SSS 2009-11-25
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(十一)月
Maybe it’s happened to you. You think you have a fever. So you pop a thermometer in your mouth and try to breathe through your nose to get an accurate reading. But you’re totally stuffed up, so you experience this moment of complete panic because you can’t get enough air. Well, a new study in the journal Cell says you can thank your amygdala for that. Because this key member of the brain’s fear circuitry can directly sense suffocation 1, and trigger feelings of terror.
The amygdala plays a role in responding to threats, and it can kick off a fight-or-flight reaction when it senses danger. Now, this brain region is packed with a type of protein that’s activated 2 by acid, and seems to be involved in an animal’s response to fear. Well, suffocation is pretty scary and signals to the brain that something isn’t right. And it does so by activating 3 this acid-sensing protein.
When an animal can’t breathe, carbon dioxide builds up, and boosts the amount of acid in the body. The acid, in turn, turns on this protein, which then hits the panic button and tells the animal to do something. Even if, during the Thanksgiving meal, it’s just to remind the animal to stop swallowing and take a deep breath.
- The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
- The room was hot to suffocation. 房间热得闷人。 来自辞典例句