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At first glance, our ability to remember things doesn't seem very impressive at all.
乍一看，我們的記憶能力并不值得驚嘆。
19th century psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus demonstrated that
十九世紀(jì)心理學(xué)家赫爾曼·艾賓浩斯發(fā)現(xiàn)，
we normally forget 40% of new material within the first twenty minutes, a phenomenon known as the forgetting curve.
一般在20分鐘內(nèi)我們會忘記40%的新事物，這個現(xiàn)象被稱作“遺忘曲線”。
But this loss can be prevented through memory consolidation,
可是記憶力可以通過對記憶的鞏固來提高，
the process by which information is moved from our fleeting short-term memory to our more durable long-term memory.
在這個鞏固的過程中，新的事物會從短期記憶移到更穩(wěn)定的長期記憶。
This consolidation occurs with the help of a major part of the brain, known as the hippocampus.
記憶鞏固得益于腦部的一個重要部位，這個部位被稱為海馬體。
Its role in long-term memory formation was demonstrated in the 1950s by Brenda Milner in her research with a patient known as H.M.
海馬體在長期記憶形成中扮演的角色于1950年代被布蘭達(dá)·米爾內(nèi)通過她對一位名為H.M.的病人的研究證實。
After having his hippocampus removed, H.M.'s ability to form new short-term memories was damaged,
H.M.的海馬體被移除后，他形成新的短期記憶的能力遭到破壞，
but he was able to learn physical tasks through repetition.
但他仍能夠通過不斷重復(fù)學(xué)習(xí)新的體能任務(wù)。
Due to the removal of his hippocampus, H.M.'s ability to form long-term memories was also damaged.
由于海馬體的移除，H.M形成長期記憶的能力也被破壞了。
What this case revealed, among other things,
這個例子反映出
was that the hippocampus was specifically involved in the consolidation of long-term declarative memory,
海馬體在長期陳述性記憶而非程序性記憶鞏固的過程中至關(guān)重要，
such as the facts and concepts you need to remember for that test, rather than procedural memory,
陳述性記憶包括你考試要記的事實、概念等，
such as the finger movements you need to master for that recital.
程序性記憶包括你鋼琴獨(dú)奏要記住的手指動作。
Milner's findings, along with work by Eric Kandel in the 90's,
米爾內(nèi)的發(fā)現(xiàn)加上埃里克·坎德爾在90年代的發(fā)現(xiàn)
have given us our current model of how this consolidation process works.
給我們提供了這個鞏固過程的現(xiàn)有模型。
