J. Palacio bases Wonder on August or “Auggie” Pullman, a ten-year-old boy born with a deformed (残缺的) face that made him usually discriminated (歧视) against. Due to the twenty-seven
4 . Researchers hope brain implants will one day help people with aphasia(失语症) to get their voice back—and maybe even to sing. Now, for the first time, scientists have demonstrated that the brain’s electrical activity can be decoded and used to reconstruct music.
A new study analyzed data from 29 people monitored for epileptic seizures(癫痫发作), using electrodes(电极) on the surface of their brain. As participants listened to a selected song, electrodes captured brain activity related to musical elements, such as tone, rhythm, and lyrics. Employing machine learning, Robert Knight from UC Berkeley and his colleagues reconstructed what the participants were hearing and published their study results. The paper is the first to suggest that scientists can “listen secretly to” the brain to synthesize(合成) music.
To turn brain activity data into musical sound, researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI)model to decode data captured from thousands of electrodes that were attached to the participants as they listened to the song while undergoing surgery. Once the brain data were fed through the model, the music returned. The model also revealed some brain parts responding to different musical features of the song.
Although the findings focused on music, the researchers expect their results to be most useful for translating brain waves into human speech. Ludovic Bellier, the study’s lead author, explains that speech, regardless of language, has small melodic differences—tempo, stress, accents, and intonation—known as prosody(韵律). These elements carry meaning that we can’t communicate with words alone. He hopes the model will improve brain-computer interfaces (BCI), assistive devices that record speech-associated brain waves and use algorithms to reconstruct intended messages. This technology, still in its infancy, could help people who have lost the ability to speak because of aphasia.
Future research should investigate whether these models can be expanded from music that participants have heard to imagined internal speech. If a brain-computer interface could recreate someone’s speech with the prosody and emotional weight found in music, it could offer a richer communication experience beyond mere words.
Several barriers remain before we can put this technology in the hands—or brains— of patients. The current model relies on surgical implants. As recording techniques improve, the hope is to gather data non-invasively, possibly using ultrasensitive electrodes. However, under current technologies, this approach might result in a lower speed of decoding into natural speech. The researchers also hope to improve the playback clarity by packing the electrodes closer together on the brain’s surface, enabling an even more detailed look at the electrical symphony the brain produces.
1. What can we learn from the study?A.Electrodes can analyze musical elements. |
B.The decoding of brain data helps recreate music. |
C.Machine learning greatly enhances brain activity. |
D.The AI model monitors music-responsive brain regions. |
A.The prosody of speech. | B.The collection of brain waves. |
C.The emotional weight of music. | D.The reconstruction of information. |
A.Unlocking the Secrets of Melodic Mind | B.Brain Symphony: Synthesized Human Speech |
C.BCI Brings Hope to People with Aphasia | D.Remarkable Journey: Decoding Brain with AI |
5 . Phonetic (语音) information—the smallest sound elements of speech - is considered by researchers to be the basis of language. Babies are thought to learn these small sound elements and add them together to make words. But a new study suggests that phonetic information is learnt too late and slowly for this to be the case. Instead, rhythmic (有韵律的) speech helps babies learn language and is effective even in the first few months of life.
Researchers from the Trinity College Dublin investigated babies’ ability to process phonetic information during their first year. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications. found that phonetic information wasn’t successfully encoded (编码) until seven months old, and did not occur very often at 11 months old when babies began to say their first words. From then individual speech sounds are still added in very slowly—too slowly to form the basis of language.
The researchers recorded patterns of brain activity in 50 babies at four, seven, and eleven months old as they watched a video of a primary school teacher singing 18 nursery rhymes (童谣) to a baby. They found that phonetic encoding in babies appeared inchmeal over the first year of life, beginning with labial sounds (e.g. “d” for “daddy”) and nasal sounds (e.g. “m” for “mummy”), with the “read out” progressively looking more like that of adults.
“The reason why we use nursery rhymes is because that is the best way for babies to discover and connect sounds with language, so we are teaching them how to speak,” said Giovanni Di Liberto, lead author of the study at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. “Parents should talk and sing to their babies as much as possible or use baby-directed speech because it will make a difference to language outcome,” she added.
1. What should babies learn in the first few months of life according to the new study?A.Small sound elements | B.Rhythmic information. |
C.Phonetic information. | D.Individual words. |
A.The poor phonetic encoding in babies. | B.The advantages of phonetic information. |
C.The babies’ great ability to learn language. | D.The babies’ growing process in the first year. |
A.Gradually. | B.Suddenly. | C.Successfully. | D.Occasionally. |
A.When Babies Are Able to Say Their First Words |
B.How Phonetic Information Changes Over Time |
C.Why Phonetic Is Better Than Rhythmic for Babies |
D.Why Babies Need Nursery Rhymes for Language Mastery |
1.1931年日本入侵中国,中国人民为寻求解放,进行了长达十四年的抗日战争。
2.中国军队的武器虽然落后,但他们始终坚信能够战胜装备了飞机、大炮及坦克的敌人。(形容词短语作状语)
3.面对敌人的狂轰滥炸,中国军民团结一心,奋勇杀敌。(过去分词短语作状语)
4.在付出了巨大的代价后,中国人民赢得了这场战争的光辉胜利。
5.中国抗日战争的胜利为世界反法西斯战争的胜利奠定了基础。
6.难怪有人说中国人民抗日战争的伟大胜利将永远铭刻在人类正义事业史册上。
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A.降落 |
B.成功得到;谋到 |
C.登陆 |
After a total of twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and