演說者：Mehdi Ordikhani-Seyedlar
演說題目：集中注意力的時候，大腦是如何運作的？
我們的注意力不是光靠專注就可獲得，還關(guān)乎我們大腦的過濾能力。通過研究人們在集中注意力時的大腦模式，計算神經(jīng)科學(xué)家Mehdi希望讓大腦與電腦之間的聯(lián)系更為緊密，通過建立模型來幫助治療注意缺陷多動障礙綜合征和幫助那些喪失溝通能力的人們。
中英對照演講稿
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.
非常專注于某件事情，并不容易做到，是吧？這是因為我們的注意力 同時會被不同的東西吸引。實際上如果你能保持專注，會讓人感到很佩服。
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.
許多人認為注意力只與我們專注的東西有關(guān)，但它實際上也與我們的大腦要過濾的信息有關(guān)。
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, where you don't actually look atthem.
有兩種方式主導(dǎo)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，這樣就可以專注于它。然后就是內(nèi)隱注意力。在內(nèi)隱注意力中，你無需移動你的眼睛就可以專注于某樣?xùn)|西。想一下你開車時的過程。你的外顯注意力，你目光的方向 都在前方，但你的內(nèi)隱注意力 會時常掃視周圍環(huán)境，但你并沒有真正去仔細觀察。
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.
我是一名計算神經(jīng)科學(xué)家，致力于做基于認知的腦機接口的研究，也可以說是腦機融合的研究。我愛腦電波，腦電波對于我們來說很重要，因為有了它們，我們可以給電腦建立模型，然后基于這些模型，電腦可以識別我們的大腦是怎樣運作的。
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，如果選擇了錯誤的腦電波，會讓我們建立錯誤的模型，最終會導(dǎo)致錯誤治療方法的產(chǎn)生，對吧？關(guān)于注意力，事實上我們不僅可以 通過轉(zhuǎn)動眼球來轉(zhuǎn)移注意力，還可以通過思考—— 讓內(nèi)隱注意力 變成電腦里一個有趣的模型。
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.
因此我想知道在你進行外顯觀察和 內(nèi)隱觀察的時候腦電波 會發(fā)生什么變化。我為此設(shè)計了一個實驗。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。你專注于哪一個方塊，你大腦里的某個區(qū)域就會開始產(chǎn)生相應(yīng)的頻率，同方塊的閃爍頻率一樣。所以通過分析你的大腦信號，我們可以跟蹤到你正在看哪里，或者專注于哪個地方。
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.
為了觀察你在運用外顯注意力時 大腦里發(fā)生的情況，我會讓大家都直接看著其中一個方塊，然后專注于它。在這種情況下 ，毫無意外地，我們能看到這些閃爍方塊的頻率出現(xiàn)在了他們的大腦信號中，這些信號是從頭部后方發(fā)出的，這個地方負責(zé)處理你的視覺信息。但我真的很有興趣，想要看看當你在運用內(nèi)隱注意力時 大腦里會發(fā)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.
所以這一次，我讓大家看著屏幕的正中間，并且眼睛不要移動，這樣能夠注意到任何一個方塊。當我們這樣操作時，我們看到兩個閃爍方塊的頻率都出現(xiàn)在他們的大腦信號中了。而有趣的是，被投以關(guān)注的其中一個方塊 信號更加強烈，因此大腦里存在有某樣?xùn)|西 負責(zé)處理這類型的信息，而這基本上就是在大腦前額的活動。
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.
大腦的前額負責(zé)人類更高級的認知功能。大腦前額區(qū)就像是過濾器，它會嘗試只讓你專注的閃爍方塊信號 進入大腦，而將那個被忽略的方塊信號屏蔽掉。
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?
大腦的過濾能力的確是 注意力產(chǎn)生的關(guān)鍵，這種能力在某些人身上存在缺失，比如有注意缺陷多動癥（ADHD）的人。因為有注意缺陷多動癥的人 無法抑制這些干擾物，這就是他們不能長時間 專注于某個單一任務(wù)的原因。但假如這個人可以玩某一個電腦游戲，讓他的大腦與電腦連接，然后訓(xùn)練他自己的大腦，最終學(xué)會抑制這些干擾物呢？
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.
注意力缺陷多動癥只是其中一個例子。我們可以把這些基于認知的腦機接口 運用到許多其他認知領(lǐng)域中。就在幾年前，我祖父中風(fēng)了，完全喪失了說話的能力。他能聽見任何人的聲音，卻沒有辦法作出回應(yīng)。他不識字，所以也不能通過寫字來表達。最后他安靜地離開了人世。
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.
我記著我那時就在想： 假如我們有一臺電腦，可以替他講話 該有多好？幾年后，我深入了這個領(lǐng)域，預(yù)見到這是有可能的。想象一下，如果人們在思考圖像甚至文字時，我們可以找到相應(yīng)的腦電波，比如字母A形成的腦電波 會與字母B不一樣，諸如此類的。
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.Thank you.
那么電腦會不會有一天就能替那些失語者講話？如果電腦 能幫助我們了解處于昏迷狀態(tài)中的 人的想法又會怎樣呢？我們還沒有實現(xiàn)這個目標，但大家請持續(xù)關(guān)注，我們很快就會達到目的。謝謝。
