60秒：眼睛向右看是在算加法

 [听力全文]

I still tend to move my fingers, almost subconsciously, when doing arithmetic. Well, that might not be so strange, according to research published in the May 8th issue of the journal Science. The report says that math and movement through space use some of the same brain circuitry.

Researchers in France scanned the neural activity in the brains of people who were moving their eyes right or left. Then study participants were asked to do arithmetic in their heads. And the brain scan data correctly showed whether the person was adding or subtracting. Because adding used the same brain circuits as when eyes moved right. And subtraction matched up with the neurons firing when eyes moved left.

Researchers say this finding shows that the development of math is too recent and advanced to have a brain region devoted solely to it. So we reuse systems that we already have. The study authors note that “throughout the history of mathematics, concepts of number and space have been tightly intertwined.” Now we know that the connection even occurs in our brains. So I don’t feel too bad about still counting on my fingers.

—Cynthia Graber

 [重难点词汇、短语]

arithmetic: n. 算术，算法；adj. 算术的

 [参考译文]

在做算术时，我仍然会下意识地扳手指。这可能并不奇怪，发表在《》（Science）上的一项研究称，数学和空间移动用到了一部分相同的大脑回路。 

法国的研究人员扫描了人们左右移动眼睛时的大脑神经活动，然后要求他们完成心算任务。结果发现大脑扫描数据能正确地显示某个人是在做加法还是减法，这是因为做加法时所用的大脑回路与眼睛向右移动时相同，而做减法与眼睛向左移动相同。

研究人员说，这一发现表明数学是人类后期发展起来的比较先进的能力，因此大脑中没有专门的区域与之对应，所以大脑重复使用了已有的区域。该研究的作者指出，“在整个数学发展史上，数字和空间的概念一直紧密地交织在一起。”现在我们知道，这种联系甚至也发生在我们的大脑中，我也不用为做算术时数手指而感到羞耻了。 

翻译 页一