时差N小时:音乐家能够更好地辨认情感
唐：嗨，雅艾尔，有什么事吗?
Yael: Well Don, I just got off the phone with myfriend. She's had a run of bad luck with relationships.She says that from now on she's only going to datemusicians!
雅艾尔：唐，我刚和朋友通完电话。她在感情上一直运气不好。她说从现在起她只和音乐家约会!
Don: Why? She really loves music?
唐：为什么?她有那么爱音乐吗?
Yael: No, that's not it. She thinks that somehowmusicians are better than non-musicians at understanding emotions. That seems a little far-fetched to me.
雅艾尔：不，不是这样的。她觉得不管怎样音乐家都比其他人更好地理解情感。这对我来说有点牵强。
Don: Actually Yael, there is some evidence that people with musical training are better atpicking out emotional cues in sound than people without the same musical background. Ateam of neuroscientists at Northwestern University compared the auditory brainstem responsesof musicians and non-musicians to different emotion-laden human sounds, like crying babies.The results were not exactly what the researchers expected. They found that musicians'brainstems paid attention to a more complex part of the sound known to carry moreemotional elements. But their brains tended to de-emphasize the simpler part of the sound,which carries less emotional content. This wasn't true for non-musicians. The more musicalexperience and training a musician had, the more their nervous systems seemed able toprocess emotion in sound. The auditory centers in their brainstems showed a greater responsethan those of the non-musicians to these complex sound cues.
唐：实际上雅艾尔，有证据证明受过音乐培训的人比没有音乐背景的人，能更好地辨认声音的情感线索。西北大学的神经科学团队比较了音乐家和非音乐家在听到不同人类声音时的听性脑干反应。但结果并不像研究者所预期的那样。他们发现音乐家的大脑脑干侧重于关注声音中较为复杂的部分，即携带更多情感因素的部分。并且他们的大脑倾向于不再重视带有较少情感因素的简单的声音。但对于非音乐家来说并非如此。音乐家接受的声乐训练越多，经验越丰富，他们的神经系统似乎更有能力处理声音中的情绪。他们大脑脑干的视觉中心对复杂声音的反应比非音乐家更强烈。
Yael: Wow Don, that's really interesting. Those results seem to suggest that more experienceand expertise with sound can actually change how your brain works. Maybe my friend is ontosomething with her plan to only date musicians.
雅艾尔：哇，唐，这真是有趣啊。这些结果表明有更多声乐经验和专业知识会改变一个人大脑的运作方式。也许我朋友只与音乐家约会的计划是靠谱的。
Don: Well, musicians might be better at hearing the emotions in your voice, but that doesn'tmean they're any better at knowing what to do about it!
唐：可能音乐家在聆听声音方面确实表现优秀，但是这并不意味着他们知道该怎么做更好!
