TED演讲：拥有大脑的真正原因(9)

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　Because the tickle¹ sensation on the palm comes and goes, you need large numbers of subjects with these stars making them significant.  因为痒痒的感觉就像昙花一现，所以需要大量的试验者，还只能靠星级来给痒痒的程度打分。

　　So we were looking for a much more objective way to assess this phenomena².  所以我们需要一个更客观的办法来评估这个现象。

　　And in the intervening years I had two daughters.  其间几年中，我有了两个女儿。

　　And one thing you notice about children in backseats of cars on long journeys,  于是关于长途旅行里小孩子坐在后座上，你注意到一件事，

　　they get into fights -- which started with one of them doing something to the other, the other retaliating³.  那就是他们会互相掐架--开始于其中一个对另一个动了什么手脚，另一个就要还手。

　　It quickly escalates⁵. And children tend to get into fights which escalate⁴ in terms of force.  然后冲突很快就会升级。而小孩子们之间的冲突升级一般都体现在用力大小上。

　　Now when I screamed at my children to stop, sometimes they would both say to me the other person hit them harder. 于是我嚷嚷着叫我的孩子们住手的时候，有的时候她们俩都会告诉我，对方下手比自己更重。

　　Now I happen to know my children don't lie, so I thought, as a neuroscientist,  我恰好知道我的孩子们不会说假话，所以作为一个神经学家，

　　and it was important how I could explain how they were telling inconsistent truths.  我想我如何解释两人自相矛盾的真话应该是很重要的吧。

　　And we hypothesize based on the tickling⁶ study that when one child hits another, they generate the movement command.  于是我们根据挠痒痒的实验做出了假设，就是当一个孩子打另一个的时候，会生成动作命令。

　　They predict the sensory⁷ consequences and subtract it off.  他们预测出了感知到的结果，然后减掉了。

　　So they actually think they've hit the person less hard than they have -- rather like the tickling.  实际上他们以为他们下手比真正要轻，和挠痒的道理类似。

　　Whereas the passive recipient⁸ doesn't make the prediction, feels the full blow.  然而那个被打的孩子没有做预测，感觉到了全部的打击。

　　So if they retaliate⁹ with the same force, the first person will think it's been escalated¹⁰. 所以他们用同样这个打击的力气还手的话，第一个人会觉得力气变大，冲突升级了。

分享到：