突发事件是如何造成意识空白的?
文章来源:未知 文章作者:meng 发布时间:2010-03-12 01:33 字体: [ ]  进入论坛
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Reading this story requires you to willfully(故意地) pay attention to the sentences and to tune1 out nearby conversations, the radio and other distractions2(分心,干扰) . But if a fire alarm sounded, your attention would be involuntarily(不自觉地,偶然地) snatched away from the story to the blaring(嘟嘟声) sound. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals for the first time how our brains coordinate3(调整,协调) these two types of attention and why we may be temporarily blinded by surprises.

The research was published March 7, 2010, in Nature Neuroscience.

"The simple example of having your reading interrupted by a fire alarm illustrates4 a fundamental aspect of attention: what ultimately reaches our awareness5 and guides our behavior depends on the interaction between goal-directed and stimulus6-driven attention. For coherent(连贯的,一致的) behavior to emerge, you need these two forms of attention to be coordinated," René Marois, associate professor of psychology7 and co-author of the new study, said. "We found a brain area, the inferior frontal(正面的,额的) junction8, that may play a primary role in coordinating9 these two forms of attention."

The researchers were also interested in what happens to us when our attention is captured by an unexpected event.

"We wanted to understand what caused limitations in our conscious perception when we are surprised," Christopher Asplund, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology and primary author of the new study, said. "We found that when shown a surprise stimulus, we are temporarily blinded to subsequent events."

In their study, the research team asked individuals to detect the letter "X" in a stream of letters appearing on a screen while their brain activity was being monitored using functional10 magnetic resonance11 imaging, or fMRI(功能磁共振成像) . Occasionally, an image of a face would unexpectedly interrupt the stream.

The surprise caused the subject to completely miss the "X" the first couple of times, despite the fact they were staring directly at the part of the screen on which it appeared. They were eventually able to identify it as successfully as when there was no surprise.

Using fMRI, the researchers found that the inferior frontal junction, a region of the lateral12 prefrontal cortex(前额皮质) , was involved in both the original task and in the reaction to the surprise.

"What we think might be happening is that this brain area is coordinating different attention systems – it has a response both when you are controlling your attention and when you feel as though your attention is jerked away(猛地拉开、推开) ," Asplund said.

Surprise stimuli13 trigger what is known as the orienting response in which the heart rate increases, the nervous system is more aroused and we pay intense attention to a new item in our environment. Described by Pavlov in dogs, the orienting response allows one to determine if a new item is a good thing, such as food, or a threat, such as a predator14(食肉动物,捕食者) , and to react accordingly.

"What we show is the dark side or negative impact of the orienting response. We found it blinds you to other events that can occur soon after the presentation of the surprise stimulus," Marois said.

The researchers hypothesize(假设,假定) that we may be temporarily blinded by surprise because the surprise stimulus and subsequent response occupies so much of our processing ability.

"The idea is that we can't attend to everything at once," Asplund said. "It seems that the inferior frontal junction is involved in this limitation in attention."

The new research supports previous work by Marois' laboratory that found the interior frontal junction plays the role of an attentional bottleneck15(瓶颈,障碍物) – limiting our ability to multitask and attend to many things at once.

"These new findings and our previous findings suggest that this area is centrally involved in the control of attention and may limit our attentional capacities," Marois said. "It is a very exciting convergence of findings across our studies. We're conducting studies now to demonstrate whether in fact disruption of activity in this brain region leads to loss of control of attention."



点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tune NmnwW     
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整
参考例句:
  • He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子,并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
  • The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
2 distractions ff1d4018fe7ed703bc7b2e2e97ba2216     
n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 );娱乐,消遣;心烦意乱;精神错乱
参考例句:
  • I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难,因为使人分心的事太多。
  • There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多,使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 coordinate oohzt     
adj.同等的,协调的;n.同等者;vt.协作,协调
参考例句:
  • You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
  • Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。
4 illustrates a03402300df9f3e3716d9eb11aae5782     
给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 ); 说明; 表明; (用示例、图画等)说明
参考例句:
  • This historical novel illustrates the breaking up of feudal society in microcosm. 这部历史小说是走向崩溃的封建社会的缩影。
  • Alfred Adler, a famous doctor, had an experience which illustrates this. 阿尔弗莱德 - 阿德勒是一位著名的医生,他有过可以说明这点的经历。 来自中级百科部分
5 awareness 4yWzdW     
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智
参考例句:
  • There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
  • Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。
6 stimulus 3huyO     
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物
参考例句:
  • Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
  • Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。
7 psychology U0Wze     
n.心理,心理学,心理状态
参考例句:
  • She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
  • He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。
8 junction N34xH     
n.连接,接合;交叉点,接合处,枢纽站
参考例句:
  • There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
  • You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。
9 coordinating fc35d08ba9bb2dcfdc96033a33b9ae1e     
v.使协调,使调和( coordinate的现在分词 );协调;协同;成为同等
参考例句:
  • He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
  • He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的,难道我们不去请他? 来自电影对白
10 functional 5hMxa     
adj.为实用而设计的,具备功能的,起作用的
参考例句:
  • The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了,但现在可以用了。
  • The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的,只是为了实用。
11 resonance hBazC     
n.洪亮;共鸣;共振
参考例句:
  • Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
  • The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。
12 lateral 83ey7     
adj.侧面的,旁边的
参考例句:
  • An airfoil that controls lateral motion.能够控制横向飞行的机翼。
  • Mr.Dawson walked into the court from a lateral door.道森先生从一个侧面的门走进法庭。
13 stimuli luBwM     
n.刺激(物)
参考例句:
  • It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.必需消除或改变正常时并存的刺激。
  • My sweat glands also respond to emotional stimuli.我的汗腺对情绪刺激也能产生反应。
14 predator 11vza     
n.捕食其它动物的动物;捕食者
参考例句:
  • The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
  • Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴,它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。
15 bottleneck uRfyN     
n.瓶颈口,交通易阻的狭口;妨生产流程的一环
参考例句:
  • The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
  • China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。
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