My topic today is the human brain and its relation with language.
The human brain contains an average of ten billion neurons, ог nerve cells, each of which is linked with one thousand to ten thousand other neurons. These nerve cells participate in countless electrical microcircuits which make possible thought, perception, communication, and other types of mental activity.
The outside surface of the brain, which is known as the cortex, consists of a thin wrinkled mantle of gray tissue made up of millions of neurons. This layer of the brain represents man's relatively recent evolutionary step in neurological development and is not present to a comparable degree in any other species.
Many of the cognitive abilities that distinguish humans from other mammals reside in the cortex. These cognitive abilities include sophisticated reasoning, linguistic skills and musical ability.
我今天要講的題目是人的大腦及其與語言的關(guān)系。
人的大腦平均有100億個神經(jīng)元，或者叫做神經(jīng)細(xì)胞。每個神經(jīng)元與1千至1萬個其他神經(jīng)元相連。神經(jīng)元從事著不可悉數(shù)的微電路脈沖活動，并由此產(chǎn)生思維、感覺、交流以及其他一些腦力活動。
大腦的外表層叫做腦皮層，腦皮層很薄，有褶皺，是一層由數(shù)以百萬計的神經(jīng)元組成的灰色組織。腦皮層代表著人類在其神經(jīng)發(fā)展的歷史長河中近期的一次進(jìn)化，任何其他物種的腦皮層都無法與人類的腦皮層相提并論。
將人與其他哺乳動物區(qū)別開來的許多認(rèn)知能力,如復(fù)雜的推理能力、語言技能以及音樂技能,都屬于腦皮層的工作。
The brain is divided into two roughly symmetrical hemispheres, sometimes called right and left brains. The activity of the two hemispheres is coordinated by a number of interconnecting nerve pathways.
The two sides of the brain, while fairly comparable in size and form, appear to specialize in handling various tasks. Current evidence suggests that the left and right hemispheres differ in some way in their function. For example, specialized linguistic and perceptual skills are each associated with a particular hemisphere of the brain. In most individuals, the left hemisphere has primary responsibility for language, while the right hemisphere controls visual and spatial skills as well as the perception of nonlinguistic sounds and musical melodies.
整個大腦分為兩個大致對稱的半球，有時被稱為右半腦和左半腦。一些互為連接的神經(jīng)束對這兩個腦半球的活動進(jìn)行協(xié)調(diào)。
大腦的兩個半球雖然有著相像的尺寸和形狀，卻各司其職。據(jù)目前所知，兩個腦半球有著不同的功能。例如，語言能力和感知能力隸屬于不同的半球。大多數(shù)人的左半球負(fù)責(zé)語言操作，而右半球則掌管與視覺和空間相關(guān)的技能，負(fù)責(zé)對非語言聲音以及音樂旋律的感知。
Both hemispheres of the brain are involved in control over muscular activity as well as in sight and hearing. However, each hemisphere controls these activities for the opposite side of the body. Thus the right side of the brain is responible for the movement of the left arm and leg, while the left hemisphere controls the movement of the right arm and leg. This is why someone who suffers damage to the right side of the brain will exhibit paralysis on the left side of the body.
You may ask which part of the brain is responsible for linguistic communication. Although there is no final answer to this question, studies have shown that the language center is located primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain in well over 90% of right-handers, who themselves make up about 90% of the population. Although the figure is somewhat lower for left-handers, about 60%, it is clear that the left side of the brain is somehow special as far as language is concerned.
Scientists believe that left-brain dominance in linguistic functions appears to exist prior to birth. It is now known that a portion of the left brain that is crucial to language is larger in fetuses than the corresponding portion of the right brain. This asymmetry is maintained throughout life.
So much for this session. May I stop to take your questions?
大腦的兩半球都掌管肌肉活動,并負(fù)責(zé)視覺和聽覺活動，不過每個半球只控制身體另一側(cè)的活動。因此右半球只負(fù)責(zé)身體左半側(cè)的活動，左半球只負(fù)責(zé)身體右半側(cè)的活動。這就是為什么右半球受傷者的身體左半側(cè)會癱瘓的原因。
也許你會問，負(fù)責(zé)語言交際活動的究竟是大腦的哪一部分?這個問題雖未有最終結(jié)論，但是研究表明，占了人口總數(shù)90%的人為右利手(即慣用右手者)，而在右利手人群中 90%以上其語言中樞位于左半球。左半球有語言中樞的人在左利手(即慣用左手者)的群體中比例較低，約占60%，盡管如此，他們大腦的左半球因某種原因具有專轄語言的功能。
科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，左半球具有的語言優(yōu)勢特征似乎在嬰兒出生前就存在了。據(jù)目前所知，與語言功能密切相關(guān)的左半球，其某一部分在胎兒期就比右半球的相應(yīng)部分要大一些。這種大小不對稱現(xiàn)象將伴隨人的一生。
我的報告講完了，下面請大家提問。
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