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BBC Learning English
Words in the News
29
th
October 2010
Scientists hope to record dreams
US researchers say they want to record dreams electronically. Writing in the journal Nature,
scientists in California developed a system that can record a higher level brain activity. The
lead researcher believes that it could possibly be used to study dreams. Pallab Ghosh reports:
The idea of a machine recording dreams sounds
fanciful
but a research team in California is
to explore
whether it might be possible, at least in a limited way.
A study by the team suggests that the activity of individual
brain cells
, or neurons, is
associated with
specific
objects: for example when a volunteer was thinking of the actress
Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron
lit up
.
By showing
volunteers
a series of images, the team was able to identify neurons
associated
with
a wide range of objects and concepts.
The next step for the researchers is to see whether they can
make sense of
the brain waves of
sleeping volunteers and if so, whether they
correlate with
the
accounts of
the volunteers’
actual dreams.
Pallab Ghosh, BBC News
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010
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bbclearningenglish.com
Vocabulary and definitions
fanciful
unrealistic
to explore
to look at, to find out about
brain cells
the smallest units found in an animal’s brain
specific
particular
lit up
become more active
volunteers
people who do something for free
associated with
connected with, linked with
make sense of
understand
correlate with
match with
accounts of
stories of
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Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010
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