注意力好不好竟然和这个有关 长见识了...

Think of driving for a second.

想象一下你开车时的过程。

Your overt attention, your direction of the eyes, are in front,

你的外显注意力及目光都注视着前方，

but that's your covert attention which is constantly scanning the surrounding area, where you don't actually look at them.

但同时你的内隐注意力会时常扫视周围的环境，然而你并没有真正去仔细观察周围。

I'm a computational neuroscientist,

我是一名计算神经科学家

and I work on cognitive brain-machine interfaces, or bringing together the brain and the computer.

在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。

I love brain patterns.

我爱脑电波

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.

脑电波对于我们来说很重要，因为有了它们，我们可以在电脑端建立模型，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 devices for therapies.

如果脑子垮掉了，可以用这些电脑做辅助治疗。

But that also means something, because choosing the wrong patterns will give us the wrong models and therefore the wrong therapies. Right?

但凡事有利弊，如果选择了错误的脑电波，就会建立错误的模型，最终会产生错误的治疗方法。对吧？

In case of attention, the fact that we can shift our attention not only by our eyes but also by thinking --

就注意力而言，我们不仅可以通过眼睛来转移我们的注意力，还可以通过思考——

that makes covert attention an interesting model for computers.

即让内隐注意力成为电脑里的一个有趣的模型。

So I wanted to know what are the brainwave patterns when you look overtly or when you look covertly.

我想知道当人们进行外显和内隐观察时的脑电波变化。

I set up an experiment for that.

因此设计了一个实验。

In this experiment there are two flickering squares, one of them flickering at a slower rate than the other one.

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。

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.

你专注于哪一个方块，此时你大脑里的某个区域会开始产生相同的频率

So by analyzing your brain signals, we can track where exactly you are watching or you are paying attention to.

所以通过分析你的大脑信号，我们可以追踪到你正在看哪里，或在关注什么。

So to see what happens in your brain when you pay overt attention,

为了观察人们在运用外显注意力时大脑里的反应，

I asked people to look directly in one of the squares and pay attention to it.

我让大家都盯着其中一个方块看。

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,

在这种情况下 ，毫无意外地，在他们大脑的后方出现了同频率的大脑信号，

which is responsible for the processing of your visual information.

大脑的后方负责处理视觉信息。

But I was really interested to see what happens in your brain when you pay covert attention.

但我很有兴趣想知道当人在运用内隐注意力时大脑里会有什么反应。

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.

所以这一次， 我让大家目不转睛的盯着屏幕的中央，这样就可以注意到任何一个方块。

When we did that, we saw that both of these flickering rates appeared in their brain signals,

当我们这样做时，我们发现两个闪烁方块的频率都出现在了他们的大脑信号中。

but interestingly, only one of them, which was paid attention to, had stronger signals,

然而有趣的是，被关注的其中一个方块的信号更加强烈

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.

因此大脑里存在有某样东西负责处理这类信息，而这基本上就是大脑前额的活动。

The front part of your brain is responsible for higher cognitive functions as a human.

大脑的前额负责人类更高级的认知功能。

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.

大脑前额就像是过滤器，它会只让你关注的方块信号进入大脑，将另一个被忽略的方块信号屏蔽。

The filtering ability of the brain is indeed a key for attention,

大脑的过滤能力的确是注意力产生的关键

which is missing in some people, for example in people with ADHD.

某些人是缺乏这种能力的，比如有注意缺陷多动症（ADHD）的人。

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.

因为患有ADHD的人无法抵制这些干扰物，这就是他们不能长时间 专注于某个单一任务的原因。

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?

但假如让这个人的大脑与电脑连接，通过玩某个电脑游戏训练他自己的大脑，最终学会抑制这些干扰物呢

Well, ADHD is just one example.

当然ADHD只是其中一个例子。

We can use these cognitive brain-machine interfaces for many other cognitive fields.

我们可以把这些基于认知的脑机接口 运用到许多其他的认知领域中。

It was just a few years ago that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost complete ability to speak.

就在几年前，我祖父中风了，完全丧失了说话能力。

He could understand everybody, but there was no way to respond, even not writing because he was illiterate.

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。

So he passed away in silence.

最后他安静地离开了人世。

I remember thinking at that time:

我记得我那时就在想：

What if we could have a computer which could speak for him?

假如我们有一台电脑，可以替他讲话 该有多好啊

Now, after years that I am in this field, I can see that this might be possible.

几年后，我深入了这个领域，发现这是有可能的

Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns when people think about images or even letters,

假如在人们思考图像甚至文字时，我们可以找到相应的脑电波，

like the letter A generates a different brainwave pattern than the letter B, and so on.

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 for people who can't speak?

那么会不会有一天 电脑就能替那些失语者讲话？

What if a computer can help us understand the thoughts of a person in a coma?

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？

We are not there yet, but pay close attention. We will be there soon.

我们还没有实现这个目标，但请大家持续关注，我们很快就会实现

Thank you.

谢谢