Paying close attention to something: Not that easy, is it? It's because our attention is pulled in so many different directions at a time, and it's in fact pretty impressive if you can stay focused.
專心注意某件事, 並不簡單,對吧? 這是因為我們的注意力 同時會被很多不同的東西干擾。 而且如果你還能保持專注, 真的會令人感到佩服。
Many people think that attention is all about what we are focusing on, but it's also about what information our brain is trying to filter out.
許多人認為注意力與 我們所專注的東西有關, 而實際上與我們的大腦 過濾出甚麼有關。
There are two ways you direct your attention. First, there's overt attention. In overt attention, you move your eyes towards something in order to pay attention to it. Then there's covert attention. In covert attention, you pay attention to something, but without moving your eyes. Think of driving for a second. Your overt attention, your direction of the eyes, are in front, but that's your covert attention which is constantly scanning the surrounding area, where you don't actually look at them.
有兩種方式主導了你的注意力。 首先是外顯注意力。 在外顯注意力中, 你的眼睛會隨著物品移動, 好讓你可以專注於這個物品。 然後就是內隱注意力。 在內隱注意力中, 你無需移動你的眼睛, 就能注意到某樣東西。 想像一下你在開車的時候, 你的外顯注意力, 也就是你眼睛的方向 都在前方。 但你的內隱注意力 會不斷地掃視周圍環境, 而實際上你並不會 刻意去看周圍環境。
I'm a computational neuroscientist, and I work on cognitive brain-machine interfaces, or bringing together the brain and the computer. I love brain patterns. Brain patterns are important for us because based on them we can build models for the computers, and based on these models computers can recognize how well our brain functions. And if it doesn't function well, then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devices for therapies. But that also means something, because choosing the wrong patterns will give us the wrong models and therefore the wrong therapies. Right? In case of attention, the fact that we can shift our attention not only by our eyes but also by thinking -- that makes covert attention an interesting model for computers.
我是一名計算神經科學家, 致力於研究認知腦機介面, 或者也可以說人腦和電腦結合。 我很喜歡看大腦圖型, 大腦圖型對於我們來說很重要, 因為有了它們, 我們可以在電腦內建立模型, 然後基於這些模型, 電腦可以識別出 我們的大腦運作的好不好。 如果大腦不能很好地運作, 這些電腦就可以成為 治療的輔助裝置。 但這也意味著 如果選擇了錯誤的圖型, 我們就會建立出錯誤的模式, 結果會導致錯誤的治療方法。 對吧? 關於注意力, 事實上我們不僅可以 透過眼睛來轉移注意力, 還可以透過思考...... 讓內隱注意力 變成電腦裡一個有趣的模式。
So I wanted to know what are the brainwave patterns when you look overtly or when you look covertly. I set up an experiment for that. In this experiment there are two flickering squares, one of them flickering at a slower rate than the other one. Depending on which of these flickers you are paying attention to, certain parts of your brain will start resonating in the same rate as that flickering rate. So by analyzing your brain signals, we can track where exactly you are watching or you are paying attention to.
因此我會想知道, 當你在外顯或內隱觀察時, 腦波圖型會有什麽變化。 我為此建立了一個實驗。 實驗中會有兩個正在閃爍的方塊, 其中一個方塊 閃爍的速度比另一個慢。 看你是專注在哪一個方塊, 你大腦的某個區域 就會同時產生反應, 反應的頻率就跟閃爍頻率一樣。 所以透過分析你的大腦信號, 我們就可以追蹤到 你正在看哪裡 或者你正在專注哪個地方。
So to see what happens in your brain when you pay overt attention, I asked people to look directly in one of the squares and pay attention to it. In this case, not surprisingly, we saw that these flickering squares appeared in their brain signals which was coming from the back of their head, which is responsible for the processing of your visual information. But I was really interested to see what happens in your brain when you pay covert attention. So this time I asked people to look in the middle of the screen and without moving their eyes, to pay attention to either of these squares. When we did that, we saw that both of these flickering rates appeared in their brain signals, but interestingly, only one of them, which was paid attention to, had stronger signals, so there was something in the brain which was handling this information so that thing in the brain was basically the activation of the frontal area. The front part of your brain is responsible for higher cognitive functions as a human. The frontal part, it seems that it works as a filter trying to let information come in only from the right flicker that you are paying attention to and trying to inhibit the information coming from the ignored one.
所以為了想要看看你在運用 外顯注意力時大腦裡發生的情況, 我會要求實驗者, 直接看著其中一個方塊 並專注地看。 在實驗中,毫無意外地, 我們看到了這些閃爍的信號 出現在大腦中, 這些信號是從頭部後方發出來的, 而這個地方就是負責處理 視覺信息的地方。 但我真正有興趣的是: 當你在運用內隱注意力時 大腦裡會發生的情況。 所以這一次,我要求實驗者 看著螢幕的正中間, 而且不能移動眼睛。 這樣就能夠注意到 其中一個方塊。 當我們這樣實驗時, 我們觀察到兩個閃爍方塊的頻率 都出現在他們的大腦信號, 但有趣的是, 被投以關注的其中一個方塊 信號更加強烈, 因此大腦裡有某樣東西 正在負責處理這類的信息。 而這個東西基本上就在 大腦的前額活動區。 大腦的前半部負責 人類較高層次的認知功能。 大腦前額區的運作方式 就像過濾器, 它會嘗試著把你所專注的方塊信號 發進大腦裡, 同時也會把忽略的信號給屏蔽掉。
The filtering ability of the brain is indeed a key for attention, which is missing in some people, for example in people with ADHD. So a person with ADHD cannot inhibit these distractors, and that's why they can't focus for a long time on a single task. But what if this person could play a specific computer game with his brain connected to the computer, and then train his own brain to inhibit these distractors?
大腦的過濾能力 就是注意力產生的關鍵, 這種能力在某些人身上是缺乏的, 比如說,有注意力不足過動症的人 因而有注意力不足過動症的人 無法抑制住這些干擾信號, 這就是他們不能 長時間專注於某一任務的原因。 但如果這個人 可以玩一種特定的電腦遊戲, 讓他的大腦與電腦連接, 然後訓練他自己的大腦 去抑制這些干擾信號呢?
Well, ADHD is just one example. We can use these cognitive brain-machine interfaces for many other cognitive fields. It was just a few years ago that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost complete ability to speak. He could understand everybody, but there was no way to respond, even not writing because he was illiterate. So he passed away in silence. I remember thinking at that time: What if we could have a computer which could speak for him? Now, after years that I am in this field, I can see that this might be possible. Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns when people think about images or even letters, like the letter A generates a different brainwave pattern than the letter B, and so on. Could a computer one day communicate for people who can't speak? What if a computer can help us understand the thoughts of a person in a coma? We are not there yet, but pay close attention. We will be there soon.
是的,注意力不足過動症 只是其中一個例子。 我們可以把這些認知腦機介面 運用到其它的認知領域中。 就在幾年前, 我祖父中風了, 他完全喪失了說話的能力。 他能聽見任何人的聲音, 但無法作出回應, 也寫不出來,因為他不識字。 最後他安靜地離開了人世。 我記得,當時我正在想: 假如我們有一台電腦 可以替他講話會是怎樣呢? 幾年後,我投入這個領域 我能預見,這是有可能的。 想像一下,如果我們可以 在想像圖片或文字時 找出腦波圖型, 像是字母 A 形成的腦波圖型 與字母 B 的不一樣,諸如此類的。 那麼,電腦會不會有一天, 就能為那些無法說話的人發聲? 如果電腦 能幫助我們了解處於昏迷狀態中的 人的想法又會是怎樣呢? 我們還沒有實現那樣的願景, 但我們會極度關注。 我們很快就能將其實現。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)