??imagine you are playing the guitar. you’re seated, supporting the instrument’s weight across your lap. one hand strums; the other presses strings against the guitar’s neck to play chords. your vision tracks sheet music on a page, and your hearing lets you listen to the sound. in addition, two other senses make playing this instrument possible. one of them, touch, tells you about your interactions with the guitar. another, proprioception, tells you about your arms’ and hands’ positions and movements as you play. together, these two capacities combine into what scientists call somatosensation, or body perception.

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想象你正在弹吉他。你坐着，乐器架在大腿上。一只手在弹奏，另一只手在吉他琴颈上按弦，演奏出和弦。你的视线跟着纸上的乐谱，你的听力让你聆听声音。此外，还有两种感官让你能够演奏这种乐器。一个是触觉，让你知道与吉他互动的感觉。另一个是本体感觉，让你知道演奏时你的胳膊和手的位置以及动作。这两种能力结合在一起，形成了科学家所说的体感，即身体感知。

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our skin and muscles have millions of sensors that contribute to somatosensation. yet our brain does not become?overwhelmed?by the barrage of these inputs—or from any of our other senses, for that matter. you’re not distracted by the pinch of your shoes or the tug of the guitar strap as you play; you focus only on the sensory inputs that matter. the brain expertly enhances some signals and filters out others so that we can ignore distractions and focu

s on the most important details.

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体感由我们的皮肤和肌肉的上百万个传感器产生。然而我们的大脑并没有因为海量的信息输入而过载——也没有被其他的感知所淹没。在你弹琴的时候，你不会被很紧的鞋子或者拉扯的吉他带而分散注意力；你只关注重要的感官输入。大脑熟练地加强某些信号，过滤掉其他信号，这样我们就可以忽略干扰，专注于最重要的细节。

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how does the brain accomplish these feats of focus? in recent research at northwestern university, the university of chicago and the salk institute for biological studies in la jolla, calif., we have illuminated a new answer to this question. through several studies, we have discovered that a small, largely ignored structure at the very bottom of the brain stem plays a critical role in the brain’s selection of sensory signals. the area is called the cuneate nucleus, or cn. our research on the cn not only changes the scientific understanding of sensory processing, but it might also lay the groundwork for medical interventions to restore sensation in patients with injury or disease.

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大脑是如何做到这些壮举的？在西北大学、芝加哥大学和位于加州拉霍亚的索尔克生物研究所最近的研究中，我们对这个问题给出了一个新的答案。通过几项研究，我们发现，在脑干最底部有一个很小的、几乎被忽略的结构，它在大脑选择感觉信号方面发挥着关键作用。这个区域被称为楔形核，或cn。我们对楔形核的研究不仅改变了对感觉处理的科学认知，而且可能为受伤或患病的病人感官恢复的医学干预方式奠定基础。

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though our work is far from finished, our results already have important implications for rehabilitation. beyond the active tactile and muscle signals we were able to study, evidence suggests that the cn receives many more “dormant” inputs that may be important in recovery from neurological injury. millions of people worldwide suffer from some form of limb dysfunction, such as paralysis or loss of feeling.?

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虽然我们的工作还远远谈不上结束，但我们的研究结果已经可以对康复产生重要影响。翻译划线句，全世界有数百万患者受到某种肢体功能障碍的困扰，如瘫痪或感觉丧失等。

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with a better understanding of how sensory and motor signals support movement, doctors can eventually improve diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. for example, implanted electrodes could one day electrically activate the cuneate nucleus in people who have lost sensation in their limbs, potentially restoring the ability to perceive their body.

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随着对感官和运动信号是如何支撑运动的理解更深入，医生最终可以改善对这些疾病的诊断和治疗。例如，对失去四肢知觉的患者来说，植入的电极有一天可能会电激活楔形核，可能恢复身体的感觉。

【重要单词】

1.chord /k??d/ ?n. 和弦，和音; 弦v. 以和弦演奏(或歌唱、谱曲)

2.proprioception ?/?proprio?s?p??n/n.[生理] 本体感受

3.barrage /?b?rɑ??/n. 掩护炮火，阻击火网; 一连串(的批评、抱怨等); 堰，拦河坝vt. (大批人或事物)包围，使穷于应付

4.pinch /p?nt?/ v. 捏，拧，掐; 揑住，夹紧; (穿的鞋等)夹痛，挤痛; 节约，节省n. 捏，掐，拧; 偷窃; (棒球)紧要时刻，紧要关头adj. 替代的，替补的

5. tactile /?t?kta?l/ adj.[生理] 触觉的，有触觉的；能触知的

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