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The Relationship between Brain Process with Mental Experience
By 1950, the results of attempts to relate brain processesto mental experience appeared rather discouraging. Suchvariations in size, shape, chemistry, conduction speed, excitationthreshold, and the like as had been demonstrated in nerve cellsremained negligible in significance for any possible correlationwith the manifold dimensions of mental experience.
Near the turn of the century, it had been suggested by Hering that different modes of sensation,such as pain, taste and color, might be correlated with the discharge of specific kinds of nervousenergy, However, subsequently developed methods of recording and analyzing nerve potentialsfailed to reveal any such qualitative diversity. It was possible to demonstrate by other methodsrefined structural differences among neuron types; however, proof was lacking that the quality ofthe impulse or its conduction was influenced by these differences, which seemed instead toinfluence the developmental patterning of the neural circuits. Although qualitative variance amongnerve rigidly disproved, the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the opposing view,namely, that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as“common currency” throughout the nervous system. According to this theory, it is not the qualityof the sensory nerve impulses that determines the diverse conscious sensations they produce,but, rather, the different areas of the brain into which they discharge, and there is some evidencefor this view. In one experiment, when an electric stimulus was applied to a given sensory field ofthe cerebral cortex of a conscious human subject, it produced a sensation of the appropriatemodality for that particular locus, that is, a visual sensation from the visual cortex, an auditorysensation from the auditory cortex, and so on. Other experiments revealed slight variations in thesize, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as for as psychoneuralcorrelations were concerned, the obvious similarities of these sensory fields to each other seemedmuch more remarkable than any of the minute differences.
However, cortical as diverse as those of red, black, green and white, or touch, cold, warmth,movement, pain, posture and pressure apparently may arise through activation of the samecortical areas. What seemed to remain was some kind of differential patterning effects in the brainexcitation: it is the difference in the central distribution of impulses that counts. In short, Braintheory suggested a correlation between mental experience and the activity of relativelyhomogenous nerve-cell units conducting essentially homogeneous impulses throughhomogeneous cerebral tissue. To match the multiple dimensions of mental experiencepsychologists could only point to a limitless variation in the spatiotemporal patterning of nerveimpulses.
1. Up until 1950, efforts to establish that brain processes and mental experience are related wouldmost likely have been met with
[A] vexation [B] irritability [C] discouragement [D] neutrality
2. The author mentions “common currency” primarily in order to emphasize the
[A] lack of differentiation among nerve impulses in human beings.
[B] similarities in the views of the scientists.
[C] similarity of sensations of human beings.
[D] continuous passage of nerve impulses through the nervous system.
3. Which of the following theories is reinforced by the depiction of the experiment in lines 16—19?
[A] Cognitive experience manifested by sensory nerve impulses are influenced by the area of thebrain stimulated.
[B] Qualitative diversity in nerve potentials can now be studied more accurately.
[C] Sensory stimuli are heterogeneous and are greatly influenced by the nerve sensors theyproduce.
[D] Differentiation in neural modalities influences the length of nerve transmissions.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following exhibit the LEAST qualitativevariation?
[A] Nerve cells. [B] Nerve impulses.
[C] Cortical areas. [C] Spatial patterns of nerve impulses.
答案詳解：1. C. 令人失望。答案見文章的第一句話“到了1950年，大腦活動過程和精神感受有關係的實驗結果看起來令人沮喪。”
A. 令人惱火。 B. 激怒。 D. 中立。 均不對。
2. A. 在人的神經脈衝中缺少變異(差別)。Common currency本義是一般通用。這裏的上下問決定了它的含義“無變異脈衝(普通脈衝)”。第二段“雖然神經能量中的`質變理論從沒有受到嚴厲的駁斥，但這一學說被普遍放棄，而贊成其對立的觀點;那就是：神經脈衝在質量沙鍋內基本相似，並作爲無變異脈衝(普通脈衝)經神經系統傳送。”所以普通脈衝就是指神經脈衝無變異，在質量上基本相似。
B. 科學家觀點上的相似性。 C. 人類感覺相似性。 D. 神經脈衝連續不斷通過神經系統。這三項和common currency 無關。
3. A. 受刺激的大腦部位影響感覺神經脈衝所顯示的認知感受。在第二道題譯文下面“根據這一理論，不是感覺神經脈衝的質量決定它們所產生的各種有意識的感覺。而是由脈衝在大腦中釋放的不同部位決定，並且有證據證明這一論點。”見難句譯註3。
B. 現在對神經潛力的質量變化可以進行更精彩的研究。 C. 感官刺激是異源的，並深受它們所產生的神經感覺(感受器)的影響。 D. 神經形態上的差異影響神經傳遞長度。
4. B. 神經脈衝。這在第2題答案A中譯註(即第二段)已有明確的答覆。“神經脈衝在質量上基本相似……。”
A. 神經細胞。見難句譯註2，“有可能用其他辦法來顯示神經細胞類型之間細微的結構差異。” C. 外皮區域(部位)。 D. 神經脈衝空間模式。見難句譯註5和本文最後一句“爲了和精神感受多樣性吻合，心理學家只能指明神經脈衝時空模式上的無限差異。”這說明，它不是 “Leastqualitative variation.”
