【英语语言学习】大脑里的漏洞

 RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

For most of her life, Cole Cohen had a hard time with all kinds of things. She'd get lost all of the time. She couldn't do math to save her life. The whole concept of time was hard for her to grasp. Her parents took her to doctor after doctor, and there were all kinds of tests and experiments with medication, but no real diagnosis¹ until she was 26 years old. Cole Cohen got her first MRI and finally, there was an explanation. There was a hole in her brain; a hole in her brain the size of a lemon. Her memoir², titled "Head Case," is a darkly funny exploration of what that discovery meant to her. Cole Cohen joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.

COLE COHEN: Thank you for having me, Rachel.

MARTIN: Let's talk about what life was like before this revelation. I mentioned your propensity³ to get lost. We're not talking about being in a new place and getting confuses as a lot of us might do. You got lost in, like, big box stores that you had been to before. Can you describe that sensation, that feeling of not knowing where you are in a situation like that?

COHEN: Yeah. I know that sensation every time I go grocery shopping. You know, you want to get a jar of peanut butter. You have a memory of where that jar of peanut butter is, and I just don't have that in my brain. I don't store that information. So it's like a discovery every time.

MARTIN: I'd love for you to read an example of one of the symptoms. You have a hard time with numbers, even references to numbers. And you write about this in the book when you're taking driver's ed. Do you mind reading that bit?

COHEN: Sure. That would be great.

(Reading) When I learned how to drive, the instructor⁴ tells me to think of the steering⁵ wheel as the face of a clock. Put my left hand at nine, my right hand at three. I stare at her with horror and decide to make a random⁶ guess. She repeats her instructions again and again, until she forcibly takes my hands and places them on the wheel. No, like this. I keep taking my hands off the wheel as I turn the car, and then I place them back in an incorrect position. I don't notice until the teacher corrects me. I make continuing attempts at three-point turns around the empty high school parking lot until eventually our hour-long session is over. Next week, we do the same thing again. After about three sessions of this, she gives up.

MARTIN: So with this diagnosis, I mean, was it empowering to some degree? Was it embarrassing? I mean, do you tell people? I mean, clearly, you wrote a memoir about it, but did you start calling your friends and being like, this is why - this is why I do this stuff?

COHEN: Yeah, actually I did start calling friends. And it's a huge relief. To be able to know why has made all the difference in the world for me. And I could have just as easily gone my entire life without knowing. So I really don't think of it as negative information at all because it's allowed me to have a huge essential understanding of who I am that I could have completely missed out on if I had never gotten an MRI.

MARTIN: You talk in the book about how music was a sanctuary⁷ of sorts for you, that it helped you get through a lot of downtimes. How did that help you?

COHEN: I think there are a couple different ways it helped me. One is that I find repetition very soothing⁸. And so I found, like, I was not just listening to songs that repeated, but I was listening to punk music, which repeats a lot. And I found that I was really craving⁹ these repeating musical structures. I also think that it helped as an emotional outlet¹⁰. And I'm still a big music person. And it's interesting because I think that a lot of people who are neuro-diverse, with different brains, you know, react to music more strongly. There's that whole book, "Musicophilia" with Oliver Sacks. Like I really relate to those stories.

MARTIN: Is there a particular piece, like, that's a go-to piece for you?

COHEN: Yeah. There's a song by a band called The Fall. The Fall actually has a song called "Repetition Repetition."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "REPETITION")

THE FALL: (Singing) We dig repetition.

COHEN: I really love The Fall in part because they have so much repetition and yet no song is ever the same.

MARTIN: Cole Cohen. Her new memoir is called "Head Case: My Brain And Other Wonders." Thanks so much for talking with us, Cole.

COHEN: Thank you, Rachel.

1 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 propensity   

n.倾向；习性

参考例句：

• He has a propensity for drinking too much alcohol.他有酗酒的倾向。
• She hasn't reckoned on his propensity for violence.她不曾料到他有暴力倾向。

4 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

5 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

6 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

7 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

8 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

9 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

10 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。