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. And it's this machine. And it's constructed for change. It's all about change. It confers on us the ability to do things tomorrow that we can't do today, things today that we couldn't do yesterday. And of course it's born stupid.
在我們的頭裡,都有著這樣的一部機器, 這讓我想起了 伍迪艾倫評論中的格言: "在我們的頭顱裡,最棒的是什麼?" 而答案就是這部機器。 他是為了改變而建造的。一切都是為了改變。 它讓我們明天可以做今天原本不會做的東西。 今天可以做昨天不會的事。 當然他在初生時是很愚笨的。
The last time you were in the presence of a baby -- this happens to be my granddaughter, Mitra. Isn't she fabulous? (Laughter) But nonetheless when she popped out despite the fact that her brain had actually been progressing in its development for several months before on the basis of her experiences in the womb -- nonetheless she had very limited abilities, as does every infant at the time of normal, natural full-term birth. If we were to assay her perceptual abilities, they would be crude. There is no real indication that there is any real thinking going on. In fact there is little evidence that there is any cognitive ability in a very young infant. Infants don't respond to much. There is not really much of an indication in fact that there is a person on board. (Laughter) And they can only in a very primitive way, and in a very limited way control their movements.
出現在你們面前的這個嬰兒 這恰好是我的孫女,Mitra。 他看起來是不是很棒? 笑聲 在從子宮蹦出來時, 雖然她的大腦早已經 開始發展, 並持續了數個月。 然而,就如同每個正常 出生的嬰兒一樣, 她的能力還是很有限。 假如我們想要去檢驗他們的感知能力,可能會發現它還是相當原始,粗糙。 因為沒有實際證明顯示他們在進行真實的思考。 事實上,沒有什麼證據顯示 小嬰兒有任何的認知能力。 他們通常不會對外在的事物有太多反應。 事實上沒有太多的跡象指出,有人在大腦中指揮。 笑聲 而他們只能用很原始的方式,有限的方式來 控制自己的動作。
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, usually to the mouth. 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, standing, walking, before we get to that magical point in which we can motate in the world. And yet, when we look forward in the brain we see really remarkable advance. By this age the brain can actually store. It has stored, recorded, can fastly retrieve the meanings of thousands, tens of thousands of objects, actions, and their relationships in the world. And those relationships can in fact be constructed in hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of ways. By this age the brain controls very refined perceptual abilities. And it actually has a growing repertoire of cognitive skills. This brain is very much a thinking machine. And by this age there is absolutely no question that this brain, it has a person on board. And in fact at this age it is substantially controlling its own self-development. And by this age we see a remarkable evolution in its capacity to control movement.
他們需要數個月的時間 來練習簡單的動作, 如到達某個物體的位置, 並把它拿起來(通常是放到嘴裡)。 而需要再幾個月的時間, 我們可以看到持續性的進步, 從一開始的蠕動,翻身, 到坐起來, 爬行,站立,行走, 直到最後能夠恣意的 在所處的環境活動。 然而,當我們觀察大腦時, 此時,我們可以看到大腦顯著的進步。 大腦在這個時候才真正可以的儲存訊息。 它可以儲存,紀錄, 快速的提取 世上數以千計 數以萬計 個物體的意義,動作以及彼此之間的關係。 而事實上,這些關係可以用上百種, 上千種,甚至百萬的方式建構起來。 而在這個時候,大腦會發展出精密的感知能力。 並且會逐漸的發展出多樣不同的認知技巧。 它很像是個會思考的機器。 而在這個年紀,甲板上已經有人在指揮, 是絕對毫無疑問的。 事實上,在這個年紀的大腦幾乎可以完全控制自己的發展。 並且我們可以看到大腦在 控制動作能力方面明顯的進步。
Now movement has advanced to the point where it can actually control movement simultaneously, in a complex sequence, in complex ways as would be required for example for playing a complicated game, like soccer. Now this boy can bounce a soccer ball on his head. And where this boy comes from, Sao Paulo, Brazil, about 40 percent of boys of his age have this ability. You could go out into the community in Monterey, and you'd have difficulty finding a boy that has this ability. And if you did he'd probably be from Sao Paulo. (Laughter)
現在移動的精密度 已經進步到 它可以立即的, 同時控制 一連串複雜的動作, 例如玩足球。 在這個年紀,男孩已經可以把足球放在頭上旋轉。 這個男孩來自巴西的聖保羅, 當地有40%的男孩都具有這樣的能力。 你可以到位於Monterey的社區, 在那裏可能很難找的到有這樣能力的男孩, 而如果真的找到了,那他可能也是來自聖保羅。 笑聲
That's all another way of saying that our individual skills and abilities are very much shaped by our environments. That environment extends into our contemporary culture, the thing our brain is challenged with. 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. And in fact they result in a wonderful differentiation in humankind, in the way that, in fact, no two of us are quite alike. 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. 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, and that define us as acting, moving, thinking creatures.
透過這個例子,我們可以知道, 大腦在認知方面獨特的技巧與能力, 常常是由環境形塑的。 環境擴展了我們所在的文化情境, 那個使我們大腦面臨挑戰的文化情境。 因為我們已經完成建構 在個體進化歷程中,所需的 特定技巧與能力。 而這樣的結果導致 了人類個體間令人驚奇的差異, 事實上,沒有兩個人 會很相像。 我們每一個人由於需要不同的彈性與適應力,因此需要不同的技能, 而這些技能都來自於這個 可塑性極高的機器。 在一個成人的大腦中,已經建立一個大型的 技能資料庫,我們可以從記憶中 自動提取一些技能,使我們成為有行為,動作以及 思考能力的生物。
Now we study this, as the nerdy, laboratory, university-based scientists that we are, by engaging the brains of animals like rats, or monkeys, 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. And we try to track the changes that occur as the new skill or ability is acquired. In fact we do this in individuals of any age, in these different species -- that is to say from infancies, infancy up to adulthood and old age. 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 just like we might examine a child and their ability to acquire the sub-skills, or the general overall skill of accomplishing something like mastering the ability to read. 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 that apply to musical performance.
目前我們研究這方面的議題, 我們主要是大學實驗室的研究者所組成, 藉由了解地球上 某些特殊的 小動物的大腦,例如老鼠,猴子, 或者此類具有好奇心的動物, 促使牠們學習新的技能。 而現在我們嘗試追蹤並觀察當 新技巧或能力形成時,這些小動物大腦產生的變化。 事實上,我們針對不同年齡層, 以及不同的種族的個體進行此項追蹤研究。 也就是從嬰兒, 成年到老年。 因此我們會觀察當一隻老鼠學習新的技能時, 會產生何種改變, 例如:當牠學習用爪子做一個特殊的抓取動作時,大腦的變化。 就好像我們會去注意幼童的能力, 如他們學習某些小技巧 或者達成某種事物時 採用的一般能力, 例如精熟閱讀的能力。 亦或許你會看到個老人, 有某一方面 精熟的能力, 例如:閱讀樂譜 或操作樂器。
From these studies we defined two great epochs of the plastic history of the brain. The first great epoch is commonly called the "Critical Period." And that is the period in which the brain is setting up in its initial form its basic processing machinery. 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. All it takes for example in the sound domain, is exposure to sound. And the brain actually is at the mercy of the sound environment in which it is reared. So for example I can rear an animal in an environment in which there is meaningless dumb sound, a repertoire of sound that I make up, that I make, just by exposure, artificially important to the animal and its young brain. 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 to represent it in an organized and orderly way. The sound doesn't have to be valuable to the animal: 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. And I see the brain actually develop a processor that is specialized -- specialized for that complex array, a repertoire of sounds. It actually exaggerates their separateness of representation, in multi-dimensional neuronal representational terms.
從這些研究,我們可以確立 兩個有關大腦可塑性歷史事件。 第一個重要的時期通常被稱為「關鍵期」。 而那也正是大腦正初始化設置的時期, 大腦的基本運作模式形成的時期。 這實在是個戲劇性的改變, 而這樣的改變不需要學習,相同的, 驅使大腦進行不同的初始設定,也是不需要學習。 以聲音為例,你需要做的, 就是讓自己持續接觸聲音, 實際上, 此時大腦就在這樣的 聲音環境下成長。 也就是說,我可以模擬ㄧ個無意義, 吵雜的聲音環境, 在這樣的環境下飼養動物。 藉由人為的方式,創造出讓動物 與它新生的大腦覺得重要的聲音。 而我認為動物的大腦能夠在牠有限的處理能量內, 以有組織有次序的方式 表徵這個聲音刺激, 並以理想的方式初始化對這聲音的處理。 然而,這樣的聲音並不需要是對動物有價值的。 我也可以利用某些假設是有價值的事物 來飼養動物,例如模擬 一個幼童的母語可能的發音。 並且可以看到大腦真的會發展特定的處理模式,來處理這一連串複雜的聲音。 專為處理這些複雜聲音的特定處理模式。 實際上,藉由多維度神經的表徵方式,它會放大呈現 這些聲音表徵上的差異。
Or I can expose the animal to a completely meaningless and destructive sound. 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. And when I do that I actually specialize the brain to be a master processor for that meaningless sound. And I frustrate its ability to represent any meaningful sound as a consequence. Such things in the early history of babies occur in real babies. And they account for, for example the beautiful evolution of a language-specific processor in every normally developing baby. And so they also account for development of defective processing in a substantial population of children who are more limited, as a consequence, in their language abilities at an older age.
或者,我也可以使動物暴露在完全無意義,且有害的聲音環境之下。 我可以採取像扶養嬰兒 一樣的方式來飼養動物。 或是以連續的方式呈現聲音 例如像風扇持續,適當音量的聲音。 而當我這麼做的時候,事實上我正在訓練大腦, 使它轉變成處理這個無意義聲音的處理器。 這麼做的結果,會讓我對大腦表徵 任何有意義聲音的能力感到失望。 諸如此類的情況,會發生在 新生嬰兒的早期階段。 而這些能力是負責重要的功能的, 例如在每個正常發展的小孩身上, 能夠處理特定語言的能力。 然而這些能力是否也與某些 具有先天缺陷的幼童族群, 長大之後在 語言能力發展上受限的 原因有關呢?
Now in this early period of plasticity the brain actually changes outside of a learning context. I don't have to be paying attention to what I hear. The input doesn't really have to be meaningful. I don't have to be in a behavioral context. 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, can begin to operate on it in a selective way. 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. And in this epoch, which extends from late in the first year of life to death; it's actually doing this under behavioral control. And that's another way of saying the brain has strategies that define the significance of the input to the brain. And it's focusing on skill after skill, or ability after ability, under specific attentional control. It's a function of whether a goal in a behavior is achieved or whether the individual is rewarded in the behavior. This is actually very powerful. This lifelong capacity for plasticity, for brain change, is powerfully expressed. It is the basis of our real differentiation, one individual from another. 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.
在大腦具有可塑性的初期, 大腦實際上是隨著外在學習情境而改變的。 我不需要注意我聽到的是什麼。 而這些輸入的訊息也不需要具有什麼意義。 也不需要在一個有行為的情境。 這是必須的,如此一來, 大腦才能設定它獨特的處理程序, 也可以選擇性的執行各項動作, 擁有這樣大腦的生物,才能夠以 因應不同需求,選擇合適的動作。 第二個重要的關鍵時期, 是大部分生活中常做的事, 就是大腦會提升執行各式各樣不同技能的熟悉度。 這個階段是從生命一開始, 一直到死亡。 而且這個動作的執行,是在個體行為控制的情況下發生的。 這是另一種解釋方式, 來說明大腦有自己的策略去定義 輸入刺激的不同重要程度。 而它的重點是特定注意力控制下, 大腦如何去定義 一個接著一個的技能。 這個功能關注的是,執行某些動作後,目標能否達成。 或者個體是否會因為這個行為而得到獎賞。 而這樣的特性是非常有威力的。 大腦的可改變性,或者說可塑性,其實是終身的能力, 會是強而有力被呈現出來。 這也是人類不同個體具有 差異的基本原因。 你可以注視某一個正進行某種 特定能力養成的動物大腦裡, 並且可以目睹或是紀錄大腦中不同層次的改變。
So here is a very simple experiment. It was actually conducted about five years ago in collaboration with scientists from the University of Provence in Marseilles. 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 to a child learning to manipulate or handle a spoon. The monkey actually mastered the task in about 700 practice tries. So in the beginning the monkey could not perform this task at all. It had a success rate of about one in eight tries. Those tries were elaborate. Each attempt was substantially different from the other. But the monkey gradually developed a strategy. And 700 or so tries later the monkey is performing it flawlessly -- never fails. He's successful in his retrieval of food with this tool every time. At this point the task is being performed in a beautifully stereotyped way: very beautifully regulated and highly repeated, trial to trial.
有一個非常簡單的實驗。 事實上,這是大概五年前,位於馬賽的 普羅旺斯大學的一群科學家 所進行的一項實驗。 這是個很簡單的實驗, 在實驗中猴子被 訓練去操作一個工具, 難度相當於要幼童去握湯匙。 在大概700次的練習之後, 猴子可以熟練的完成這個動作。 而一開始猴子是完全無法執行這個任務的。 剛開始成功機率大概是八分之一。 這些練習使牠的動作更加熟練。 每一次的嘗試對猴子來說,實際上都是不同的動作。 但猴子逐漸發展出自己的策略。 歷經700次以上的練習後,猴子可以完美無瑕的執行此動作, 不會有任何的失誤。 每次都可以用這個工具成功的取回食物。 此時,這個任務已經成為一個 完美的動作範本。 藉由一次又一次的重複練習,猴子可以調整這個動作,使動作達到完美。
We can look down in the brain of the monkey. And we see that it's distorted. We can track these changes, and have tracked these changes in many such behaviors across time. And here we see the distortion reflected in the map of the skin surfaces of the hand of the monkey. Now this is a map, down in the surface of the brain, in which, in a very elaborate experiment we've reconstructed the responses, location by location, in a highly detailed response mapping of the responses of its neurons. We see here a reconstruction of how the hand is represented in the brain. We've actually distorted the map by the exercise. And that is indicated in the pink. We have a couple fingertip surfaces that are larger. These are the surfaces the monkey is using to manipulate the tool. 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 which represents input from the skin of the fingertips that are engaged. 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. Monkey has like you have. And yet now it's represented in substantially finer grain. The monkey is getting more detailed information from these surfaces. And that is an unknown -- unsuspected, maybe, by you -- part of acquiring the skill or ability.
一開始,我們可以觀察猴子的大腦。 而我們可以看到它是紊亂的。 我們隨著時間的經過, 在許多諸如此類的行為中追蹤這些變化。 而這裡我們可以看到猴子手掌中的皮膚表面圖像, 反映出來的紊亂。 此時,圖樣連結到大腦表面,我們透過這個精密的實驗, 重新建立了大腦各區的反應, 這些反應精密的對應到 產生反射的神經部位。 在這裡我們可以看到大腦裡面, 手的各動作是如何被重新表徵。 事實上,我們是透過練習,來使這個圖樣變得不一樣。 如粉紅部位所示,你會發現有幾個指尖會比較大。 這些部分是猴子用來操作這個工作的表面皮膚對應區。 假如我們看到猴子的大腦皮層中, 對應這些動作的區域有反應, 我們可以看到猴子正利用從指尖皮膚 執行動作時的回饋訊號, 來調整,建立適當的過濾器。 換句話說,指尖上單一,簡單的刺激, 會有組織的傳回到到大腦對應身體皮膚 表面的皮質上。 你也具有類似猴子的這種能力。 而現在我們以手指的例子呈現。 猴子可以從這些表層皮膚得到更多詳細的資訊。 而當你學習某項技能時,這樣的改變 或許你是感覺不出來的。
Now actually we've looked in several different cortical areas in the monkey learning this task. And each one of them changes in ways that are specific to the skill or ability. So for example we can look to the cortical area that represents input that's controlling the posture of the monkey. We look in cortical areas that control specific movements, and the sequences of movements that are required in the behavior, and so forth. They are all remodeled. They all become specialized for the task at hand. There are 15 or 20 cortical areas that are changed specifically when you learn a simple skill like this. And that represents in your brain, really massive change. It represents the change in a reliable way of the responses of tens of millions, possibly hundreds of millions of neurons in your brain. It represents changes of hundreds of millions, possibly billions of synaptic connections in your brain. This is constructed by physical change. And the level of construction that occurs is massive. Think about the changes that occur in the brain of a child through the course of acquiring their movement behavior abilities in general. Or acquiring their native language abilities. The changes are massive.
事實上,我們現在正在找尋猴子大腦中, 用來學習這項任務的幾個不同的皮質區域。 而每一個區域會由於不同的技能, 產生不同的改變。 例如我們可以看到控制猴子 手勢的皮質區域。 也可以看到控制 一系列特定動作的 對應的皮質區域,等等。 這些部分被重新建構。牠們會由於執行任務時手部的動作而特殊化。 當你學習像拿東西等簡單的技能時, 大腦中約有15到20個特定皮質區域會產生變化。 而這些表徵會使你的大腦產生明顯的改變。 這樣的改變, 意味著你大腦裡數以億計, 無數個神經元會因而產生變化。 意味這大腦中將有 數百萬個,甚至數億個 突觸會產生變化。 這些是由於身體動作的改變而建立的。 而這個建構的層級是相當巨大的。 想想一個在學習運動等行為課程裡的小孩, 其腦中會產生的變化。 或是他們在學習母語時,同樣的, 大腦也會產生巨大的變化。
What it's all about is the selective representations of things that are important to the brain. Because in most of the life of the brain this is under control of behavioral context. It's what you pay attention to. It's what's rewarding to you. It's what the brain regards, itself, as positive and important to you. It's all about cortical processing and forebrain specialization. And that underlies your specialization. That is why you, in your many skills and abilities, are a unique specialist: a specialist that's vastly different in your physical brain in detail than the brain of an individual 100 years ago; enormously different in the details from the brain of the average individual 1,000 years ago. Now, one of the characteristics of this change process is that information is always related to other inputs or information that is occurring in immediate time, in context. 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. The brain is recording all information and driving all change in temporal context. Now overwhelmingly the most powerful context that's occurred in your brain is you. 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, yourself as the mover. 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, and that result in the embodiment of you. You are constructed, your self is constructed from these billions of events. It's constructed. It's created in your brain. And it's created in the brain via physical change. This is a marvelously constructed thing that results in individual form because each one of us has vastly different histories, and vastly different experiences, that drive in to us this marvelous differentiation of self, of personhood.
總括來說,這些都是由於大腦會對認為 重要的事物產生選擇性的表徵。 因為大腦的大部分工作, 都是在產生不同情境的所需要的行為。 這也就是為什麼當你注意某個事件或物體時。 大腦會給予回饋。 大腦關切的東西,對它來說是正向的, 對你來說也是重要的。 這些都與皮質處理程序, 以及前腦特殊化發展有關。 而這些是你變得特別的基礎。 這也是為什麼你會因為你學會某些技能, 而變成專家。 專家的大腦會與 100年前的人類的大腦, 在生理結構上有很大差異。 與1000年前的人類相比, 有更大的差異。 現在,在這樣的處理模式的改變中,其中一個特點就是 改變方式總是與 它在真實情境, 即時收到的訊息有關。 這是因為大腦會以時間順序, 建立連續時間點上, 有關聯事件的表徵。 大腦會紀錄所有的訊息, 並且因應瞬間情境下的 變化來產生回應。 而在大腦中發生的最強而有力 的情境就是---你自己。 隨著時間的演進,數十億相關的事件 持續的發生,進行著, 而你扮演的角色是接收者, 或是行動者,思考著如何回應, 如何產生行為。 從你的皮膚上,數十億微小的感覺刺激 會傳遞到你的大腦, 使得你成為接受者, 並使得你 成為大腦的化身。 此時你被建立起來, 藉由無數的事件,你被建立起來。 在你的大腦中,你被建立起來。 透過生理上的變化,使你的大腦中產生改變。 由於每個個體都有非常不同的成長歷史, 因此不同個體彼此間會有 相當不同的差異。 由於個體之間經驗的顯著不同, 導致每個人大腦都具有 不同的特質。
Now we've used this research to try to understand not just how a normal person develops, and elaborates their skills and abilities, 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. 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 that increases the competence of the child as a language receiver and user and, thereafter, as a reader. And I'm going to talk about experiments that involve actually using this brain science, first of all to understand how it contributes to the loss of function as we age. And then, by using it in a targeted approach we're going to try to differentiate the machinery to recover function in old age.
如今我們藉由這些相關研究, 嘗試去了解一個正常人的 大腦是如何逐漸的 精熟所會的技能, 以及腦部損傷的原因, 與大腦的不同發展將會如何 限制成人或兒童身上的能力。 接下來我將要討論,如何利用這些策略來 設計以大腦可塑性為導向的研究, 如何修正幼童大腦的認知缺陷, 增加他們在語言學習上的能力, 如語言使用, 或是閱讀。 此外,我將要討論實際上使用 這些腦科學的相關實驗。 首先,我們要先瞭解大腦的功能是如何隨著年紀增長而消失。 接下來我們主要研究目標是 試著鑑別老年時, 如何讓大腦功能復原的機制。
So the first example I'm going to talk about relates to children with learning impairments. We now have a large body of literature that demonstrates that the fundamental problem that occurs in the majority of children that have early language impairments, and that are going to struggle to learn to read, is that their language processor is created in a defective form. And the reason that it rises in a defective form is because early in the baby's brain's life the machine process is noisy. It's that simple. It's a signal-to-noise problem. Okay? And there are a lot of things that contribute to that. There are numerous inherited faults that could make the machine process noisier. Now I might say the noise problem could also occur on the basis of information provided in the world from the ears.
第一個例子我將要探討 與學障幼童有關的議題。 從許多文獻中,我們可以看到 大部分有早期語言學習困難的幼童, 在大腦的功能上都 具有功能性的問題, 也因此在學習閱讀方面, 遭遇到很大的困難,我們的疑問是: 是否他們大腦中的語言處理機制是有缺陷的? 會有這樣疑問的原因是 由於大腦嬰兒早期的 主要功能是處理雜訊。 很簡單的功能。 這是一個關於訊號與雜訊的問題。 而有許多的事物都對這樣的機制有幫助。 然而,有許多遺傳基因上的錯誤, 會使得這個處理程序更吵雜。 現在,我可以說這個雜訊問題 也可能發生在當耳朵 接收到世界上提供的資訊時。
If any -- those of you who are older in the audience know that when I was a child we understood that a child born with a cleft palate was born with what we called mental retardation. We knew that they were going to be slow cognitively; we knew they were going to struggle to learn to develop normal language abilities; and we knew that they were going to struggle to learn to read. Most of them would be intellectual and academic failures. That's disappeared. That no longer applies. That inherited weakness, that inherited condition has evaporated. We don't hear about that anymore. Where did it go? Well, it was understood by a Dutch surgeon, about 35 years ago, that if you simply fix the problem early enough, when the brain is still in this initial plastic period so it can set up this machinery adequately, in this initial set up time in the critical period, none of that happens. What are you doing by operating on the cleft palate to correct it? You're basically opening up the tubes that drain fluid from the middle ears, which have had them reliably full. Every sound the child hears uncorrected is muffled. It's degraded. The child's native language is such a case is not English. It's not Japanese. It's muffled English. It's degraded Japanese. It's crap. And the brain specializes for it. It creates a representation of language crap. And then the child is stuck with it.
年紀比較大的聽眾都會知道,當我是個小孩子的時候, 如果看到一個有裂顎的小孩, 表示他有心智上的發展遲緩的現象。 我們知道他們在認知上的發展會比較緩慢。 我們也知道他們在發展正常的語言能力時, 會遭遇到很大困難。 而學習如何閱讀對他們來說也很困難。 大部分這樣的小孩在智力跟學業上的表現會比較不理想。 然而這情況消失了。 不再發生了。 這種遺傳上的缺陷 已經消失了。 我們再也沒有聽到這樣的問題。到底發生了什麼事? 在35年前,一個荷蘭的外科醫生 發現了一件事, 他發現假如我們能夠在大腦還有可塑性的階段, 就趕快修正這個問題, 那麼大腦就可以用適當的方式來設定, 如此一來,上述的缺陷 就不會發生了。 那麼我們要在這些裂顎兒童身上採取什麼措施,才能修正這個問題呢? 基本上,你要打開位於中耳, 負責排除液體的管路, 這些管路通常是充滿液體的。 如此一來,當幼童聽到不相關的聲音時,這些聲音會被排除, 接收雜訊的程度會降低。 當幼童接收到雜訊時,幼童的母語不是英語, 也不是日語 那是模糊不清的英語,或是模糊不清的日語。 那是垃圾。 而我們的大腦會因為經常接受到這些雜訊,而將它特殊化。 他會為這些無用的語言建立表徵。 最後小孩子就無法擺脫它了。
Now the crap doesn't just happen in the ear. It can also happen in the brain. The brain itself can be noisy. It's commonly noisy. There are many inherited faults that can make it noisier. And the native language for a child with such a brain is degraded. It's not English. It's noisy English. And that results in defective representations of sounds of words -- not normal -- a different strategy, by a machine that has different time constants and different space constants. And you can look in the brain of such a child and record those time constants. They are about an order of magnitude longer, about 11 times longer in duration on average, than in a normal child. Space constants are about three times greater. Such a child will have memory and cognitive deficits in this domain. Of course they will. Because as a receiver of language, they are receiving it and representing it, and in information it's representing crap. And they are going to have poor reading skills. Because reading is dependent upon the translation of word sounds into this orthographic or visual representational form. If you don't have a brain representation of word sounds that translation makes no sense. And you are going to have corresponding abnormal neurology.
如今這樣的垃圾不會在大腦裡出現了。 類似的情況也會發生在大腦裡。 大腦本身可能是很吵雜的,它通常都是吵雜的。 有許多遺傳上的錯誤會使得它變得更吵雜。 而在具有這樣情形的小孩大腦中, 它的母語是無法被清楚的表徵。 那不是英語,而是有很多雜訊的英語。 而由於這部機器有不同的空間參數, 因此不正常, 不同的發音策略將會導致字的發音有缺陷。 而你可以在這樣的小孩大腦中看到,並且一直觀察到這些時間參數的變化。 那是關於較長測量順序, 平均來說,大概比 正常小孩的平均高11倍。 空間參數大概大3倍。 這樣的兒童當然會在閱讀上產生 記憶與認知的缺陷。 因為做為一個語言的接受者, 他們需要接收語言並且把它們表徵出來。 然而當訊息會被表示成垃圾(無用的雜訊)時。 他們將不會有好的閱讀技巧, 因為閱讀要依靠將字的聲音 轉換成到圖形或是 視覺表徵。 假如大腦對這些字的聲音沒有表徵, 這樣的轉譯是沒有任何意義的。 而你將會產生無法表徵一般語言的神經元。
Then these children increasingly in evaluation after evaluation, in their operations in language, and their operations in reading -- we document that abnormal neurology. The point is is that you can train the brain out of this. A way to think about this is you can actually re-refine the processing capacity of the machinery by changing it. Changing it in detail. It takes about 30 hours on the average. And we've accomplished that in about 430,000 kids today. Actually, probably about 15,000 children are being trained as we speak. And actually when you look at the impacts, the impacts are substantial.
然後這些小孩在一次又一次的練習 語言方面的操作 與閱讀方面的操作,而且是透過 那些我們把它視為不正常發展的神經元組織。 關鍵是你可以藉由訓練大腦來擺脫它。 就如同藉由重新定義機器的 處理程序來改變一台 機器一樣。 如果要徹底地改變。平均大概需要30個小時。 如今我們已經成功改變了43萬個小孩。 事實上,當我們正在說話的時候,大約有1萬5千個小孩正進行此訓練。 實際上,當我們看到這些影響時,這些影響其實是相當重要的。
So here we're looking at the normal distribution. What we're most interested in is these kids on the left side of the distribution. This is from about 3,000 children. You can see that most of the children on the left side of the distribution are moving into the middle or the right. This is in a broad assessment of their language abilities. This is like an IQ test for language. The impact in the distribution, if you trained every child in the United States, would be to shift the whole distribution to the right and narrow the distribution. This is a substantially large impact.
我們現在正在看的是一個常態分佈圖。 我們對這分佈左半部的小孩非常感興趣。 大約是3000個小孩。 你可以看到左半部大部份的小孩正往 中間或右半部移動。 這是評估他們語言能力的樣板。 就像是語言的智力測驗。 對於這分佈的影響,假如你訓練每一個美國的小孩, 將會把整個分佈往右移 並且變尖。 這實在是一個巨大,且重要的影響,
Think of a classroom of children in the language arts. Think of the children on the slow side of the class. We have the potential to move most of those children to the middle or to the right side. In addition to accurate language training it also fixes memory and cognition speech fluency and speech production. And an important language dependent skill is enabled by this training -- that is to say reading. And to a large extent it fixes the brain. You can look down in the brain of a child in a variety of tasks that scientists have at Stanford, and MIT, and UCSF, and UCLA, and a number of other institutions. And children operating in various language behaviors, or in various reading behaviors, you see for the most extent, for most children, their neuronal responses, complexly abnormal before you start, are normalized by the training.
試想在一個充滿小孩的語言學習教室中, 試想在這樣一個班上學得比較慢的兒童。 我們其實是有能力,來把這樣的小孩 移動到中間或者是右邊。 除了可以讓他們更準確接受語言訓練, 他也可以修正說話流暢度及說話能力在記憶與認知的方面的問題。 藉由這樣的訓練, 也可以讓重要的語言使用技巧, 例如閱讀,使用的更好。 從巨觀來說,這也修復了大腦。 你可以看到這樣的一個小孩子的大腦。 藉由一些各種知名領域科學家的試驗,如史丹佛大學、 麻省理工學院、加州大學舊金山分校、加州大學洛杉磯分校、以及其他許多的機構。 而幼童在不同語言方面的操作, 或是在不同閱讀的操作, 你可以看到在大部分小孩的大部分情境中, 他們神經上的反應, 會從訓練前的完全不正常, 到訓練後的正常。
Now you can also take the same approach to address problems in aging. Where again the machinery is deteriorating now from competent machinery, it's going south. Noise is increasing in the brain. And learning modulation and control is deteriorating. And you can actually look down on the brain of such an individual and witness a change in the time constants and space constants with which, for example, the brain is representing language again. Just as the brain came out of chaos at the beginning, it's going back into chaos in the end. This results in declines in memory in cognition, and in postural ability and agility. It turns out you can train the brain of such an individual -- this is a small population of such individuals -- train equally intensively for about 30 hours. These are 80- to 90-year-olds.
現在你也可以藉由這項研究的成果來修正 老化過程中產生的問題。 在老化過程中這個機制逐漸的損壞, 每況愈下。 在大腦中,雜音逐漸的增加。 並且學習的模組與控制功能逐漸的損壞。 在這樣的個體中,當你看到他們的大腦時, 你可以親眼看到時間與空間參數的改變。 例如:大腦在表徵語言時的情形, 就如同大腦在一出生開始的混沌情形一樣, 隨著年齡的增長,最後它又會回到混沌的情況。 這會導致記憶與認知的衰退, 以及運動方面,姿勢靈活度的衰退。 現在情況是你可以訓練這樣的一個人, 這些人所占的比例不多, 訓練的時間大概是30個小時。 這些是80到90歲的老人。
And what you see are substantial improvements of their immediate memory, of their ability to remember things after a delay, of their ability to control their attention, their language abilities and visual-spatial abilities. The overall neuropsychological index of these trained individuals in this population is about two standard deviations. That means that if you sit at the left side of the distribution, and I'm looking at your neuropyschological abilities, the average person has moved to the middle or the right side of the distribution. It means that most people who are at risk for senility, more or less immediately, are now in a protected position.
而你現在看到的是他們一些短期記憶區效能的顯著改善, 如短暫延遲後記住事情的能力, 控制注意力的能力, 語言能力,空間視覺方面的能力。 在這樣的母體中,受訓練的個人 神經心理方面能力的分佈範圍 大約是2個標準差。 意思就是假如你位於這個分佈的左邊, 而我正在觀察你的神經心理能力, 平均能力已經移動 到分佈的右邊了。 這意味著大部分的人有衰老危機的人, 可以藉由這種方式, 多少保護他們的心智能力。
My issues are to try to get to rescuing older citizens more completely and in larger numbers, because I think this can be done in this arena on a vast scale -- and the same for kids. My main interest is how to elaborate this science to address other maladies. I'm specifically interested in things like autism, and cerebral palsy, these great childhood catastrophes. And in older age conditions like Parkinsonism, and in other acquired impairments like schizophrenia.
我的研究方向主要是試著盡量的拯救這些年紀較大的人們, 並且可以拯救大部分這樣的人。 因為我覺得在這樣大規模的計畫施行中,是可以做到這樣的事。 同樣的,對於小孩,我也希望做到一樣的事。 我的主要興趣是能希望更清楚的了解其他功能是如何喪失的相關知識。 特別對自閉症,以及腦性麻痺等 重大的幼童疾病有興趣。 還有老年時期常發生的情況,如帕金森氏症 還有其他大腦方面的損壞如精神分裂症
Your issues as it relates to this science, is how to maintain your own high-functioning learning machine. And of course, a well-ordered life in which learning is a continuous part of it, is key. But also in your future is brain aerobics. Get ready for it. It's going to be a part of every life not too far in the future, just like physical exercise is a part of every well organized life in the contemporary period. The other way that we will ultimately come to consider this literature and the science that is important to you is in a consideration of how to nurture yourself. Now that you know, now that science is telling us that you are in charge, that it's under your control, that your happiness, your well-being, your abilities, your capacities, are capable of continuous modification, continuous improvement, and you're the responsible agent and party. Of course a lot of people will ignore this advice. It will be a long time before they really understand it. (Laughter) Now that's another issue and not my fault. Okay. Thank you. (Applause)
這類科學與你有關係的部分是, 如何讓你的大腦維持在高學習效率。 當然,關鍵是在規律的生活中 持續不斷的學習。 並且將來也要記的常常腦力激盪。 為建立高學習效能的大腦做好準備。 在不久的將來,那將會是你日常生活的一部份。 就如同在今日的世界中, 運動是規律生活的一部分一樣, 另一方面,我們終將會認為文獻以及科學對 自己是很重要,原因是 他們可以讓我們了解如何提供培育自己的大腦。 如今,這些腦科學正在告訴你, 培育自己大腦的方式 取決於自己。 快樂、幸福感、 各種能力是 得以持續修正與改善的, 而你可以完全決定 它們修改的方向。 當然會有許多人忽略這個忠告。 他們可能要很久才能了解這件事。 笑聲 那又是另一個議題,而且也不是我的責任了。 好的,謝謝大家。 鼓掌...