Read the following passage and choose the most likely answer to each of the following questions.
Teens and young adults often turn up the volume on their iPods or smartphones or stand near the speakers at concerts or nightclubs, all in the name of having a good time. Even if they realize this could be damaging to their hearing, what neither they nor their parents know is that this kind of behavior could be altering their brain function for life. A study in a 2018 issue of the journal eNeuro found that young adults with subtle hearing loss——a deficit that's so slight that they're not even aware of it (they reported they had normal hearing)——are placing demands on their brains that don't normally occur until later in life.
In the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (磁共振成像扫描) to monitor brain activity, while healthy men and women listened to various sentences that varied in their complexity and the demands required to process and understand them. Before performing the scans, the researchers tested the participants' hearing ability and found that some of them had subtle hearing deficits, but were still clinically in the normal range.
What the researchers found is that listeners with poorer hearing had activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, which was surprising because usually the left hemisphere of the brain is completely responsible for regulating and managing speech and language comprehension. And the altered brain function was still the same no matter how simple or complex the sentence structure was.
The good news is that the brain is an amazingly plastic organ, meaning it has the ability to change and adapt throughout life, explains Yune Lee, an assistant professor of chronic brain injury at Ohio State University. As people age, they begin to use more of their right frontal brain to process language, but "we don't usually see that in younger people," Lee explains. "That is worrisome because they start using up these resources too early in life. It's like withdrawing money from a retirement account too early; these resources need to be kept for later in life."
The findings are especially significant, says Sarah Sydlowski, audiology director of a Hearing Implant Program, because "hearing involves hearing sound but also processing it and extracting meaning in the brain. Exposure to loud sound can cause clinical damage to 'synaptic ribbons'——the connections between the sensory cells in the inner ear and the hearing nerve. People with this damage suffer from 'hidden hearing loss' because often they will appear to have normal hearing on a standard hearing test, yet they may complain that they have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments."
The long-term concern is that a growing amount of evidence has shown a significant link between hearing loss and dementia. In fact, a review of studies in the June 2018 issue of Maturitas found that hearing damage at midlife is associated with a 50 percent higher risk of developing dementia later in life. The theory is "If you put all your energy into hearing, you drain cognitive resources that could be used for other things such as memory and attention," Lee says.
If you suspect that you're struggling to hear clearly or process what you hear comfortably or accurately, get your hearing checked, including your ability to hear and understand speech against background noise, Sydlowski advises. The researchers don't recommend routine hearing checks for adults, but the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association calls for adults to be checked for hearing loss every decade through age 50, then every three years after that. The sooner you detect a hearing problem, the better; that way, you can take steps to handle it, whether that means modifying your environment to minimize distractions, adding protection for your hearing, doing auditory training (listening exercises) or considering a hearing device, Sydlowski says.
Which of the following is the finding of the researchers in Paragraph 3?( )
A、
When one hemisphere is damaged, the other one will be responsible for language comprehension.
B、
The change in brain function may be influenced by the complexity of sentences.
C、
People with poor hearing are likely to use the right hemisphere of the brain.
D、
People with good hearing will draw on both right and left hemispheres.
【正确答案】:C
【题目解析】:
本题考查第三段中研究人员的发现。
定位到第三段,本段大意为“研究人员发现,听力较差的听者右脑有活动,这是令人惊讶的,因为通常大脑的左半球完全负责调节和管理言语和语言理解。无论句子结构是简单还是复杂,改变后的大脑功能都是一样的。”A选项“当一个大脑半球受损之后,另外一个将会负责语言理解”,本段未提及大脑半球受损这一条件,A选项不正确。B选项“大脑功能的改变可能受到句子复杂程度的影响”,本段描述为“无论句子结构是简单还是复杂,改变后的大脑功能都是一样的”,B选项不正确;C选项“听力差的人可能会使用右脑”,符合文章描述,C选项正确。D选项“听力好的人会同时使用左、右脑”,本段描述为“左脑完全负责调节和管理言语和语言理解”,D选项错误。