英语听力文摘 English Digest 552、暴力电玩会改变我们的大脑吗？

 　　Do Violent Video Games Change Our Brains?

 

　　Video games are a huge industry kids and young adults spend more time playing them than watching movies or TV. And some of the most popular video games are ultra realistic war and fighting games featuring massive amounts of hi-res violence.

 

　　So if you’re a parent, or a pundit¹, or maybe even a dedicated² gamer, you’ve gotta wonder: does spending countless³ hours doing virtual violence to pixelated monsters and warriors⁴ have any effect on our sensitive and malleable⁵ brains?

 

　　To find out, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine studied the effects of violent video games on twenty-eight non gaming guys. Half of them played a violent game for a week and then took a week off. The other half didn’t play any video games, acting⁶ as the control group.

 

　　After one week the subjects underwent fMRI analysis and then again after two weeks. During the fMRI sessions both groups did tasks meant to test their cognitive⁷ abilities.

 

　　Now, twenty-eight subjects is a pretty small sample size, but the results were interesting. After only one week of gaming, the guys that played the violent game showed decreased activity in parts of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control. After a cool down week of no gaming, the subjects’ brain functioning was closer to normal.

 

　　So does this prove that violent video games warp⁸ young men’s minds? Not exactly. That would take a much larger study. But the study at the very least suggests that doing pretend violence may have a real effect on how we think and act.

 

 

　　暴力电玩会改变我们的大脑么？

 

　　电子游戏是一个十分巨大的产业，儿童和年轻人在这上面花费了远比看电影和电视更多的时间。许多当前最流行的电子游戏是以数量庞大的高分辨率暴力画面为特征的超现实战斗和格斗游戏。

 

　　如果你是一位家长，或者一位专家，或是一位游戏发烧友，你不禁会感到疑惑，花大量时间对这些由像素构成的怪兽和战士实施虚拟的暴力是否会影响我们敏感而且可塑性强的大脑？

 

　　为了找出答案，印第安纳大学医学院的研究者研究了暴力电玩对28个从未接触过该类游戏的人的影响。他们让一半的研究对象持续打电玩一周然后休息一周，而另一半的人作为对照组，不打任何电玩。

 

　　一周后，对研究对象进行核磁共振分析，两周后，再进行一次核磁共振分析。在进行核磁共振期间，两个小组都接受了旨在测试他们认知能力的测验。

 

　　尽管28名测试对象这样的样本数是非常小的，但结果却是十分有趣的。在仅仅玩了一个星期的电玩后，这些玩暴力游戏的人就呈现出大脑控制认知能力和控制情绪部分的活动减少的情况。而那些一周没有玩游戏的人，他们的大脑功则会恢复到和正常水平相近的状况。

 

　　那么这项实验是否能够证明暴力电玩会扭曲年轻人的思想呢？也不尽然。想要证明这个观点还需要更大规模的实验。但这项实验至少表明，虚拟暴力确实会对我们的思想和行为方式造成一定的影响。

1 pundit   

n.博学之人；权威

参考例句：

• Even the outstanding excellent graduate will learn constantly if he likes to be a pundit.即使最优秀的结业生，要想成为一个博学的人也要不断地研究。
• He is a well known political pundit.他是一个著名的政治专家。

2 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

3 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

4 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

5 malleable   

adj.(金属)可锻的;有延展性的；(性格)可训练的

参考例句：

• Silver is the most malleable of all metals.银是延展性最好的金属。
• Scientists are finding that the adult human brain is far more malleable than they once thought.科学家发现成人大脑的可塑性远超过他们之前认识到的。

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

8 warp   

vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见

参考例句：

• The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
• A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。