時差N小時:用耳朵治口吃 Stuttering Ear

Remember that kid in your grade school class whostuttered?

還記得小學時班上那個說話結巴的孩子嗎?

Well, he was in good company–a whopping threemillion people in the United States alone areaffected by this problem.

其實，他的同伴可不少--光是在美國，就有多達三百萬的人有這個毛病。

It isn't life threatening, but it certainly can be lifehampering, as anyone who has a stutter can tellyou.

當然，結巴并不會危及生命，但是，相信任何一個結巴的人都會告訴你：

There's something very interesting about stuttering, though, which you might not expect: itcan be effected by what you hear.

它確實會給生活帶來不少麻煩。然而，關于結巴，還有個有趣的現象是出乎你意料的：結巴跟你的耳朵關系密切。

For a long time stutterers have understood that talking along in a group, such as when yourecite the pledge of allegiance, can make the problem diminish.

實際上，結巴會受所聽內容的影響。一些結巴患者經過長期實踐發(fā)現，如果連續(xù)地說上一段話結巴現象就會緩和不少，比如說在不停地背誦效忠誓言。

With the age of electronics, it was found that hearing your own voice played back to you almostas soon as you speak helps a stutter as well.

人們發(fā)現，如果在說話時能夠幾乎同步地聽到自己所說的內容會有助于減緩口吃。

That's called the “Delayed Auditory Feedback” effect.

這就是所謂的“延時聽覺反饋”效應。

Altering the pitch of the playback gives an extra boost to the effect as well; that's called“Frequency Altered Feedback.”

并且，改變所聽內容的音調會加強這一效應，這就是“移頻聽覺反饋”。

Now, researchers at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina have created a smalldevice that combines both these effects in a portable earpiece.

目前，位于美國北卡羅來納州格林維爾市東卡羅萊納大學的研究者們已經研發(fā)出一種便攜式耳機，這種耳機將上文所說的兩種效應結合在了一起。

The device fits inside your ear, picks up the sound of you speaking, alters the pitch a little,and plays it back to you.

你只需將耳機放入耳朵，它便會收集你的話語并適當地改變音調，最后在回放給你聽。

The first tests lookpromising: many of the volunteers who had a stutter found that theirproblem was helped by wearing such an electronic earpiece.

第一批測試看起來效果不錯：很多參與實驗的口吃志愿者都發(fā)現，佩戴上這種電子耳機后，口吃情況有所好轉。

Scientists who study stuttering sound a more cautious note: such effects, while real, haveshown a tendency to be short-term.

然而，研究口吃的科學家們給出了一個更為謹慎的結論：這些效果固然真實，但持續(xù)時間不夠長久。

Still, even if it isn't a “fix,” tiny microelectronic devices like this may indeed be a help-and wemay be seeing more and more of them in the future.

但是，即便這一效果不長，像這樣的微電子設備確實對口吃有所幫助--相信在以后會有越來越多這樣的產品出現。