首页
登录
职称英语
Scientists have long believed that constructing memories is like playing with
Scientists have long believed that constructing memories is like playing with
游客
2023-12-12
9
管理
问题
Scientists have long believed that constructing memories is like playing with neurological toys. Exposed to a barrage of sensations from the outside world, we connect together brain cells to form new patterns of electrical connections that stand for images, smells, touches and sounds.
The most unshakable part of this belief is that the neurons used to build these memory circuits are depletable resource, like petroleum or gold. We are each given a finite number of cells, and the supply gets smaller each year. That is certainly how it feels as memories blur with middle age and it gets harder and harder to learn new things. Maybe it’s time for this notion to be forgotten-or at least radically revised.
In the past two years, a series of confusing experiments has forced scientific researchers to rethink this and other assumptions about how memory works. The perplexing results of these experiments remind scientists how much they have to learn about one of the last great mysteries-how the brain keeps a record of our individual passage through life, allowing us to carry the past inside our head.
This much seems clear: the traces of memory-or engrams as neuroscientists call them-are first forged deep inside the brain in an area called the hippocampus. This area stores the engrams temporarily until they are transferred somehow (perhaps during sleep) to permanent storage sites throughout the cerebral cortex. This area, located behind the forehead, is often described as the center of intelligence and perception. Here, as in the hippocampus, the information is thought to reside in the form of neurological scribbles, clusters of connected cells.
Until now our old view of brain functionality has been that these patterns ate constructed from the supply of neurons that have been in place since birth. New memories don’t require new neurons-just new ways of connecting the old ones together. Retrieving a memory is a matter of activating one of these circuits, coaxing the original stimulus back to life.
The picture appears very sensible. The billions of neurons in a single brain can be arranged in countless combinations, providing more than enough clusters to record even the richest life. If adult brains were cranking out new neurons as easily ad skin and bone from new cells, it would serve only to scramble memory’s delicate ornamental pattern.
Studies with adult monkeys in the mid-1960s seemed to support the belief that the supply of neurons is fixed at birth. Therefore the surprise when Elizabeth Gould and Charles Gross of Princeton University reported last year that the monkeys they studied seemed to be producing thousands of new neurons a day in the hippocampus of their brain. Even more surprising, Gould and Gross found evidence that a steady stream of the fresh cells may be continually moving to the cerebral cortex.
No one is quite sure what to make of these findings. There had already been hints that spawning of brain cells, a process called neurogenesis, occurs in animals with more primitive nervous systems. For years, Fernando Nottebohm of Rockefeller University has been showing that canaries create a new batch of neurons every time they learn a song, then slough them off when it’s time to change tunes.
But it was widely assumed that in mammals and especially primates this manufacture of new brain parts had long ago been phased out by evolution. With a greater need to store memories for a long time, these creatures would need to ensure that the engrams weren’t disrupted by interloping new cells. [br] How does the brain function according to the old view?
选项
A、The traces of memory are made in an area called hippocampus.
B、The hippocampus stores long-term memory.
C、The hippocampus is located behind the forehead.
D、The information is stored in only the hippocampus, not in cerebral cortex.
答案
D
解析
推理题。此题题干的问题可以在第五段开头找到,但是答案却要看回第四段,这是上段说明下段来总结的例子,答案可以在“This much seems clear: the traces of memory-or engrams as neuroscientists call them-are first forged deep inside the brain in an area called the hippocampus.This area stores the engrams temporarily until they are transferred somehow(perhaps during sleep)to permanent storage sites throughout the cerebral codex.”推断得出D。其他三个选项有提及,但均不是题干答案内容。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3267814.html
相关试题推荐
Whenscientistsfirstwarnedinthe1970sthatCFCscouldattackozone,the
WhatarethescientistsattheUniversityofCaliforniadoingtohelppatientsb
ScientistsdiscoveredthegeneticsecretoftheBlackDeathby[originaltext]
Scientistsstudytheworldinwhichwelive.Theydothisbycuriosityandt
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
Scientistsfordecadeshaveclashedoverwhetherevolutiontakesplacegrad
随机试题
[originaltext]Theestimatedone-fifthofchildreninLondon’sschoolswhoc
Tobestprotectthreatenedplants,inefficientnationalparksshouldbesold
假定一个人是严格风险规避型的,拥有初始财富w,但是也有概率为π的可能性损失D元钱
滴丸剂具有哪些优点?
不符合非ST段抬高性心肌梗死特点的是 A.梗死范围未达心肌全层B.病程中始终
可转换公司债券应()至少公告一次跟踪评级报告。A:在存款期间B:每半年C:每
下述使用阿托品解救有机磷中毒的注意事项中,正确的是A.阿托品中毒给予颠茄碱可拮抗
(2020年真题)根据证券法律制度的规定,下列关于证券信息披露的表述中,不正确的
电解CuCl2水溶液,以石墨作电极,则在阳极上()。A.析出Cu B.析出
(2021年真题)下列设备基础中,属于按使用功能划分的是()A.垫层基础
最新回复
(
0
)