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The brain's plasticity and its adaptability to new situations do not function the way researchers previously thought, according to a new study published in the journal Cell. Earlier theories are based on laboratory animals, but now researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have studied the human brain. The results show that a type of support cell, the oligodendrocyte, which plays an important role in the cell-cell communication in the nervous system, is more sophisticated in humans than in rats and mice -- a fact that may contribute to the superior plasticity of the human brain. 发表在《细胞》杂志上的一项最新研究表明，大脑的可塑性和对新环境的适应力并非如以前研究者们认为的那样。以前的理论都是基于动物实验研究，如今瑞典卡洛琳斯卡学院的研究者们真正研究了人脑。结果显示，人脑中的少突胶质细胞（一种支持细胞，在神经系统细胞信息传输中起重要作用）比老鼠脑中的要复杂得多，这可能是人脑可塑性更强的原因之一。 The learning process takes place partly by nerve cells creating new connections in the brain. Our nerve cells are therefore crucial for how we store new knowledge. But it is also important that nerve impulses travel at high speed and a special material called myelin plays a vital role. Myelin acts as an insulating layer around nerve fibres, the axons, and large quantities of myelin speed up the nerve impulses and improve function. When we learn something new, myelin production increases in the part of the brain where learning occurs. This interplay, where the brain's development is shaped by the demands that are imposed on it, is what we know today as the brain's plasticity. | 
