時(shí)差N小時(shí):我們見過嗎?

You wake up one morning to find a strange manstanding in your kitchen; worse than that, heseemsto have made himself completely at home.

你一早醒來，發(fā)現(xiàn)你的廚房里站著一個(gè)陌生人。更糟糕的是，他似乎像在自己家一樣隨意。

Someone's child is sitting in the living room watchingtelevision, on which somebody or other isgiving aspeech while standing next to a bust of some oldguy.

不知誰家的孩子正坐在客廳看電視，電視里播放著一個(gè)人站在一位老者的半身像旁高聲演講著。

Who are these people? Andwhere's your family?

這些人是誰?你的家人去哪兒了?

If you suffered from the neurological disorder called “facial agnosia,” a twilight-zonestyleexperience of this sort might be a reality.

如果你患上了一種腦神經(jīng)失調(diào)的面孔失認(rèn)癥，那么像這樣模糊不清的“過渡”式的經(jīng)歷或許是一個(gè)事實(shí)。

Facial agnosia typically occurs to people who havereceived damage to the right hemisphere ofthe brain due to stroke or injury.

面孔失認(rèn)癥常出現(xiàn)于人們大腦的右半球被打擊或損傷后。

People with facial agnosia lose the ability to recognize even the most familiar faces:

患有面孔失認(rèn)癥的人會(huì)失去辨認(rèn)面孔的能力，即使是最熟悉的人也不列外：

in this case a husband anddaughter, the president of the United States and a bust of AbrahamLincoln.

比如丈夫或者女兒，美國的總統(tǒng)或者亞伯拉罕林肯的半身像。

In severe cases anexamining physician will be able to hold up a photograph of him or herselfand, seated in front ofthe patient with facial agnosia, ask if they recognize this person—to noavail.

在嚴(yán)重的情況下，檢查的醫(yī)生會(huì)拿著一張自己的照片，坐在面孔失認(rèn)癥患者的前面，詢問他們是否認(rèn)識這個(gè)人，但是完全不起作用。

What's especially interesting to researchers about this condition is its specificity.

對于研究者來說這種情況最有趣的就是它的特殊性。

Visual ability itself isnot damaged, and the person with facial agnosia can still recognizeanything else—except a face.

視覺能力本身沒有損壞，面孔失認(rèn)癥患者仍然能夠辨別別的事物-除了臉。

Indeed, they can still describe faces very accurately, but only in the way one describes anobject:

事實(shí)上，他們?nèi)匀豢梢苑浅?zhǔn)確地描述面孔，但是就像描述物體似的。

“He needs a shave. He has droopy eyes. He has a small scar,” but never “Wait a minute—thisismy high school yearbook picture.”

“他需要刮胡子，他有雙下垂的眼睛，他有一個(gè)小疤痕”。但是從不會(huì)聽到“等一下-這是我高中的畢業(yè)照。”

Facial agnosia strongly suggests the existence of amechanism in the brain devoted specificallyto recognizing individuals we've seen before, a mechanism thought to exist in many otheranimals and even some insects.

面孔失認(rèn)癥患者暗示了人類大腦里存在著一種專門用于辨認(rèn)見過的人的機(jī)制，這種機(jī)制也被認(rèn)為存在于別的動(dòng)物甚至一些昆蟲中。