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Deaf Cats Have Enhanced Vision

Is it an old wives tale or can deaf people actually see better? Scientists have long thought that the structure of our brain is fixed. For instance, from birth the auditory cortex will receive only sound or the visual cortex will receive only visual input.

失聪者比正常人视觉发达，是否无稽之谈？一直以来，科学家都认为人类大脑的结构是一成不变的。比如说，人出生以后，大脑的听觉皮层就只接收声音信号，而视觉皮层只接收视觉信号。

But in the last decade neuroscientists have overthrown this idea in favor of a more malleable brain.

但过去的十年里，神经学家推翻了上述观点，转而支持大脑可塑性观点。

New research published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience supports that view. It helps explain why those who are congenitally deaf may have extraordinary sight.

《自然—神经科学》这个星期刊登的一项新研究中就表明了其支持立场。该研究解释了为何先天失聪者拥有超凡视觉。

Since the auditory cortex sits there, at birth, waiting for auditory inputs that never come, it starts receiving visual stimuli instead—in cats anyway. And the neural real estate devoted to vision increases.

研究发现，先天失聪的猫出生以后，听觉皮层始终接收不到声音信号，因此听觉皮层转而开始接收视觉刺激，而固有的视觉神经逐渐发达。

Researchers compared congenitally deaf cats to hearing cats, and found that deaf cats have enhanced peripheral vision and motion detection.

研究人员将先天失聪的猫和听觉正常的猫比较后发现，前者拥有周边视觉和运动检测功能。

They confirmed that the part of the auditory cortex that picks up peripheral sound switches to peripheral vision.

他们证实先天失聪的猫听觉皮层中接收周边声音的部分，转化成了周边视觉。

With the deaf it’s especially good to have increased peripheral vision. If you cannot hear a car approaching from the side, it'd be advantageous to actually see it.

因此，失聪的人更易拥有发达的周边视觉。假如你听不到汽车驶近的声音，不要急不要急~~你会先看到它的~

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