My subject today is learning. And in that spirit, I want to spring on you all a pop quiz. Ready? When does learning begin? Now as you ponder that question, maybe you're thinking about the first day of preschool or kindergarten, the first time that kids are in a classroom with a teacher. Or maybe you've called to mind the toddler phase when children are learning how to walk and talk and use a fork. Maybe you've encountered the Zero-to-Three movement, which asserts that the most important years for learning are the earliest ones. And so your answer to my question would be: Learning begins at birth.
我今天的主題是學習 我要給在座的各位一個隨堂小考 準備好了嗎? 我們從什麼時候開始學習? 現在就像你们所想 可能你在想幼稚園 或托兒所的第一天 孩子們第一次在教室和老師相處 或是小孩的學步階段 當小孩正學著走路、說話 還有學習使用叉子的時候 你也可能知道零到三變化 也就是說零歲到三歲是學習過程中 最早也最重要的階段 所以,你會回答 學習是從出生時才開始
Well today I want to present to you an idea that may be surprising and may even seem implausible, but which is supported by the latest evidence from psychology and biology. And that is that some of the most important learning we ever do happens before we're born, while we're still in the womb. Now I'm a science reporter. I write books and magazine articles. And I'm also a mother. And those two roles came together for me in a book that I wrote called "Origins." "Origins" is a report from the front lines of an exciting new field called fetal origins. Fetal origins is a scientific discipline that emerged just about two decades ago, and it's based on the theory that our health and well-being throughout our lives is crucially affected by the nine months we spend in the womb. Now this theory was of more than just intellectual interest to me. I was myself pregnant while I was doing the research for the book. And one of the most fascinating insights I took from this work is that we're all learning about the world even before we enter it.
但是,我今天要告訴你們的答案 可能會讓你們大吃一驚 你們甚至認為這不太可能 但是,這個答案 有心理學及生物學的最新證據佐證 而且這段異常重要的學習過程 從我們還在子宮的時候 就已經開始 我現在是科學記者 我會寫一些相關書籍,雜誌上也看的到我的文章 我現在同時也是個媽媽 在我寫這本「起源」的時候 這兩個角色合為一體 「起源」這個報告是來自于 非常活躍的新領域前沿 叫做台兒的起源 直到二十年前,才有人開始研究 胎兒的起源這一塊科學領域 他們認為我們出生前 待在子宮內的九個月 深深著影響我們 這一輩子的健康及幸福 這塊領域所給我的好處,不只是學術方面 我當時也懷孕了 在我為這本書做這項研究的時候 找資料的時候,我發現許多有趣的事 其中一件 是我們還沒來這世上報到之前 我們已經在學習了
When we hold our babies for the first time, we might imagine that they're clean slates, unmarked by life, when in fact, they've already been shaped by us and by the particular world we live in. Today I want to share with you some of the amazing things that scientists are discovering about what fetuses learn while they're still in their mothers' bellies.
當我們第一次抱著寶寶 我們想像著他們是塊無暇的石板 沒有歲月的痕跡 然而,事實上他們已經被我們 以及這個世界給影響 今天,我想和你們分享一些 科學家發現的驚人事實 也就是胎兒 在媽媽肚子裡如何學習
First of all, they learn the sound of their mothers' voices. Because sounds from the outside world have to travel through the mother's abdominal tissue and through the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus, the voices fetuses hear, starting around the fourth month of gestation, are muted and muffled. One researcher says that they probably sound a lot like the the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher in the old "Peanuts" cartoon. But the pregnant woman's own voice reverberates through her body, reaching the fetus much more readily. And because the fetus is with her all the time, it hears her voice a lot. Once the baby's born, it recognizes her voice and it prefers listening to her voice over anyone else's.
首先 他們學會辨別媽媽的聲音 外來世界的聲音 從媽媽的腹部傳送進去 到了羊水 大概在懷孕的第四個月 寶寶就會隱約聽到 那些柔和的聲音 一位研究員說 胎兒聽到的聲音,聽起來大概就像是過去的《花生漫畫》中 查理布朗他老師的聲音 孕婦自己的聲音 會在身體裡一直迴盪 胎兒很快就會聽到了 因為胎兒一直都在媽媽的肚子裡 胎兒就常常聽到媽媽的聲音 一旦寶寶出生,寶寶就能辨認出媽媽的聲音 此外,比起其他人的聲音 寶寶也比較喜歡媽媽的聲音
How can we know this? Newborn babies can't do much, but one thing they're really good at is sucking. Researchers take advantage of this fact by rigging up two rubber nipples, so that if a baby sucks on one, it hears a recording of its mother's voice on a pair of headphones, and if it sucks on the other nipple, it hears a recording of a female stranger's voice. Babies quickly show their preference by choosing the first one. Scientists also take advantage of the fact that babies will slow down their sucking when something interests them and resume their fast sucking when they get bored. This is how researchers discovered that, after women repeatedly read aloud a section of Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" while they were pregnant, their newborn babies recognized that passage when they hear it outside the womb. My favorite experiment of this kind is the one that showed that the babies of women who watched a certain soap opera every day during pregnancy recognized the theme song of that show once they were born. So fetuses are even learning about the particular language that's spoken in the world that they'll be born into.
我們是怎麼知道的呢? 剛出生的寶寶能做的事情不多 其中他們滿擅長的就是吸吮 研究員便利用寶寶這項特點 做了兩個橡膠奶嘴 研究員讓寶寶吸吮其中一個 同時讓寶寶帶了一副耳機 聽自己媽媽的聲音 之後,又讓寶寶吸吮另一個 同時讓寶寶聽其它女性的聲音 寶寶很快地選擇要吸吮第一個奶嘴 這就表現出寶寶的偏好 科學家也發現 如果寶寶對某樣事物感興趣 吸吮速度就會慢下來 並且回到快速的吸吮速度 他們感到無聊的時候 科學家觀察懷孕的媽媽們 不斷地大聲朗誦 蘇斯博士的《戴帽子的貓》其中一章節 當那些寶寶出生後 他們可以認得那個故事章節 這類實驗中,我最喜歡的 是媽媽們在懷孕的時候 每天都看固定的肥皂劇 在那些寶寶出生後 他們可以認得出 那些肥皂劇的主題曲 因此,胎兒還在子宮內時 就在學著了解將要出生的周遭環境 所使用的語言
A study published last year found that from birth, from the moment of birth, babies cry in the accent of their mother's native language. French babies cry on a rising note while German babies end on a falling note, imitating the melodic contours of those languages. Now why would this kind of fetal learning be useful? It may have evolved to aid the baby's survival. From the moment of birth, the baby responds most to the voice of the person who is most likely to care for it -- its mother. It even makes its cries sound like the mother's language, which may further endear the baby to the mother, and which may give the baby a head start in the critical task of learning how to understand and speak its native language.
去年發表的一項研究指出 在出生的那一刻 寶寶哭聲的腔調 是媽媽母語的腔調 法國寶寶的哭聲,聲調較高 德國寶寶的哭聲,聲調較低 哭聲聽起來 像是模仿自己母語的腔調 為什麼胎兒學這些東西、 是有用的呢? 這類學習可能幫助寶寶在未來活下來 從出生那一刻開始 寶寶對媽媽的聲音 也就是最可能照顧寶寶的人 反應最多 寶寶甚至會讓自己的哭聲 聽起來像媽媽說的話 寶寶也因此可能更愛自己的媽媽 寶寶也是從這時開始進行 一項很重要的任務 那就是開始了解 並使用自己的母語
But it's not just sounds that fetuses are learning about in utero. It's also tastes and smells. By seven months of gestation, the fetus' taste buds are fully developed, and its olfactory receptors, which allow it to smell, are functioning. The flavors of the food a pregnant woman eats find their way into the amniotic fluid, which is continuously swallowed by the fetus. Babies seem to remember and prefer these tastes once they're out in the world. In one experiment, a group of pregnant women was asked to drink a lot of carrot juice during their third trimester of pregnancy, while another group of pregnant women drank only water. Six months later, the women's infants were offered cereal mixed with carrot juice, and their facial expressions were observed while they ate it. The offspring of the carrot juice drinking women ate more carrot-flavored cereal, and from the looks of it, they seemed to enjoy it more.
胎兒在子宮內所學的 不僅僅是關於聽覺 還有味覺和嗅覺 懷孕七個月之後 胎兒的味蕾已經發育健全 胎兒用來聞東西的嗅覺受器 也開始運作 孕婦吃的食物的味道 會傳到羊水 胎兒會一直吸收 那個帶了味道的羊水 一旦寶寶來到這個世上,他們似乎記得那個味道 也特別喜歡那個味道 有一個實驗要求一群孕婦 在他們懷孕期間的最後三個月 喝很多的胡蘿蔔汁 而另一群的孕婦 只有喝水 六個月之後,我們讓那些孕婦的寶寶 吃了有胡蘿蔔口味的綜合麥片 在他們吃的時候,我們把他們臉上的表情記錄下來 先前喝胡蘿蔔汁的孕婦所生的小孩 吃比較多胡蘿蔔口味的麥片 從他們的表情看來 他們也似乎比較喜歡胡蘿蔔口味
A sort of French version of this experiment was carried out in Dijon, France where researchers found that mothers who consumed food and drink flavored with licorice-flavored anise during pregnancy showed a preference for anise on their first day of life, and again, when they were tested later, on their fourth day of life. Babies whose mothers did not eat anise during pregnancy showed a reaction that translated roughly as "yuck." What this means is that fetuses are effectively being taught by their mothers about what is safe and good to eat. Fetuses are also being taught about the particular culture that they'll be joining through one of culture's most powerful expressions, which is food. They're being introduced to the characteristic flavors and spices of their culture's cuisine even before birth.
這個實驗的一個法國版本 在法國第戎進行 當地的研究員發現 懷孕期間的母親,無論吃的還是喝的 都參有甘草味道的茴香 那些寶寶在出生的第一天 就對茴香有所偏好 在寶寶出生的第四天 研究員又再一次進行實驗 當初懷孕時沒有食用茴香的媽媽 他們的寶寶對茴香的反應就是「噁心」 這就是說 媽媽確實能夠有效的教導肚子裡的寶寶 什麼東西是可以安全食用的 食物最能表現出一個地方的文化 而媽媽肚子裡的胎兒 可以透過食物去學習 那個特定地方的文化 寶寶甚至在出生前 就在學習當地食物的 味道及香味
Now it turns out that fetuses are learning even bigger lessons. But before I get to that, I want to address something that you may be wondering about. The notion of fetal learning may conjure up for you attempts to enrich the fetus -- like playing Mozart through headphones placed on a pregnant belly. But actually, the nine-month-long process of molding and shaping that goes on in the womb is a lot more visceral and consequential than that. Much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life -- the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the chemicals she's exposed to, even the emotions she feels -- are shared in some fashion with her fetus. They make up a mix of influences as individual and idiosyncratic as the woman herself. The fetus incorporates these offerings into its own body, makes them part of its flesh and blood. And often it does something more. It treats these maternal contributions as information, as what I like to call biological postcards from the world outside.
現在研究證明,胎兒甚至在學習比食物更困難的東西 但是,在那之前 我想說明一件你們可能都在思考的事情 也就是胎教 你們可能想把耳機放到媽媽的肚子上 並播放莫札特的音樂 讓寶寶變得聰明些 然而,胎兒待在子宮的時間有九個月 在這期間胎兒所受到的影響 遠比聽音樂更有影響力,也更重要 許多孕婦在日常生活中會遇到的事情 像是呼吸的空氣 喝的東西,吃的食物 孕婦接觸到的藥品 甚至孕婦自己的情緒 或多或少都是和胎兒共享的 這些事物對胎兒所造成的影響 如同對孕婦造成的影響一樣 每個都是明顯而且不同的 胎兒把這些事物所造成的影響 吸收到身體裡 而那些東西也溶于胎兒的血肉中 事情還不僅如此 胎兒會把媽媽給他的這些東西 當作是種資訊 我稱這種資訊為外面世界所寄來的 生物資訊明信片
So what a fetus is learning about in utero is not Mozart's "Magic Flute" but answers to questions much more critical to its survival. Will it be born into a world of abundance or scarcity? Will it be safe and protected, or will it face constant dangers and threats? Will it live a long, fruitful life or a short, harried one? The pregnant woman's diet and stress level in particular provide important clues to prevailing conditions like a finger lifted to the wind. The resulting tuning and tweaking of a fetus' brain and other organs are part of what give us humans our enormous flexibility, our ability to thrive in a huge variety of environments, from the country to the city, from the tundra to the desert.
因此,胎兒在子宮內所要學習的事物 不是莫札特的「魔笛」 而是攸關存亡問題的反應 寶寶是出生在一個富庶的 還是貧困的世界? 會受到安全的保護嗎? 還是得面對接連而來的危險及威脅呢? 這一生是過得既長壽又充實呢? 還是短暫又煩心? 尤其從孕婦的日常飲食及壓力水平 就能夠看出一些重要的線索 寶寶健不健康,看孕婦就知道 每個胎兒的大腦及器官 在出生後都有點不一樣 而這或多或少讓我們人類 在許多的環境當中 能夠擁有很強的適應力 以及繼續成長的能力 從鄉村到都市 從苔原到沙漠
To conclude, I want to tell you two stories about how mothers teach their children about the world even before they're born. In the autumn of 1944, the darkest days of World War II, German troops blockaded Western Holland, turning away all shipments of food. The opening of the Nazi's siege was followed by one of the harshest winters in decades -- so cold the water in the canals froze solid. Soon food became scarce, with many Dutch surviving on just 500 calories a day -- a quarter of what they consumed before the war. As weeks of deprivation stretched into months, some resorted to eating tulip bulbs. By the beginning of May, the nation's carefully rationed food reserve was completely exhausted. The specter of mass starvation loomed. And then on May 5th, 1945, the siege came to a sudden end when Holland was liberated by the Allies.
現在,我要用兩個故事做為今天的結論 關於媽媽如何教導仍未出生的孩子 這個世界 一九四四年的秋天 世界二次大戰最黑暗的日子 德國軍隊封鎖了荷蘭西部 驅逐了所有裝送食物的船隻 納粹的圍攻開始 此外,接著是數十年來最嚴酷的寒冬 冷到連運河的水都結成冰 食物很快就不夠了 很多荷蘭人一天僅攝取五百卡路里生存下去 五百卡中有四分之一是在戰前所補充的 沒有食物的日子,從數週變成數月 許多人沒有東西吃,只好吃鬱金香的根 接著,五月開始了 荷蘭當初仔細分配的食物存量 也完全耗盡了 因為飢荒而餓死的人越來越多 一九四五年,五月五號 納粹的圍攻突然結束 因為 荷蘭被同盟國解放了
The "Hunger Winter," as it came to be known, killed some 10,000 people and weakened thousands more. But there was another population that was affected -- the 40,000 fetuses in utero during the siege. Some of the effects of malnutrition during pregnancy were immediately apparent in higher rates of stillbirths, birth defects, low birth weights and infant mortality. But others wouldn't be discovered for many years. Decades after the "Hunger Winter," researchers documented that people whose mothers were pregnant during the siege have more obesity, more diabetes and more heart disease in later life than individuals who were gestated under normal conditions. These individuals' prenatal experience of starvation seems to have changed their bodies in myriad ways. They have higher blood pressure, poorer cholesterol profiles and reduced glucose tolerance -- a precursor of diabetes.
這就是我們現在所知的「饑饉之冬」 這場寒冬奪走一萬條人命 有數千人變得虛弱不已 除了這些人之外,還有另一群受到影響的人 就是當初圍攻時 待在子宮內的四萬名胎兒 因為懷孕期間營養失調的關係 有些影響一下就看出來 像是較高的死胎率 先天缺陷,體重不足 以及嬰兒死亡率 其它的影響要幾年後才會發現 研究員將當初「饑饉之冬」生還者的小孩 他們之後數十年的生活記錄下來 發現在圍攻時,當初那些孕婦所生的小孩 他們在往後的日子,較多人得到肥胖症 糖尿病,以及心臟病 正常情況下懷孕所生的小孩機率則較低 這些人當初還是胎兒時所受的飢荒之苦 似乎在他們的身體上 造成了許多變化 他們的血壓比較高 膽固醇相關數值較差 葡萄糖耐性較低 也就是糖尿病的前兆
Why would undernutrition in the womb result in disease later? One explanation is that fetuses are making the best of a bad situation. When food is scarce, they divert nutrients towards the really critical organ, the brain, and away from other organs like the heart and liver. This keeps the fetus alive in the short-term, but the bill comes due later on in life when those other organs, deprived early on, become more susceptible to disease.
為什麼子宮內的胎兒營養不良 會造成日後的疾病? 其中一個解釋為 胎兒處在不好的環境時,他仍做最好的打算 食物不夠的時候 胎兒會把營養傳給最重要的器官-大腦 而不是給其它的器官 像是心臟,肝臟 如此一來,胎兒在短期內仍能存活 但在往後的生活,就得付出代價 因為當初營養不足的器官 變得易受疾病侵害
But that may not be all that's going on. It seems that fetuses are taking cues from the intrauterine environment and tailoring their physiology accordingly. They're preparing themselves for the kind of world they will encounter on the other side of the womb. The fetus adjusts its metabolism and other physiological processes in anticipation of the environment that awaits it. And the basis of the fetus' prediction is what its mother eats. The meals a pregnant woman consumes constitute a kind of story, a fairy tale of abundance or a grim chronicle of deprivation. This story imparts information that the fetus uses to organize its body and its systems -- an adaptation to prevailing circumstances that facilitates its future survival. Faced with severely limited resources, a smaller-sized child with reduced energy requirements will, in fact, have a better chance of living to adulthood.
事情還不僅如此 胎兒似乎懂得分析 從外來世界傳進子宮內的訊息 因此胚胎會做些生理準備 換言之 他們會做好準備 去面對子宮外的世界 胎兒會調整自己的新陳代謝 以及其他的生理過程 為了外面那個等著胎兒誕生的世界 胎兒起碼可以預想到 媽媽會吃的食物 孕婦每一餐吃的食物 對胎兒來說,都是個故事 可能是營養豐富的童話故事 可能是營養不足的難過故事 胎兒會運用 從故事中得到的資訊 規劃自己的身體及生理系統 來適應日後的環境 讓自己在未來能較易存活下來 在面臨非常有限的食物時 體型較小的小孩會降低能量的需求 因此在未來 就較有機會長大成人
The real trouble comes when pregnant women are, in a sense, unreliable narrators, when fetuses are led to expect a world of scarcity and are born instead into a world of plenty. This is what happened to the children of the Dutch "Hunger Winter." And their higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are the result. Bodies that were built to hang onto every calorie found themselves swimming in the superfluous calories of the post-war Western diet. The world they had learned about while in utero was not the same as the world into which they were born.
然而,真正的問題是 孕婦向胎兒傳達的訊息並不可靠 胎兒受到孕婦的指引 以為會出生在一個資源匱乏的國家 但是,卻出生在一個物資充裕的國家 這就是發生在「饑饉之冬」誕生的孩子身上 那些孩子之所以會有較高比率的肥胖症 糖尿病以及心臟病 都是這原因 那些寶寶本來是每一卡路里都得善加運用 沒想到卻出生在一個卡路里過剩的國家 也就是戰後的西方飲食 他們出生後的世界 和原先在子宮所想像的 並不是一樣的世界
Here's another story. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11th, 2001, there were tens of thousands of people in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in New York -- commuters spilling off trains, waitresses setting tables for the morning rush, brokers already working the phones on Wall Street. 1,700 of these people were pregnant women. When the planes struck and the towers collapsed, many of these women experienced the same horrors inflicted on other survivors of the disaster -- the overwhelming chaos and confusion, the rolling clouds of potentially toxic dust and debris, the heart-pounding fear for their lives.
接著是另一個故事 2001年,九月十一號,早上八點四十六分 有數以萬計的人們 在紐約市的 世界貿易中心附近 通勤的人在擁擠的火車月台上穿梭 服務生為了即將到來的忙碌早晨在整理桌面 華爾街的交易員已經開始上班 在這些人之中,有一千七百名女性懷有身孕 當飛機撞上去,世貿雙塔倒塌 這些孕婦和這場災難的倖存者 都經歷著一樣的恐懼 無法控制的動亂,騷動 遍地的瓦礫 可能帶有毒害的煙塵所形成的滾滾烏雲 害怕自己死掉的心跳聲
About a year after 9/11, researchers examined a group of women who were pregnant when they were exposed to the World Trade Center attack. In the babies of those women who developed post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD, following their ordeal, researchers discovered a biological marker of susceptibility to PTSD -- an effect that was most pronounced in infants whose mothers experienced the catastrophe in their third trimester. In other words, the mothers with post-traumatic stress syndrome had passed on a vulnerability to the condition to their children while they were still in utero.
九一一的一年後 研究員檢查了 當時經歷過世貿攻擊 而且懷有身孕的女性 那些女性經歷了這麼悲痛的經驗 都得了創傷後壓力心理障礙症 又稱創傷後壓力症 研究員發現容易得到該症狀的人 有一個明顯的特徵 那些孕婦 在懷孕第三期的時候 都經歷了那場災難 換句話說 那些得到創傷後壓力症的媽媽 把容易得到此症狀的特性 傳給了當時還在子宮內的胎兒
Now consider this: post-traumatic stress syndrome appears to be a reaction to stress gone very wrong, causing its victims tremendous unnecessary suffering. But there's another way of thinking about PTSD. What looks like pathology to us may actually be a useful adaptation in some circumstances. In a particularly dangerous environment, the characteristic manifestations of PTSD -- a hyper-awareness of one's surroundings, a quick-trigger response to danger -- could save someone's life. The notion that the prenatal transmission of PTSD risk is adaptive is still speculative, but I find it rather poignant. It would mean that, even before birth, mothers are warning their children that it's a wild world out there, telling them, "Be careful."
現在請想想這個情況 創傷後壓力心理障礙症 似乎是不好的壓力所引起的反應 該症狀的患者也受了不必要的痛苦 然而,從另一種角度來看創傷後壓力症 在我們看來這是種疾病 事實上,這卻有可能是幫助我們 適應環境的利器 尤其是在危險的環境中 就能看出創傷後壓力症典型的徵兆 像是高度注意自身周遭的環境 對危險可以立即反應 這些都能保住自身性命 創傷後壓力症對胎兒的益處 仍令人存疑 不過,我覺得這反而令人難過 這意味著,甚至在出生前 媽媽們都在警告她們的孩子們 外面是個險惡的世界 叫他們「小心」
Let me be clear. Fetal origins research is not about blaming women for what happens during pregnancy. It's about discovering how best to promote the health and well-being of the next generation. That important effort must include a focus on what fetuses learn during the nine months they spend in the womb. Learning is one of life's most essential activities, and it begins much earlier than we ever imagined.
讓我講的明白些 研究胎兒的起源並不是要責備媽媽 在懷孕時發生的事情 它是關於找出方法,該怎麼做 才能把下一代的健康,幸福給大大提升 我們這麼做的同時,一定要記得 重點是胎兒在子宮內的九個月 學到了什麼東西 學習是人的一生當中最重要的課題 而且學習比我們想像中 還要早就開始
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)