TED- 当你集中注意力的时候大脑会发生什么？

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What happens in your brain when you pay attention?

TED简介：2017 | 我们的注意力不是光靠专注就可获得，还关乎我们大脑的过滤能力。通过研究人们在集中注意力时的大脑模式，计算神经科学家梅迪·奥迪哈尼-西耶德希望让大脑与电脑之间的联系更为紧密，通过建立模型来帮助治疗注意缺陷多动障碍综合征和帮助那些丧失沟通能力的人们。从这个言简意赅而引人入胜的演讲中，我们能听到更多让人激动人心的科学原理。

演讲者： Mehdi Ordikhani-Seyedlar 梅迪·奥迪哈尼-西耶德

片长：06：37

只看英文字幕视频点阅读原文

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=q0530rjehrd&width=500&height=375&auto=0

中英对照翻译

Paying close attention to something: Notthat easy, is it? It's because our attention is pulled in so many differentdirections at a time, and it's in fact pretty impressive if you can stayfocused.

非常专注于某件事情，并不容易做到，是吧？这是因为我们的注意力 同时会被不同的东西吸引。实际上如果你能保持专注，会让人感到很佩服。

Many people think that attention is allabout what we are focusing on, but it's also about what information our brainis trying to filter out.

许多人认为注意力只与我们专注的东西有关，但它实际上也与我们的大脑要过滤的信息有关。

There are two ways you direct yourattention. First, there's overt attention. In overt attention, you move youreyes towards something in order to pay attention to it. Then there's covertattention. In covert attention, you pay attention to something, but withoutmoving your eyes. Think of driving for a second. Your overt attention, yourdirection of the eyes, are in front, but that's your covert attention which isconstantly scanning the surrounding area 43 34166 43 14940 0 0 2285 0 0:00:14 0:00:06 0:00:08 2946, where you don't actually look atthem.

有两种方式主导了你的注意力。首先是外显注意力。在外显注意力中，你的眼睛会随着物品移动，这样就可以专注于它。然后就是内隐注意力。在内隐注意力中，你无需移动你的眼睛就可以专注于某样东西。想一下你开车时的过程。你的外显注意力，你目光的方向 都在前方，但你的内隐注意力 会时常扫视周围环境，但你并没有真正去仔细观察。

I'm a computational neuroscientist, and Iwork on cognitive brain-machine interfaces, or bringing together the brain andthe computer. I love brain patterns. Brain patterns are important for usbecause based on them we can build models for the computers, and based on thesemodels computers can recognize how well our brain functions. 

我是一名计算神经科学家，致力于做基于认知的脑机接口的研究，也可以说是脑机融合的研究。我爱脑电波，脑电波对于我们来说很重要，因为有了它们，我们可以给电脑建立模型，然后基于这些模型，电脑可以识别我们的大脑是怎样运作的。

And if it doesn't function well, then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devicesfor therapies. But that also means something, because choosing the wrongpatterns 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 onlyby our eyes but also by thinking -- that makes covert attention an interestingmodel for computers.

如果大脑不能很好地运作，这些电脑就可以成为治疗的辅助装置。但这也意味着，如果选择了错误的脑电波，会让我们建立错误的模型，最终会导致错误治疗方法的产生，对吧？关于注意力，事实上我们不仅可以 通过转动眼球来转移注意力，还可以通过思考—— 让内隐注意力 变成电脑里一个有趣的模型。

So I wanted to know what are the brainwavepatterns when you look overtly or when you look covertly. I set up anexperiment for that. In this experiment there are two flickering squares, oneof them flickering at a slower rate than the other one. Depending on which ofthese flickers you are paying attention to, certain parts of your brain willstart resonating in the same rate as that flickering rate. So by analyzing yourbrain signals, we can track where exactly you are watching or you are payingattention to.

因此我想知道在你进行外显观察和 内隐观察的时候脑电波 会发生什么变化。我为此设计了一个实验。实验中会有两个正在闪烁的方块，其中一个方块闪烁的速度比另一个慢。你专注于哪一个方块，你大脑里的某个区域就会开始产生相应的频率，同方块的闪烁频率一样。所以通过分析你的大脑信号，我们可以跟踪到你正在看哪里，或者专注于哪个地方。

So to see what happens in your brain whenyou pay overt attention, I asked people to look directly in one of the squaresand pay attention to it. In this case, not surprisingly, we saw that theseflickering squares appeared in their brain signals which was coming from theback of their head, which is responsible for the processing of your visualinformation. But I was really interested to see what happens in your brain whenyou pay covert attention. 

为了观察你在运用外显注意力时 大脑里发生的情况，我会让大家都直接看着其中一个方块，然后专注于它。在这种情况下 ，毫无意外地，我们能看到这些闪烁方块的频率出现在了他们的大脑信号中，这些信号是从头部后方发出的，这个地方负责处理你的视觉信息。但我真的很有兴趣，想要看看当你在运用内隐注意力时 大脑里会发生什么。

So this time I asked people to look in the middle ofthe screen and without moving their eyes, to pay attention to either of thesesquares. When we did that, we saw that both of these flickering rates appearedin their brain signals, but interestingly, only one of them, which was paidattention to, had stronger signals, so there was something in the brain whichwas handling this information so that thing in the brain was basically theactivation of the frontal area. 

所以这一次，我让大家看着屏幕的正中间，并且眼睛不要移动，这样能够注意到任何一个方块。当我们这样操作时，我们看到两个闪烁方块的频率都出现在他们的大脑信号中了。而有趣的是，被投以关注的其中一个方块 信号更加强烈，因此大脑里存在有某样东西 负责处理这类型的信息，而这基本上就是在大脑前额的活动。

The front part of your brain is responsible forhigher cognitive functions as a human. The frontal part, it seems that it worksas a filter trying to let information come in only from the right flicker thatyou are paying attention to and trying to inhibit the information coming fromthe ignored one.

大脑的前额负责人类更高级的认知功能。大脑前额区就像是过滤器，它会尝试只让你专注的闪烁方块信号 进入大脑，而将那个被忽略的方块信号屏蔽掉。

The filtering ability of the brain isindeed a key for attention, which is missing in some people, for example inpeople with ADHD. So a person with ADHD cannot inhibit these distractors, andthat's why they can't focus for a long time on a single task. But what if thisperson could play a specific computer game with his brain connected to thecomputer, and then train his own brain to inhibit these distractors?

大脑的过滤能力的确是 注意力产生的关键，这种能力在某些人身上存在缺失，比如有注意缺陷多动症（ADHD）的人。因为有注意缺陷多动症的人 无法抑制这些干扰物，这就是他们不能长时间 专注于某个单一任务的原因。但假如这个人可以玩某一个电脑游戏，让他的大脑与电脑连接，然后训练他自己的大脑，最终学会抑制这些干扰物呢？

Well, ADHD is just one example. We can usethese cognitive brain-machine interfaces for many other cognitive fields. Itwas just a few years ago that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost completeability 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. 

注意力缺陷多动症只是其中一个例子。我们可以把这些基于认知的脑机接口 运用到许多其他认知领域中。就在几年前，我祖父中风了，完全丧失了说话的能力。他能听见任何人的声音，却没有办法作出回应。他不识字，所以也不能通过写字来表达。最后他安静地离开了人世。

Iremember thinking at that time: What if we could have a computer which couldspeak for him? Now, after years that I am in this field, I can see that thismight be possible. Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns when people thinkabout images or even letters, like the letter A generates a different brainwavepattern than the letter B, and so on. 

我记着我那时就在想： 假如我们有一台电脑，可以替他讲话 该有多好？几年后，我深入了这个领域，预见到这是有可能的。想象一下，如果人们在思考图像甚至文字时，我们可以找到相应的脑电波，比如字母A形成的脑电波 会与字母B不一样，诸如此类的。

Could a computer one day communicate forpeople who can't speak? What if a computer can help us understand the thoughtsof a person in a coma? We are not there yet, but pay close attention. We willbe there soon.

那么电脑会不会有一天就能替那些失语者讲话？如果电脑 能帮助我们了解处于昏迷状态中的 人的想法又会怎样呢？我们还没有实现这个目标，但大家请持续关注，我们很快就会达到目的。

Thank you.(Applause)

谢谢。（掌声）

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