評論
打印
Science and technology
科學技術
Synaesthesia
通感
Smells like Beethoven
聞起來像貝多芬
Using the word note to describe an odour may be more than just metaphor
用音符來描述氣味可能并不僅僅是個隱喻
What do you hear?
你聞到了什么？
THAT some people make weird associations between the senses has been acknowledged for over a century.
有些人的感覺之間存在著奇怪的聯(lián)系，這種情況一百多年來已為世人所知；
The condition has even been given a name: synaesthesia.
它甚至還有了個名字，叫做通感。
Odd as it may seem to those not so gifted,
也許常人會覺得奇怪，
synaesthetes insist that spoken sounds and the symbols which represent them give rise to specific colours or that individual musical notes have their own hues.
通感者卻堅持說聽到說話的聲音時，他們腦子里出現(xiàn)的是特殊的顏色，還會說每個音符都有自己的色彩。
Yet there may be a little of this cross-modal association in everyone.
其實所有人可能都有點這種跨感官感知聯(lián)合現(xiàn)象。
Most people agree that loud sounds are brighter than soft ones.
大多數(shù)人都同意響亮的聲音比輕柔的聲音亮些。
Likewise, low-pitched sounds are reminiscent of large objects and high-pitched ones evoke smallness.
同樣，低音讓人聯(lián)想起宏大的物體，高音給人渺小的感覺。
Anne-Sylvie Crisinel and Charles Spence of Oxford University think something similar is true between sound and smell.
牛津大學的Anne-Sylvie Crisinel和Charles Spence認為，氣味和聲音之間也存在類似的聯(lián)系。
Ms Crisinel and Dr Spence wanted to know whether an odour sniffed from a bottle could be linked to a specific pitch, and even a specific instrument.
Ms Crisinel 和Dr Spence想弄清楚瓶裝的氣味能否與特定的音調(diào)甚至樂器聯(lián)系起來。
To find out, they asked 30 people to inhale 20 smells—ranging from apple to violet and wood smoke—which came from a teaching kit for wine-tasting.
為了找出答案，他們測試了30人，讓每人吸入20種氣味從蘋果、紫羅蘭的氣味到木材煙塵這些氣味來自品酒師教材。
After giving each sample a good sniff, volunteers had to click their way through 52 sounds of varying pitches, played by piano, woodwind, string or brass,
在認真體味每種氣味后，志愿者要從52種音調(diào)不同、
and identify which best matched the smell.
音色各異的聲音中點選出聽起來感覺與氣味最相配的。
The results of this study, to be published later this month in Chemical Senses, are intriguing.
研究結(jié)果十分有趣，本月將被發(fā)表在《Chemical Senses》雜志上。
The researchers’ first finding was that the volunteers did not think their request utterly ridiculous.
第一，研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)志愿者并不認為這項實驗荒唐透頂。
It rather made sense, they told them afterwards.
試驗結(jié)束后，志愿者們說實驗還是有點意義的。
The second was that there was significant agreement between volunteers.
第二，志愿者的意見有重要的共同點。
Sweet and sour smells were rated as higher-pitched, smoky and woody ones as lower-pitched.
他們認為酸、甜的氣味音調(diào)高，煙味和木頭的氣味音調(diào)低；
Blackberry and raspberry were very piano.
黑莓味和覆盆子味聞起來很像鋼琴，
Vanilla had elements of both piano and woodwind.
香草味像鋼琴和木管樂的混合體，
Musk was strongly brass.
麝香味則非常像銅管樂。
It is not immediately clear why people employ their musical senses in this way to help their assessment of a smell.
為什么人們會用樂感來幫助自己評價味道？答案并不能被立刻揭曉。
But gone are the days when science assumed each sense worked in isolation.
但是科學已不再認為人的各種感覺之間沒有聯(lián)系了。
People live, say Dr Spence and Ms Crisinel,
博士Dr Spence和Ms Crisinel說：
in a multisensory world and their brains tirelessly combine information from all sources to make sense, as it were, of what is going on around them.
人們生活在這個世界上，萬事萬物會引起各種感覺。大腦似乎在不停地綜合來自各方面的信息，判斷周圍發(fā)生的事情。
Nor is this response restricted to humans.
這種反應也不僅僅發(fā)生在人類身上。
Studies of the brains of mice show that regions involved in olfaction also react to sound.
研究顯示，老鼠大腦的嗅覺區(qū)同樣會對聲音做出反應。
Taste, too, seems linked to hearing.
味覺似乎也與聽覺有關聯(lián)。
Ms Crisinel and Dr Spence have previously established that sweet and sour tastes, like smells, are linked to high pitch, while bitter tastes bring lower pitches to mind.
此前Ms Crisinel和Dr Spence已經(jīng)確定，酸味、甜味就像酸、甜的氣味一樣與高音相關；苦味則帶來低音的感覺。
Now they have gone further.
如今他們走得更遠。
In a study that will be published later this year they and their colleagues show how altering the pitch and instruments used in background music can alter the way food tastes.
在今年計劃發(fā)表的一項試驗中，二人與同事揭示了背景音樂中樂器和音調(diào)的改變會如何引起食物味道的改變。
In this experiment, each volunteer was given four pieces of toffee.
在這項試驗中，每位志愿者得到了四塊太妃糖。
They consumed the other two, however, to the accompaniment of a higher-pitched piano piece.
他們在憂郁低沉的銅管樂聲中吃掉兩塊，又聽著音調(diào)較高的鋼琴曲吃掉另外兩塊。
Volunteers rated the toffee eaten during low-pitched music as more bitter than that consumed during the high-pitched rendition.
志愿者評價說，音樂的音調(diào)低時吃的糖較苦，音調(diào)高時吃的糖較甜。
The toffee was, of course, identical.
當然，所有的太妃糖都一樣。
It was the sound that tasted different.
聲音才是嘗起來味道不一樣的東西。
