把花献给谁二年级作文:我们为什么会打呵欠？它可能会使我们保持头脑冷静

我们为什么会打呵欠？它可能会时我们保持头脑冷静

打呵欠可能会激活鼻窦中的“泵”，使我们的大脑保持清醒。

        在一项新的研究表明，打呵欠可能有助于我们保持头脑冷静，从字面上来理解。此项研究结果可能为那些失眠、偏头痛、甚至癫痫患者带来希望。

    尽管科学家提出了各种关于打呵欠的理论——从疲劳到缺氧，但尚无进行详细的阐述。

Though scientists have put forth various theories for yawning—from fatigue to lack of oxygen—none have held up to scrutiny.

 

"We can put a man on the moon, but we do not understand what the function of yawning is," said study co-author Gary Hack, of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore.

    “我们可以使人类登上月球，但却不明白打呵欠的功能是什么”本项研究的合著者巴尔的摩马里兰大学牙科学院的加里.哈克说。

Now, Hack and co-author Andrew Gallup, of Princeton University, propose that yawning causes the walls of the maxillary sinus to expand and contract like a bellows, pumping air onto the brain, which lowers its temperature. Located in our cheekbones, the maxillary are the largest of four pairs of sinus cavities in the human head.

    现在，哈克和其工作作者普林斯顿大学的安德鲁.盖洛普提出，打呵欠可引起上颌窦壁像风箱一样缩小和扩大，将空气泵入到大脑，从而降低温度。上颌窦位于颧骨内，是人类头部四个鼻窦中最大的一个。

Like a computer, the human brain is "exquisitely" sensitive to temperature and must stay cool to work efficiently, said Hack, whose previously collected data was combined with Gallup's in the new study, recently published in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

    哈克先前收集的数据与盖洛普的新研究相结合，发表在了杂志《医学假说》上。他说，人类的大脑就像计算机一样，对温度特别敏感，必须保持冷静才能高效地工作。

Sinus Solution?

鼻窦能解答问题吗？

In addition to potentially solving the mystery of yawning, the study may also reveal why we have sinuses, whose existence has also stumped scientists.

    除了可能解决打呵欠这个难题之外，这项研究还可能揭示我们为什么会有鼻窦，鼻窦的存在也使科学家们感到困惑。

It's a "unified theory tying yawning, sinus ventilation, and brain cooling into a neat little package," Hack said.

    哈克说，将打呵欠、鼻窦通风和大脑降温捆绑在一起，这是一个统一的理论。

Ryan Soose—an ear, nose, and throat doctor as well as director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Division of Sleep Surgery—added, "The hypothesis that these two relatively unknown things may be directly related, to me, is very intriguing."

    匹兹堡医疗中心睡眠外科主任兼耳鼻喉医生瑞安.史努斯补充道：“，对我来说，将两个相对未知的东西直接联系起来的这个假说非常有趣。”

(See "Is Your Brain Sleeping While You're Awake?")

    （参见“虽然你醒了，你的大脑仍在睡觉？”）

Cadaverous Clues

尸检线索

    在2002年的研究中，哈克和他的研究小组解剖尸体时发现，上颌窦的后壁比医学教科书上描述的要薄很多，因此更灵活。

The researchers postulated that, when the jaw moves, the sinus wall flexes, ventilating the sinuses. (Explore the human body.)

    研究者推测，当下颌移动时，鼻窦壁就会收缩，使鼻窦通风（探索人体）。

"I'd always kept that in the back of my mind, because yawning was an exaggerated jaw movement that would have an impact on this previously undescribed pump in humans," Hack said.

    哈克说：“这个想法一直保持在我的脑海中，因为打呵欠是下颌的大幅度运动，可能会对人们之前从未描述的泵产生影响。”

Later, he came across the postdoctoral research of Princeton's Gallup, who in 2007 had become the first to suggest the brain-cooling theory for yawning.

    后来他遇到了在普林斯顿大学做博士后研究的盖洛普，盖洛普在2007年第一次提出了关于打呵欠大脑降温的理论。

Since 2007, Gallup had tested the idea in both animals—many of which also yawn—and people. (Read "Beyond the Brain" in National Geographic magazine.)

    自从2007年以来，盖洛普在许多打呵欠的动物和人身上做试验来验证他的理论。

（参阅《国家地理杂志》的“超越大脑”）

For instance, Gallup and his team had implanted probes into rats' brains and recorded brain-temperature changes before, during, and after the rats yawned.

    比如，盖洛普和他的研究小组将探针植入了大鼠的大脑，记录大鼠打呵欠之前、期间和之后大脑温度的变化。

    研究小组发现，大脑温度的峰值在打呵欠时上升，之后开始下降，最后迅速下降到打呵欠之前的温度。

This suggests yawns are triggered by an increase in brain temperature and "actually promote brain cooling," Gallup said.

这表明打呵欠是因为大脑温度升高所触发的，且“实际上促进了大脑降温”盖洛普说。

（参见“超级聪明大鼠的创建——同样也使人类产生不安全感？”）

    盖洛普也对两名过度打呵欠慢性发作的妇女进行了研究。他说，他已要求其中一个能预知打呵欠发作的患者，在发作前和发作后测其温度。

    研究结果表明她的体温在打呵欠之前会上升，之后下降——盖洛普说：“直接验证了大鼠大脑温度研究的结果。”

However, "we do have to be cautious that there are only two subjects in [that] study."

    然而，“我们不得不小心，因为本次研究只有两个受试者。”

Indeed, co-author Hack expects the brain-cooling yawning theory to be "very controversial—we're delving into an area that's not well understood."

    事实上，合著者哈克期望打呵欠大脑降温理论“非常有争议性——我们正在探究的是一个未知领域。”

Yawning Theory May Influence Medicine

打呵欠理论可能对医学产生影响

Overall, understanding yawning could be a useful tool for diagnosing certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy and migraines, which are both preceded by excessive yawning, the scientists say.

    总得来说，了解打呵欠可能对确诊疾病是一个有效的工具，如癫痫和偏头痛，这些疾病之前都会过度的打呵欠。科学家说。

The University of Pittsburgh's Soose added that the discovery might someday aid doctors in treating patients with insomnia, the most common U.S. sleep disorder. Insomniacs often have trouble regulating their body temperatures, which must drop in order for sleep to occur. (Take a secrets-of-sleep quiz.)

    匹兹堡大学的史努斯补充说，这个发现有可能有朝一日帮助医生治疗美国睡眠障碍最常见的疾病失眠。失眠症患者通常在调节体温方面有困难，体温必须下降才能入睡（一项睡眠的秘密测验）。

"You could envision some mechanism by which you could rinse or cool the sinuses to treat insomnia," Soose said. "It opens the doors to help treat insomnia in a different way."

    “你可以设想出一些通过冲洗或冷却鼻窦的机制来治疗失眠，”史努斯说。“这打开了用不同方式帮助治疗失眠之门。”