看起來是不可能做到的，但很快你就能夠做到。怎么做到的呢？當你練習時，你的大腦一次又一次的發出“騎自行車”的信息。很快，這項技能你就學會了，并且從那時候開始，你就能輕而易舉地騎自行車了。