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Sound and touch may seem completely separate, except possibly when playing the game Operation. But it turns out that the two senses are actually quite entwined: a new study finds that people with hearing issues often also have problems with touch.
聽覺和觸覺似乎是彼此完全獨立的——除了在玩軍事游戲的時候需要二者都用上。但事實證明，這兩個感官實際上是緊密聯系的。一項新的研究發現，有聽覺障礙的人往往也存在觸覺障礙。
Researchers compared sets of twins, some identical and some fraternal. The identical twins, obviously, have the same genome and thus the same mutations. The fraternal twins have genetic differences. Other subjects in the study were congenitally deaf.
研究人員比較了幾對雙胞胎，其中既有同卵雙生胎也有異卵雙生胎。 很明顯，同卵雙生胎具有相同的基因，因此它們的變異也相同。異卵雙生胎的則存在基因差異。其他的受試者則先天性耳聾。
To determine how acute their hearing was, the subjects reported whether they could hear various high frequencies. To evaluate touch they were asked to differentiate different surfaces with their fingertips.
為了確定他們的聽覺是否敏銳，研究人員讓受試者說出他們是否能聽到各種各樣的較高頻率。為了確定他們的觸覺能力，研究人員要求受試者用指尖區分不同的物體表面。
The research revealed that touch sensitivity was highly heritable and connected closely with hearing ability. The better the twins could sense touch, the better they could hear, and vice versa. One in five subjects that had congenital deafness also had a poor sense of touch. The research is in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.
研究顯示，觸摸能力是可以高度遺傳的而且和聽覺能力密切聯系。受試雙胞胎的觸摸能力越好，他們的聽覺能力也就越好，反之亦然。而五個先天性耳聾受試者中的一個則觸覺能力很差。這項研究刊登在《生物科學公共圖書館》（Public Library of Science Biology）雜志上。
Next the researchers want to figure out which genes are faulty. After all, addressing the problem could kill two birds with one stone.
接下來，研究人員希望能找出是哪些基因出了問題。畢竟，解決了這個問題，可以收到一石二鳥之功。
注：本文譯文屬可可英語原創，未經允許，請勿轉載。
