2024年12月四级第1套选词填空原文翻译及答案解析

Scientists have known that depriving adult mice of vision can increase the sensitivity of individual neurons (神经元) in the part of the brain devoted to hearing. New research from biologists at the University of Maryland __26__ that sight deprivation also changes the way brain cells __27__ with one another, shifting the mice's sensitivity to different frequencies.

科学家早已知道，剥夺成年小鼠的视觉能够提高大脑听觉区域内单个神经元的敏感度。马里兰大学生物学家的新研究揭示，视觉剥夺还会改变脑细胞之间相互作用的方式，从而改变小鼠对不同频率的敏感度。

"This study __28__ what we are learning about how manipulating vision can have a __29__ effect on the ability of an animal to hear long after the window for auditory (听觉的) learning was thought to have __30__," said Patrick Kanold, senior author of the study.

「这项研究印证了我们正在了解的内容：在听觉学习的窗口期被认为早已关闭很久之后，操控视觉仍能对动物的听觉能力产生显著影响，」该研究的资深作者帕特里克·卡诺德说。

It was once thought that the sensory regions of the brain were not __31__ after a critical period in childhood. This is why children learn languages much more __32__ than adults. Kanold's earlier research disproved this idea by showing that depriving adult mice of vision for a short period increased the sensitivity of individual neurons in the auditory cortex (皮质), which is devoted to hearing.

人们曾认为，大脑的感觉区域在童年的关键期之后就不再具有可塑性。这就是为什么儿童学习语言比成年人容易得多。卡诺德早先的研究推翻了这一观点：他证明短期剥夺成年小鼠的视觉，会提高听觉皮质中单个神经元的敏感度，而听觉皮质正是专司听觉的区域。

Young brains wire themselves according to the sounds they hear frequently, assigning areas of the auditory cortex to __33__ frequencies based on what they are used to hearing. The researchers found that, in adult mice, a week in the dark also changed the __34__ of space to different frequencies.

年幼的大脑会根据经常听到的声音来自我布线，依据习惯听到的内容把听觉皮质的区域分配给特定频率。研究者发现，在成年小鼠身上，一周的黑暗环境同样改变了空间对不同频率的分配。

"We don't know why we are seeing these patterns," Kanold said. "We __35__ that it may have to do with what the mice are paying attention to while they are in the dark."

「我们不知道为什么会看到这些模式，」卡诺德说，「我们推测，这可能与小鼠在黑暗中所关注的东西有关。」