VOA慢速英语:Why Do People Blink Their Eyes?(翻译)

Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet.But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.
科学家长期以来认为，眨眼是一种无意识的运动，主要用于保持眼球潮湿。但一项新的研究表明它有更重要的目的。

An international team of scientists studied the blinking of human eyelids.The team reported to researchers from the University of California at Berkeley.The journal Current Biology published their findings.
一个国际科学家团队研究了人类的眨眼。该团队已经向加州大学伯克利分校的研究人员报告。《当代生物学》期刊发表了他们的研究成果。

The team said it found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing.It said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets -- the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes.
该团队表示，它发现眨眼是“重新定位我们的眼球，所以我们可以专注于”我们所看到的。它说，当我们眨眼睛时，眼睛回滚到眼窝，眼窝是围绕和保护眼睛的骨区域。

However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position.They say this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles to “realign” our eyesight.
然而，研究人员发现眼睛并不总是回到相同的位置。他们说这导致大脑让眼部肌肉“重新拨正”我们的视力。

Gerrit Maus was the lead writer of the report.He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
格里特·马斯（Gerrit Maus）是该报告的主笔人。他在新加坡南洋理工大学担任心理学助理教授。

Maus says: “our eye muscles are quite sluggish and imprecise,so the brain needs to constantly adapt its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they’re supposed to.Our findings suggest that the brain gauges the difference in what we see before and after a blink,and commands the eye muscles to make the needed corrections.”
马斯说：“我们眼肌的运动相当缓慢和不精确，所以大脑需要不断适应其运动信号，确保我们的眼睛瞄准应该瞄准的地方。我们的研究结果表明，大脑测量我们在眨眼之前和之后看到的差异，并命令眼肌进行必要的校正。”

The researchers say that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy.They say the movement acts “like a steadicam of the mind.”
研究人员说，没有这样的校正，我们的周遭会显得不清楚，甚至是跳跃的。他们说，这种运动行为“像是思维的稳定。”

Researchers say they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while staring at a small dot on a flat surface.They used special cameras to follow the volunteer’s blinks and eye movements.After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right.The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did.It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot.
研究人员说，他们要求志愿者坐在黑暗的房间里，同时盯着平面上的一个小点。他们使用特殊的相机追随志愿者的眨眼和眼球的运动。每次眨眼之后，小点向右移动一厘米。志愿者没有注意到这一点，但大脑做到了。大脑跟随运动，并指示眼肌重新聚焦在小点上。

After the dot was moved in this way 30 times,the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.
小点以这种方式移动30次之后，志愿者的眼睛改变视力焦点到它们预测下一个点出现的地方。

Professor Maus says “even though participants did not consciously register that the dot had moved,their brains did, and adjusted with the corrective eye movement.These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to changes,commanding our muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.”
马斯教授说：“即使参与者没有意识到小点的移动，但是他们的大脑却意识到了，并矫正眼球的运动来调整。这些发现促进了我们理解大脑如何不断适应变化、指挥我们的眼肌、纠正我们身体上的错误。”

I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.
克里斯托弗·琼斯·克鲁斯为您报道。