MichaelMerzenich_谈重塑大脑【中英文对照】

1.This machine, which we all have residing in our skulls, reminds me of an aphorism of a comment of Woody Allen to ask about what is the very best thing to have within your skull.
我们每个人脑袋中的这台机器， 让我想起 Woody Allen的一句名言， 就是问你脑袋里最好的东西是什么。
2.And it’s this machine.
答案就是这台机器。
3.And it’s constructed for change.  It’s all about change.
它是为改变而构建的。一切均与改变有关。
4.It confers on us the ability to do things tomorrow that we can’t do today, things today that we couldn’t do yesterday.
它可以让我们明天做今天无法做到之事， 今天做昨天无法做到之事。
5.And of course it’s born stupid.
当然，它刚出生的时候是愚蠢的。
6.The last time you were in the presence of a baby — this happens to be my granddaughter Mitra.
上次你见到婴儿的时候—— 刚好这是我的孙女Mitra。
7.Isn’t she fabulous?
她很棒吧？
8.(Laughter) But nonetheless when she popped out despite the fact that her brain had actually been progressing in its development for several months before
（笑声） 不管怎样，当她出生的时候， 尽管事实上她的大脑已经 在子宫内
9.on the basis of her experiences in the womb.
发育了好几个月。
10.Nonetheless she had very limited abilities, as does every infant at the time of normal natural full term birth.
但是跟任何一个 自然出生的婴儿一样， 她的能力非常有限。
11.If we were to assay her perceptual abilities, they would be crude.
如果我们测试她的感知能力，我们会发现这些能力是非常原始的。
12.There is no real indication that there is any real thinking going on.
而且没有确切的迹象表明她有真正的思考能力。
13.In fact there is little evidence that there is any cognitive ability in a very young infant.
实际上，几乎没有证据表明 一个刚出生的婴儿有任何认知能力。
14.Infants don’t respond to much.
婴儿没有什么反应。
15.There is not really much of an indication in fact that there is a person on board.
没有什么迹象表明大脑里有个人在掌控。
16.(Laughter) And they can only in a very primitive way, and in a very limited way control their movements.
（笑声） 而且他们只能以一种非常原始的，非常有限的方式 来控制他们的动作。
17.It would be several months before this infant could do something as simple as reach out and grasp under voluntary control an object and retrieve it,
几个月后，这个婴儿 才能在随意控制下做一些简单的动作 比如伸手抓握东西并拿回来，
18.usually to the mouth.
通常送到嘴巴里。
19.And it will be some months beforeward, and we see a long steady progression of the evolution from the first wiggles, to rolling over, and sitting up, and crawling,
还得再过几个月， 经过漫长稳定的发展， 才能一步步从晃动身体， 到翻身，到坐起，到爬行，
20.standing, walking, before we get to that magical point in which we can motate in the world.
站立，走路， 然后我们才能到达到这个神奇的时刻， 可以在世界上自由行动。
21.And yet, when we look forward in the brain we see really remarkable advance.
然而，当我们研究大脑时， 我们发现非常显著的进化。
22.By this age the brain can actually store.
到这个年龄时大脑实际上能够储存东西了。
23.It has stored, recorded, can fastly retrieve the meanings of thousands, tens of thousands of objects, actions, and their relationships in the world.
它已经可以储存，记录， 并且很快的检索出 成千上万个物体，行为， 以及它们在这个世界上 的各种关系的意义。
24.And those relationships can in fact be constructed in hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of ways.
而且这些关系其实能够以成千上万 甚至上百万种方式来组建。
25.By this age the brain controls very refined perceptual abilities.
到这个年龄时，大脑拥有非常精细的知觉能力。
26.And it actually has a growing repertoire of cognitive skills.
并且其认知技巧也在不断发展。
27.This brain is very much a thinking machine.
大脑基本上已经是一个思考的机器。
28.And by this age there is absolutely no question that this brain, it has a person on board.
到这个年龄时，毫无疑问的是， 大脑里已经有一个“人”来掌控了。
29.And in fact at this age it is substantially controlling its own self development.
事实上，在这个年龄，大脑在很大程度上控制着自身的发展。
30.And by this age we see a remarkable evolution in its capacity to control movement.
在这个年龄，我们可以发现 它在控制动作的能力上有显著的进化。
31.Now movement has advanced to the point where it can actually control movement simultaneously, in a complex sequence, in complex ways
现在，其控制动作的能力进化到 它可以以复杂的方式同步控制 一些复杂组合的动作，
32.as would be required for example for playing a complicated game, like soccer.
比如像踢足球， 这类复杂的运动 所需的复杂组合动作。
33.Now this boy can bounce a soccer ball on his head.
这个男孩可以用头顶颠球。
34.And where this boy comes from, Sao Paulo, Brazil, about 40 percent of boys of his age have this ability.
他来自巴西的圣保罗， 当地这么大的男孩有大约百分之40的拥有这个能力。
35.You could go out into the community in Monterey, and you’d have difficulty finding a boy that has this ability.
但你若去蒙特雷的社区， 找到一个拥有这种能力的男孩是困难的。
36.And if you did he’d probably be from Sao Paulo.
如果你找到一个，说不定还是从圣保罗来的。
37.(Laughter) That’s all another way of saying that our individual skills and abilities are very much shaped by our environments.
（笑声） 这说明了 我们个人的技巧和能力 基本是由环境塑造的。
38.That environment extends into our contemporary culture, the thing our brain is challenged with.
这个环境可扩大至我们的当代文化， 其为我们的大脑提供挑战。
39.Because what we’ve done in our personal evolutions is build up a large repertoire of specific skills and abilities that are specific to our own individual histories.
因为我们每个人在个人进化中所做的， 是建立一套巨大的特定的 受我们个人经历影响的技能与能力。
40.And in fact they result in a wonderful differentiation in humankind.
实际上，人类奇妙的差异性 就是这样造成的。
41.In the way that in fact no two of us are quite alike.
也就是说，我们每个人都是 独一无二的。
42.Every one of us has a different set of acquired skills and abilities that all derive out of the plasticity, the adaptability of this really remarkable adaptive machine.
我们每个人都拥有一套与众不同的技巧和能力， 而这些技巧和能力全部都是由 大脑这个具有非凡适应性机器的可塑性和适应性发展而来。
43.In an adult brain of course we’ve built up a large repertoire of mastered skills and abilities that we can perform more or less automatically from memory,
对于一个成人的大脑，当然我们已经掌握了 一套数量巨大的技能和能力， 我们或多或少地能够根据记忆自动行动，
44.and that define us, as acting, moving, thinking creatures.
这也让我们成为行动的，移动的，思考的生物。
45.Now we study this, as the nerdy, laboratory university based scientists that we are, by engaging the brains of animals like rats, or monkeys,
我们作为大学实验室的科学家， 书呆子，正研究这方面的问题， 我们研究动物的大脑， 如老鼠，猴子的，
46.or of this particularly curious creature, one of the more bizarre forms of life on earth, to engage them in learning new skills and abilities.
还有这个奇妙的生物的， 这个地球上很奇怪的生物形态， 我们研究这些大脑是如何学习新技能和能力的。
47.And we try to track the changes that occur as the new skill or ability is acquired.
并且我们试图记录在获得新技能或能力的同时， 大脑发生了怎样的变化。
48.In fact we do this in individuals of any age, in these different species.
实际上我们在这些不同物种 的所有年龄阶段都做研究。
49.That is to say from infancies, infancy up to adulthood and old age.
也就是说，从婴儿期， 幼儿期，一直到成年期和老年期。
50.So we might engage a rat, for example, to acquire a new skill or ability that might involve the rat using its paw to master particular manual grasp behaviors
举例来说，我们可能研究一只 老鼠是如何获得新技能或能力的， 这技能可能是用它的爪子 掌握一个特定的抓握行动，
51.just like we might examine a child and their ability to acquire the sub-skills, or the general overall skill of accomplishing something like
与此类同的是，我们可能会研究一个孩子 研究他们如何获得 像掌握阅读的整体技能
52.like mastering the ability to read.
或其中的次级技能。
53.Or you might look in an older individual who has mastered a complex set of abilities that might relate to reading musical notation or performing the mechanical acts of performance
或者我们可能研究一个更年长的个体 其所掌握的一套复杂的能力 跟其阅读音乐符号的能力之间的关联， 或其执行机械行为的能力
54.that apply to musical performance.
如何应用到演奏乐器方面。
55.From these studies we defined two great epochs of the plastic history of the brain.
通过这些研究，我们确定了大脑塑造期 的两个重要时期。
56.The first great epoch is commonly called the “Critical Period.”
第一个重要时期是通常所谓的“关键时期”。
57.And that is the period in which the brain is setting up in its initial form, its basic processing machinery.
在这个时期，大脑形成其最初的形态， 其基本的运行设置。
58.This is actually a period of dramatic change in which it doesn’t take learning, per se, to drive the initial differentiation of the machinery of the brain.
这个时期大脑会发生巨大的变化， 但本质上而言，它并不需要通过学习 来启动大脑最初的不同设置。
59.All it takes for example in the sound domain, is exposure to sound.
举例来说，在声音方面， 只需要周围有声音即可。
60.And the brain actually is at the mercy of the sound environment in which it is reared.
而大脑其实完全受制于 其生长环境的声音。
61.So for example I can rear an animal in an environment in which there is meaningless dumb sound.
举例来说，我可以在一个 充满无意义声音的环境里饲养一只动物。
62.A repertoire of sound that I make up.
这些声音是我制造出来的。
63.That I make just by exposure, artificially important to the animal and its young brain.
我通过将它置于该环境下，这些声音人为的 对这个动物及其幼小的大脑产生重要影响。
64.And what I see is that the animal’s brain sets up its initial processing of that sound in a form that’s idealized, within the limits of its processing achievements
我所发现的是，这个动物的大脑 设置了针对这个声音的初始运行， 在其运行能力限制之下，大脑将声音
65.to represent it in an organized and orderly way.
加工成一种有组织有秩序的理想形态。
66.The sound doesn’t have to be valuable to the animal.
这个声音不必对这个动物有价值。
67.I could raise the animal in something that could be hypothetically valuable, like the sounds that simulate the sounds of a native language of a child.
我可以让这个动物生长在一个假设有价值的声音环境里， 比如把声音背景设置成模仿 一个小孩母语的声音。
68.And I see the brain actually develop a processor that is specialized.
我可以观察到大脑实际上也会发展出一个专门的处理器。
69.Specialized for that complex array, a repertoire of sounds.
专门针对这一套复杂的序列的声音的。
70.It actually exaggerates their separateness of representation, in multi-dimensional neuronal representational terms.
它实际上在多维神经表征项上， 夸大了它们表征的差异性。
71.Or I can expose the animal to a completely meaningless and destructive sound.
或者我可以将这个动物置于一个完全无意义且具有破坏性的声音环境之下。
72.I can raise an animal under conditions that would be equivalent to raising a baby under a moderately loud ceiling fan, in the presence of continuous noise.
我可以把动物放在一个 发出持续噪音的环境里饲养， 这样等同于把一个婴儿放在 有中等强度声音的吊扇的环境里养育。
73.And when I do that I actually specialize the brain to be a master processor for that meaningless sound.
当这么做的时候，我实际上是让大脑 成为一个专门针对这些无意义的声音的主处理器。
74.And I frustrate its ability to represent any meaningful sound, as a consequence.
结果是，我破坏了 大脑表征任何有意义的声音的能力。
75.Such things in the early history of babies occur in real babies.
这种情况发生在真实的婴儿身上， 在他们的早期阶段。
76.And they account for, for example the beautiful evolution of a language-specific processor in every normally developing baby.
这些可以说明，举例来说， 在每一个正常发育的婴儿身上， 语言特定处理器的精彩进化。
77.And do they also account for development of defective processing in a substantial population of children who are more limited as a consequence,
这些也可以解释 有相当数量的儿童 发展出有问题的运行能力， 结果在他们更年长的时候，
78.in their language abilities, at an older age.
在语言能力上会有缺陷。
79.Now in this early period of plasticity the brain actually changes outside of a learning context.
在大脑塑造的早期， 大脑的改变与学习无关。
80.I don’t have to be paying attention to what I hear.
我不必专注于我听到了什么。
81.The input doesn’t really have to be meaningful.
输入的信息不一定非得有意义。
82.I don’t have to be in a behavioral context.
我不需要在一个行为环境中。
83.This is required so the brain sets up it’s processing so that it can act differentially, so that it can act selectively, so that the creature that wears it, that carries it,
而大脑需要如此来设置运行， 以便于作出不同的行动， 以便于作出有选择的行动， 以便于这个特定的动物
84.can begin to operate on it in a selective way.
可以用一种有选择的方式来运行大脑。
85.In the next great epoch of life, which applies for most of life, the brain is actually refining its machinery as it masters a wide repertoire of skills and abilities.
在下一个生命的重要时期，也就是生命的大部分时间， 大脑实际上在学习掌握广泛的技能和能力的同时， 使它的运行设置更加完善。
86.And in this epoch, which extends from late in the first year of life to death.
在这个阶段， 从生命第一年的晚些时候一直到死亡。
87.It’s actually doing this under behavioral control.
实际上大脑在这个过程中是处于行为控制的。
88.And that’s another way of saying the brain has strategies that define the significance of the input to the brain.
也就是说， 大脑有策略地定义 输入大脑信号的重要性。
89.And it’s focusing on skill after skill, or ability after ability, under specific attentional control.
它专注于一个又一个技能， 一个接一个的能力， 这些都需要特定的注意力控制才行。
90.It’s a function of whether a goal in a behavior is achieved or whether the individual is rewarded in the behavior.
这个功能在于行为是否完成， 或个体在这个行为中是否得到奖励。
91.This is actually very powerful.
这功能其实是非常强大的。
92.This lifelong capacity for plasticity, for brain change, is powerfully expressed.
这个持续终生的大脑塑造能力，改变能力 非常强烈的表现出来。
93.It is the basis of our real differentiation, one individual from another.
这也是我们每个人 真正与众不同的基础。
94.You can look down in the brain of an animal that’s engaged in a specific skill, and you can witness or document this change on a variety of levels.
我们可以检测一个学习特定技巧 的动物的大脑， 我们可以在不同的水平上观测或记录这个改变。
95.So here is a very simple experiment.
这是一个非常简单的实验。
96.It was actually conducted about five years ago in collaboration with scientists from the University of Provence in Marseilles.
这个实验其实是五年前 在马赛与普罗旺斯大学的科学家 合作完成的。
97.It’s a very simple experiment where a monkey has been trained in a task that involves it manipulating a tool that’s equivalent in its difficulty
这是一个非常简单的实验，就是训练一只猴子 让它学习操作一个工具， 其难度等同于
98.to a child learning to manipulate or handle a spoon.
让一个小孩学习使用一只勺子。
99.The monkey actually mastered the task in about 700 practice tries.
这个猴子实际上大约尝试了700次之后 完成了这个任务。
100.So in the beginning the monkey could not perform this task at all.
而起初的时候，这只猴子完全不能执行这个任务。
101.It had a success rate of about one in eight tries.
它的成功率大约在八分之一。
102.Those tries were elaborate.
猴子的这些尝试是精心的。
103.Each attempt was substantially different from the other.
每一次次尝试都与其他尝试有重要的不同。
104.But the monkey gradually developed a strategy.
但这个猴子渐渐地发展出一个策略。
105.And 700 or so tries later the monkey is performing it flawlessly, never fails.
大约经过700次尝试之后， 这只猴子可以把它执行地完美无缺。
106.He’s successful in his retrieval of food with this tool every time.
他每次都可以成功地用这个工具取回食物。
107.At this point the task is being performed in a beautifully stereotyped way.
到这一步的时候，这个任务 是以一种完美的模式化方式执行。
108.Very beautifully regulated, and highly repeated, trial to trial.
非常完美的控制，重复与尝试。
109.We can look down in the brain of the monkey.
我们可以研究这只猴子的大脑内部。
110.And we see that it’s distorted.
我们可以观察到它的变形。
111.We can track these changes, and have tracked these changes in many such behaviors across time.
我们可以记录这些改变，并且随着时间变化，可以记录 许多的因类似行为变换引起的变化。
112.And here we see the distortion reflected in the map of the skin surfaces of the hand of the monkey.
我们可以看到这个变形， 这个脑图映射的是猴子手掌的皮肤。
113.Now this is a map, down on the surface of the brain, in which, in a very elaborate experiment we’ve reconstructed the responses location by location,
这是一个脑成像图，在大脑的表层上， 我们用一个很精巧的实验，在每个区域 都重建了大脑的反应，
114.in a highly detailed response mapping of the responses of its neurons.
这是对神经元反应所做的非常详细的测绘。
115.We see here a reconstruction of how the hand is represented in the brain.
我们在这里看到的是， 大脑如何表征手掌的重建。
116.We’ve actually distorted the map, by the exercise.
我们实际上通过这个实验使脑图变形。
117.And that is indicated in the pink.  We have a couple fingertip surfaces that are larger.
就在这个粉红色表示的区域。我们可以看到其中两个指尖的表皮增大。
118.These are the surfaces the monkey is using to manipulate the tool.
这些表皮是猴子用来控制工具的。
119.If we look at the selectivity of responses in the cortex of the monkey, we see that the monkey has actually changed the filter characteristics
如果我们研究猴子大脑皮层 反应的选择性， 我们可以发现其实这只猴子已经改变了
120.which represents input from the skin, of the fingertips that are engaged.
对来自所使用的手指头皮肤 输入表征的过滤特征。
121.In other words there is still a single, simple representation of the fingertips in this most organized of cortical areas of the surface of the skin of the body.
也就是说，在这个最具组织性的，对应身体皮肤表层的 大脑皮层区域，仍然有一个 单一的，简单的对手指头的表征。
122.Monkey has like you have.
猴子和我们一样都有。
123.And yet now it’s represented in substantially finer grain.
然而现在其表征区域呈现为更细腻的质地。
124.The monkey is getting more detailed information from these surfaces.
这只猴子从这些表面获得更详细的信息。
125.And that is an unknown, unsuspected, maybe by you, part of acquiring the skill or ability.
而这些伴随获得技能或能力产生的改变， 你可能对此一无所知或无所察觉。
126.Now actually we’ve looked in several different cortical areas in the monkey learning this task.
实际上，在研究猴子学习任务的过程中， 我们研究了其大脑皮层几个不同的区域。
127.And each one of them changes in ways that are specific to the skill or ability.
每个区域都根据所学技能或能力 作出特定的改变。
128.So for example we can look to the cortical area that represents input that’s controlling the posture of the monkey.
举例来说，我们研究猴子大脑皮层中 表征输入控制姿势信号的区域。
129.We look in cortical areas that control specific movements, and the sequences of movements that are required in the behavior, and so forth.
我们研究了大脑皮层区域中 控制特定动作及动作序列 等部位，猴子的行为需要这些部位参与。
130.They are all remodeled. They all become specialized for the task at hand.
它们全部被重建了。它们全部特化于当前的任务。
131.There are 15 or 20 cortical areas that are changed specifically when you learn a simple skill like this.
当你学一个像这样的简单技巧时，有15或20个 皮层区域进行了特定的改变。
132.And that represents in your brain, really massive change.
那代表在你大脑里会发生巨大的改变。
133.It represents the change in a reliable way of the responses of tens of millions, possibly hundreds of millions of neurons in your brain.
它代表着你大脑中上千万或上亿 的神经元反应 以一种稳定的方式发生了改变。
134.It represents changes of hundreds of millions, possibly billions of synaptic connections in your brain.
它代表你大脑中 上亿或上十亿的突触 发生改变。
135.This is constructed by physical change.
这是以物理方式构建的。
136.And the level of construction that occurs is massive.
构建发生的数量是巨大的。
137.Think about the changes that occur in the brain of a child through the course of acquiring their movement behavior abilities in general.
想一下在儿童获得普通行为能力的过程中， 其大脑中所发生的变化吧。
138.Or acquiring their native language abilities.
或者是在习得其母语能力的过程中。
139.The changes are massive.
这些改变是巨量的。
140.What it’s all about is the selective representations of things that are important to the brain.
决定对大脑而言什么是重要事物的 选择性表征决定了这一切的发生。
141.Because in most of the life of the brain this is under control of behavioral context.
因为在大脑生命的绝大部分时间里， 其处于行为环境的控制下。
142.It’s what you pay attention to.
也就是你所注意的东西。
143.It’s what’s rewarding to you.
是对你而言有奖励的东西。
144.It’s what the brain regards, itself, as positive and important to you.
是大脑认为 对你有积极意义或很重要的东西。
145.It’s all about cortical processing and forebrain specialization.
这一切取决于大脑皮层运行 和前脑特化。
146.And that underlies your specialization.
而这些造成了你个人的特化。
147.That is why you, in your many skills and abilities are a unique specialist.
这也是为什么你是一个拥有 众多技能和能力的独一无二的特别之人。
148.A specialist that’s vastly different in your physical brain in detail than the brain of an individual 100 years ago.
一个大脑在物理细节上 与100年前的人相比 发生了很大变化的特别之人。
149.Enormously different in the details from the brain of the average individual 1,000 years ago.
与1000年前的普通个体的大脑相比， 这些细节的变化更是巨大的。
150.Now, one of the characteristics of this change process is that information is always related to other inputs or information that is occurring
那么，这改变过程中的一个特点是， 信息总是与其他 同步发生的，时间上前后紧密相连的
151.in immediate time, in context.
输入或信息相关。
152.And that’s because the brain is constructing representations of things that are correlated in little moments of time and that relate to one another in little moments of successive time.
这是因为大脑构建表征的各个事物， 是同时互相联系的 并且在极短的连续时间里也是相互关联的。
153.The brain is recording all information and driving all change in temporal context.
大脑记录下所有的信息 并在时间维度上 驱动所有改变。
154.Now overwhelmingly the most powerful context that’s occurred in your brain, is you.
那么，在你的大脑中产生的 最强大的压倒性的环境，就是你自己。
155.Billions of events have occurred in your history that are related in time to yourself as the receiver, or yourself as the actor, yourself as the thinker,
在你个人历史上发生了数十亿件事情， 它们都在时间上与你相关， 你作为一个接受者， 或执行者，或思考者，
156.yourself as the mover.
或行动者。
157.Billions of times little pieces of sensation have come in from the surface of your body that are always associated with you as the receiver,
作为一个接收者，你无时无刻不 从你的身体表面 接收数十亿的感觉的小片段信息，
158.and that result in the embodiment of you.
而其结果是让你 感觉到身体的具体存在。
159.You are constructed, your self is constructed from these billions of events.
你自身是通过这数十亿次事件 而构建起来的。
160.It’s constructed.  It’s created in your brain.
你是被构建的，在大脑中构建的。
161.And it’s created in the brain via physical change.
这是在大脑中通过物理变化而创建的。
162.This is a marvelously constructed thing that results in individual form because each one of us has vastly different histories.
这个宏大的被构建的东西 导致了个体形态的存在， 因为我们每个人都有非常不同的历史,
163.And vastly different experiences that drive in to us this marvelous differentiation of self, of personhood.
及非常不同的经历， 而这将推动我们自我，人格 上的巨大差异。
164.Now we’ve used this research to try to understand not just how a normal person develops, and elaborates their skills and abilities,
我们使用这个研究 不止为了尝试理解一个正常人是如何发展的， 如何发展他们的技能与能力，
165.but also try to understand the origins of impairment, and the origins of differences or variations that might limit the capacities of a child, or an adult.
同时也是为了尝试理解 缺陷发生的起点， 变化或变异的起点， 这些可能会限制孩子或成人的能力。
166.I’m going to talk about using these strategies to actually design brain-plasticity-based approach to drive corrections in the machinery of a child
我会谈一下利用这些策略 来实际设计以大脑重塑为基础的方式， 来矫正孩子的大脑设置，
167.that increases the competence of the child as a language receiver and user, and thereafter, as a reader.
来增加孩子 在语言接收，使用，阅读 上的能力。