我们能记录自己的梦境吗？：英语精读讲义

Dreams are an amazing phenomenon and considering you spend roughly six years of your life dreaming, 語法

梦是一种神奇的现象；想想看，你一生中大约有六年都在做梦，

it's quite curious that we often brush them aside to be quickly forgotten. 短語動詞

我们却常常把梦抛到脑后，任其迅速被遗忘，这实在令人好奇。

Night after night our brains go to work and bring us some of the most incredible, 短語搭配

一夜又一夜，我们的大脑开始运转，为我们带来一些最不可思议、

bizarre,

最古怪，

and often seemingly random imagery and story lines.

而且往往看似毫无章法的画面和情节。

But what are dreams?

但梦究竟是什么？

And like the many science fiction stories or movies,

就像许多科幻故事或电影中描绘的那样，

could we ever record and figure out what we're seeing while we're dreaming? 短語動詞

我们有没有可能记录并弄清自己做梦时看到了什么？

You may have heard people referring to brain waves before,

你或许听人提到过脑电波，

but have you ever stopped to think, 語法

但你是否曾停下来想过：

are these actual waves and do they carry information?

它们真的是波吗，又是否携带信息？

Are brain waves similar to, say, radio waves? 表達脈絡

脑电波和无线电波之类的波相似吗？

The answer is yes.

答案是肯定的。

Both brain and radio waves are forms of electromagnetic radiation,

脑电波和无线电波都是电磁辐射的一种形式，

waves that travel at the speed of light.

都是以光速传播的波。

Every time you think,

每当你思考时，

thousands of neurons fire at the same frequency and generate a wave. 用詞

数千个神经元会以相同频率放电，并产生一道波。

These waves oscillate at around 10 to 100 cycles per second.

这些波每秒大约振荡10到100次。

Radio waves, on the other hand, 表達脈絡

而无线电波

oscillate at around 50 million to 1 billion times per second.

每秒大约振荡5000万到10亿次。

Scientists have long used this phenomenon to measure brain activity and interface the brain to electronic devices. 用詞

长期以来，科学家一直利用这一现象来测量大脑活动，并让大脑与电子设备连接。

It allows us to see which parts of the brain are active for different activities,

它让我们看到，进行不同活动时大脑的哪些区域会活跃，

and similarly, which parts of the brain are active during dreaming.

同样也能看到，做梦时大脑的哪些区域会活跃。

Strange as it may seem, 語法

虽然听起来很不可思议，

we still barely understand why we sleep,

但我们至今几乎不明白人为什么要睡觉，

let alone why we dream. 短語搭配

更别说为什么会做梦了。

Michael from Vsauce does a fantastic job explaining the main theories for why we dream, 短語搭配

Vsauce的Michael出色地讲解了人为什么做梦的几种主要理论，

but there are so many theories because we can't really measure or know what people are dreaming about

但之所以有这么多理论，是因为我们无法真正测量或知道人们梦到了什么，

without waking them up and asking them. 語法

除非把他们叫醒后询问。

Of course, this is subject to forgetting or other errors. 短語搭配

当然，这种方法会受到遗忘或其他误差的影响。

Unfortunately,

遗憾的是，

there is no device that exists that allows us to peer into the mind of a dreamer. 習語

目前并不存在能让我们窥探做梦者内心的设备。

Or is there? 表達脈絡

真的是这样吗？

Crazy as it sounds,

虽然听起来很疯狂，

scientists have created a technique to do just that. 短語搭配

但科学家已经创造出一种恰好能做到这一点的技术。

This mind-reading technology began with a functional MRI scanner, 文化背景

这种“读心”技术最初使用的是功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描仪，

inside which subjects were shown simple pictures made up of black and white pixels. 講解

受试者躺在其中，观看由黑白像素组成的简单图片。

The software then finds patterns in the brain activity

随后，软件会在大脑活动中寻找

that correspond to the specific images. 短語搭配

与特定图像相对应的模式。

For example, if the letter T was shown,

例如，如果屏幕上显示字母T，

the software would record exactly how the brain reacted.

软件就会准确记录大脑的反应。

After sufficient data,

收集到足够的数据后，

the subjects were shown completely different images,

研究人员会向受试者展示完全不同的图像，

and the software would predict and recreate what it thought the subjects were seeing. 語法

软件则会预测并重现它认为受试者看到的内容。

After being shown the word neuron, 語法

在受试者看过“neuron”这个单词后，

these were the images the software generated.

软件生成了这些图像。

But it doesn't stop there. 表達脈絡

但事情并未止步于此。

Further studies began to use more complex visuals

后续研究开始采用更复杂的视觉素材，

and started monitoring the subjects in their sleep.

并开始监测睡眠中的受试者。

In this case,

在这项研究中，

they first had the subjects fall asleep while in an fMRI 語法

研究人员先让受试者在fMRI扫描仪中入睡，

and would wake them up in the middle of dreaming, 短語動詞

然后在他们做梦时将其叫醒，

quickly asking them what they were dreaming about.

并立刻询问他们刚才梦到了什么。

They then used thousands of images from the internet to get the best approximation

接着，研究人员使用网上的数千张图片，尽可能逼近

of what the subject was seeing

受试者当时看到的内容，

based on brain scans.

判断依据则是脑部扫描结果。

After doing this nearly 200 times with each person

对每个人重复这个过程近200次后，

and plugging the information into a learning algorithm,

再把这些信息输入学习算法，

software was used to predict and generate their next dreams.

软件便被用来预测并生成他们接下来会做的梦。

Though by no means perfect, 短語搭配

虽然结果远非完美，

it was clear that the machine's predictions were better than chance, 用詞

但显然，机器的预测准确度高于随机猜测，

matching up with the dreamer's description. 短語動詞

并且与做梦者的描述相吻合。

Perhaps even more shocking is a study that used actual video footage. 語法

也许更令人震惊的是一项采用真实视频片段的研究。

After showing subjects 2 hours of movie footage and analyzing their brain activity,

研究人员让受试者观看两小时的电影片段并分析其大脑活动后，

they then used a library of 18 million 1-second YouTube clips to match the brain activity.

又调用了一个包含1800万个时长一秒的YouTube片段的素材库，来匹配这些大脑活动。

Here are the results.

以下就是结果。

On the left are new unrelated clips that the subjects were later shown, 語法

左边是后来给受试者观看的、全新且互不相关的片段，

and on the right is what the software guessed they were seeing

右边则是软件猜测他们看到的内容，

using a mashed-up combination of the YouTube clips as an approximation. 用詞

它把多个YouTube片段混合拼接起来，作为近似画面。

All of this based on their brain waves. 表達脈絡

这一切都只基于他们的脑电波。

As these software programs become more and more complex, 語法

随着这些软件程序变得越来越复杂，

we come that much closer to accurately visualizing and recording our thoughts and dreams, 短語搭配

我们距离准确呈现并记录自己的思想和梦境也越来越近，

at which point perhaps we'll find a few more clues into why we dream in the first place. 講解

到那时，或许我们会找到更多线索，弄清我们究竟为什么会做梦。

And if you'd like to find out about some other amazing and unanswered scientific phenomenon,

如果你还想了解其他一些神奇但尚无答案的科学现象，

head over to Alltime10s channel,

不妨去看看Alltime10s频道，

where 10 fantastic science YouTubers have come together in an attempt to answer some burning questions. 習語

十位出色的科学类YouTuber在那里齐聚一堂，试图解答一些大家迫切想知道的问题。

It's a super collaboration of science.

这是一场科学界的超级联动。

And if you're new to AsapSCIENCE,

如果你刚刚认识AsapSCIENCE，

be sure to subscribe for more weekly science videos.

记得订阅，每周收看更多科学视频。

We've made a playlist of some of our favorite and most popular videos for your viewing pleasure.

我们还把一些最喜欢、最热门的视频做成了播放列表，供你尽情观看。

Enjoy.

好好欣赏吧。