Pogledajte ovu bebu Privlače vas njene oči i koža koju volite dodirivati. Ali danas ću vam govoriti o nečemu što se ne vidi, a događa se u njenom malom mozgu. Savremeni alati neuroznanosti nam pokazuju da ono što se dešava u mozgu nije naučna fantastika. Ono što saznajemo će nam pružiti uvid u ono što su romantični pisci i pjesnici opisali kao "božansku otvorenost" dječijeg uma.
I want you to take a look at this baby. What you're drawn to are her eyes and the skin you love to touch. But today I'm going to talk to you about something you can't see. What's going on up in that little brain of hers. The modern tools of neuroscience are demonstrating to us that what's going on up there is nothing short of rocket science. And what we're learning is going to shed some light on what the romantic writers and poets described as the "celestial openness" of the child's mind.
Ovdje vidimo jednu majku u Indiji, koja govori Koro, novootkriveni jezik. Ona se obraća svojoj bebi na ovom jeziku. Ova majka - kao i ostalih 800 ljudi u svijetu koji govore Koro - razumije sljedeće, da bi se jezik očuvao, moramo ga koristiti kada se obraćamo bebama. Tu se krije važna zagonetka. Zašto se jezik ne može očuvati kroz komunikaciju između nas odraslih? Pa, to ima veze sa mozgom. Ovdje vidimo da jezik ima kritični preirod za učenje. Na ovom dijapozitivu možemo vidjeti godine na horizontalnoj osi. (Smijeh) A na vertikalnoj je vještina u usvajanju drugog jezika. Bebe i djeca su geniji do svoje sedme godine, a nakon toga slijedi sistematično opadanje. Nakon puberteta, nema nas više na ovoj mapi. Nijedan naučnik ne osporava ovu krivulju, ali laboratorije širom svijeta pokušavaju odgonetnuti zašto je to tako.
What we see here is a mother in India, and she's speaking Koro, which is a newly discovered language. And she's talking to her baby. What this mother -- and the 800 people who speak Koro in the world -- understands is that, to preserve this language, they need to speak it to the babies. And therein lies a critical puzzle. Why is it that you can't preserve a language by speaking to you and I, to the adults? Well, it's got to do with your brain. What we see here is that language has a critical period for learning. The way to read this slide is to look at your age on the horizontal axis. (Laughter) And you'll see on the vertical your skill at acquiring a second language. The babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there's a systematic decline. After puberty, we fall off the map. No scientists dispute this curve, but laboratories all over the world are trying to figure out why it works this way.
Rad u svojoj laboratoriji sam usmjerila na prvi kritični period u razvoju - period u kome bebe pokušavaju savladati glasove koji se koriste u njihovom jeziku. Mislimo da, ako proučimo kako se uče glasovi jezika, da ćemo imati model za ostatak jezika, i za odlučujuće periode koji možda postoje u djetinjstvu za društveni, emocionalni i kognitivni razvoj. Stoga smo proučavali bebe koristeći istu tehniku širom svijeta i glasove svih jezika. Bebe sjede na krilu roditelja, i treniramo ih da okrenu glavu kada se promijeni zvuk - naprimjer, "ee" umjesto "ah". Ako to urade na vrijeme, crna kutija zasvijetli i plišana panda udari u bubanj. Svaki šestomjesečnjak obožava ovaj zadatak.
Work in my lab is focused on the first critical period in development, and that is the period in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language. We think, by studying how the sounds are learned, we'll have a model for the rest of language, and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development. So we've been studying the babies using a technique that we're using all over the world and the sounds of all languages. The baby sits on a parent's lap, and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes -- like from "ah" to "ee." If they do so at the appropriate time, the black box lights up and a panda bear pounds a drum. A six-monther adores the task.
Šta smo naučili iz ovoga? Pa, bebe širom svijeta su, kako ih ja volim nazvati, građani svijeta; oni mogu razaznati sve glasove svih jezika, bez obzira u kojoj zemlji vršimo test i koji jezik koristimo. To je značajno jer vi i ja to ne možemo. Mi kao slušaoci zavisimo od kulture. Mi možemo izdvojiti glasove svog jezika, ali ne i stranih jezika. Stoga se javlja pitanje, kada građani svijeta postaju vazani za jezik kojim govore kao i mi? A odgovor je: prije prvog rođendana. Ovdje vidite uspjeh na zadatku sa okretanjem glave beba testiranih u Tokiju i Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama, ovdje u Seattleu, dok su slušali "ra" i "la" - važne glasove u engleskom, ali ne i u japanskom. Dakle bebe između šest i osam mjeseci su potpuno jednake. Dva mjeseca poslije nešto nevjerovatno se dešava. Bebe u Sjedinjenim Državama su znatno bolje, a bebe u Japanu lošije, ali obje grupe beba se spremaju za upravo onaj jezik koji će učiti.
What have we learned? Well, babies all over the world are what I like to describe as "citizens of the world." They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using, and that's remarkable because you and I can't do that. We're culture-bound listeners. We can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages. So the question arises: When do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are? And the answer: before their first birthdays. What you see here is performance on that head-turn task for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States, here in Seattle, as they listened to "ra" and "la" -- sounds important to English, but not to Japanese. So at six to eight months, the babies are totally equivalent. Two months later, something incredible occurs. The babies in the United States are getting a lot better, babies in Japan are getting a lot worse, but both of those groups of babies are preparing for exactly the language that they are going to learn.
Stoga se javlja pitanje, šta se dešava tokom ovog kritičnog dvomjesečnog perioda? Ovo je period u kojem se razvijaju glasovi, ali šta se zapravo dešava? Dešavaju se dvije stvari. Bebe nas pažljivo slušaju, i one se bave statistikom dok nas slušaju kako pričamo - bave se statistikom. Zato poslušajte dvije majke kako tepaju - univerzalnim jezikom kojim se obraćamo djeci - prvo na engleskom a onda na japanskom.
So the question is: What's happening during this critical two-month period? This is the critical period for sound development, but what's going on up there? So there are two things going on. The first is that the babies are listening intently to us, and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk -- they're taking statistics. So listen to two mothers speaking motherese -- the universal language we use when we talk to kids -- first in English and then in Japanese.
(Video) Engleska majka: Aah, volim tvoje velike, plave okice - tako su slatke i lijepe.
(Video) Ah, I love your big blue eyes -- so pretty and nice.
Japanska majka: [Japanski]
(Japanese)
Patricia Kuhl: Tokom govora, dok bebe slušaju, one statistički obrađuju jezik koji slušaju. I te distribucije rastu. I naučili smo da su bebe osjetljive na statistiku, i da su statistike japanskog i engleskog veoma različite. Engleski ima mnogo R i L glasova kako vidimo iz distribucije. Distribucija japanskog je potpuno različita, gdje postoji grupa prijelaznih glasova, poznata kao japansko R. Stoga bebe upijaju statistiku jezika koja mijenja njihov mozak; mijenja ih od građana svijeta do slušatelja koji zavise od kulture kao i mi. Ali mi kao odrasli više ne upijamo tu statistiku. Nas vodi sjećanje formirano u ranoj fazi razvoja.
Patricia Kuhl: During the production of speech, when babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics on the language that they hear. And those distributions grow. And what we've learned is that babies are sensitive to the statistics, and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different. English has a lot of Rs and Ls. The distribution shows. And the distribution of Japanese is totally different, where we see a group of intermediate sounds, which is known as the Japanese "R." So babies absorb the statistics of the language and it changes their brains; it changes them from the citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners that we are. But we as adults are no longer absorbing those statistics. We are governed by the representations in memory that were formed early in development.
Ova saznanja mijenjaju ono što znamo o kritičnom periodu. S matematičkog stajališta se može tvrditi da učenje jezika može da uspori kada nam se distribucije stabiliziraju. To otvara mnogo pitanja o dvojezičnim ljudima. Oni moraju pohraniti dvije statistike istovremeno i mijenjati ih naizmjenično, u zavisnosti od osobe s kojom pričaju.
So what we're seeing here is changing our models of what the critical period is about. We're arguing from a mathematical standpoint that the learning of language material may slow down when our distributions stabilize. It's raising lots of questions about bilingual people. Bilinguals must keep two sets of statistics in mind at once and flip between them, one after the other, depending on who they're speaking to.
Stoga smo se pitali, mogu li bebe statistički obraditi i potpuno novi jezik? To smo testirali izlažući američke bebe koje nikada nisu čule drugi jezik mandarinskom po prvi put tokom kritičnog perioda. Kada smo testirali jednojezične bebe na glasove iz mandarinskog jezika u Tajpeju i Seattleu, pokazali su isti model. Potpuno su jednake sa šest ili osam mjeseci. Dva mjeseca poslije, nešto nevjerovatno se dešava. Bebe u Tajvanu napreduju, a ne bebe u Americi. Mi smo tokom ovog perioda izložili američke bebe mandarinskom jeziku. To je kao da vam dođu rođaci na mjesec dana i borave u kući i razgovaraju sa bebama tokom 12 sesija. Ovako je to izgledalo u laboratoriji.
So we asked ourselves, can the babies take statistics on a brand new language? And we tested this by exposing American babies who'd never heard a second language to Mandarin for the first time during the critical period. We knew that, when monolinguals were tested in Taipei and Seattle on the Mandarin sounds, they showed the same pattern. Six to eight months, they're totally equivalent. Two months later, something incredible happens. But the Taiwanese babies are getting better, not the American babies. What we did was expose American babies, during this period, to Mandarin. It was like having Mandarin relatives come and visit for a month and move into your house and talk to the babies for 12 sessions. Here's what it looked like in the laboratory.
(Video) Govornik: [Mandarinski]
(Mandarin)
PK: Šta smo to uradili njihovim malenim mozgovima? (Smijeh) Oformili smo kontrolnu grupu da bi se uvjerili da samo prisustvo u laboratoriji ne upaređuje znanje mandarinskog. Stoga je grupa beba slušala engleski. Sa grafičkog prikaza možemo vidjeti da izloženost engleskom nije poboljšala njihovo znanje mandarinskog. Ali pogledajte šta se desilo bebama koje su bile izložene mandarinskom tokom 12 sesija. Bile su jednako uspješne kao i bebe u Tajvanu koje su slušale 10 i po mjeseci. Ovo nam pokazuje da se bebe bave statistikom i novog jezika. One će se baviti statistikom bilo čega što im je na raspolaganju.
PK: So what have we done to their little brains? (Laughter) We had to run a control group to make sure that coming into the laboratory didn't improve your Mandarin skills. So a group of babies came in and listened to English. And we can see from the graph that exposure to English didn't improve their Mandarin. But look at what happened to the babies exposed to Mandarin for 12 sessions. They were as good as the babies in Taiwan who'd been listening for 10 and a half months. What it demonstrated is that babies take statistics on a new language. Whatever you put in front of them, they'll take statistics on.
Ali pitali smo se koja je uloga ljudi u ovoj vježbi s učenjem. Stoga smo oformili još jednu grupu beba sa jednakim brojem sesija - svih 12, ali putem televizije a druga grupa beba je bila izložena samo zvuku i gledali su u medvjedića na ekranu. Šta smo im uradili? Ovdje vidite rezultat grupe koja je slušala zvuk -- nema nikakvog napretka -- i rezultat grupe koja je gledala video -- nema nikakvog napretka u učenju. Potreban je čovjek da bi se bebe bavile statistikom. Centar mozga sa društvenu interakciju određuje kada se bebe bave statistikom.
But we wondered what role the human being played in this learning exercise. So we ran another group of babies in which the kids got the same dosage, the same 12 sessions, but over a television set. And another group of babies who had just audio exposure and looked at a teddy bear on the screen. What did we do to their brains? What you see here is the audio result -- no learning whatsoever -- and the video result -- no learning whatsoever. It takes a human being for babies to take their statistics. The social brain is controlling when the babies are taking their statistics.
Mi želimo da zavirimo u njihov mozak da bi vidjeli šta se dešava kada su bebe ispred televizora, i ispred čovjeka. Na sreću, imamo novu mašinu, magnetoencefalograf, koji nam ovo omogućuje. Izgleda kao sušilo za kosu sa Marsa. Ali je potpuno bezbjedan, potpuno nenapadan i nečujan. Ovaj uređaj ima milimetarsku preciznost u smislu prostora i milisekundnu preciznost koristeći 306 SQUID-ova -- to su superprovodljivi uređaju za kvantnu interferenciju -- da bismo pronašli magnetna polja koja se mijenjaju dok razmišljamo. Mi smo prvi u svijetu koji su snimili bebe na MEG mašinama dok su učile.
We want to get inside the brain and see this thing happening as babies are in front of televisions, as opposed to in front of human beings. Thankfully, we have a new machine, magnetoencephalography, that allows us to do this. It looks like a hair dryer from Mars. But it's completely safe, completely noninvasive and silent. We're looking at millimeter accuracy with regard to spatial and millisecond accuracy using 306 SQUIDs -- these are superconducting quantum interference devices -- to pick up the magnetic fields that change as we do our thinking. We're the first in the world to record babies in an MEG machine while they are learning.
Ovo je mala Emma. Ona ima šest mjeseci. Ona sluša različite jezike uz pomoć slušalica u ušima. Kao što vidite, ona se može kretati. Pratimo pomjeranje glave uz pomoć malih kuglica u kapi, tako da se ona može slobodno pomijerati. Ovo je tehnički tour de force. Šta vidimo? Vidimo bebin mozak. Kada beba čuje riječ svog jezika auditivna područja se osvijetle, a potom i područja okolo za koja mislimo da se odnose na povezanost, koordiniraje mozga sa drugim područjima, i uzročnost, jedan dio mozga uzrokuje aktiviranje drugog.
So this is little Emma. She's a six-monther. And she's listening to various languages in the earphones that are in her ears. You can see, she can move around. We're tracking her head with little pellets in a cap, so she's free to move completely unconstrained. It's a technical tour de force. What are we seeing? We're seeing the baby brain. As the baby hears a word in her language, the auditory areas light up, and then subsequently areas surrounding it that we think are related to coherence, getting the brain coordinated with its different areas, and causality, one brain area causing another to activate.
Mi ulazimo u veliko i zlatno doba znanja o razvoju dječijeg mozga. Mi ćemo biti u stanju vidjeti dječiji mozak dok doživljavaju emocije, dok uče da govore i čitaju, dok rješavaju matematički problem, kada imaju neku ideju. Moći ćemo izumiti intervencije na mozgu za djecu koja imaju poteškoće u učenju. Kao što su pisci i pjesnici opisali, mislim da ćemo moći vidjeti tu prekasnu otvorenost, krajnju i potpunu otvorenost, dječijeg uma. Ispitivanjem dječijeg mozga, otkrićemo istine o tome šta to znači biti čovjek, i usput, možda ćemo pomoći sebi samima da budemo spremni za učenje čitavog života.
We are embarking on a grand and golden age of knowledge about child's brain development. We're going to be able to see a child's brain as they experience an emotion, as they learn to speak and read, as they solve a math problem, as they have an idea. And we're going to be able to invent brain-based interventions for children who have difficulty learning. Just as the poets and writers described, we're going to be able to see, I think, that wondrous openness, utter and complete openness, of the mind of a child. In investigating the child's brain, we're going to uncover deep truths about what it means to be human, and in the process, we may be able to help keep our own minds open to learning for our entire lives.
Hvala vam.
Thank you.
(Aplauz)
(Applause)