本帖最后由 易枫 于 2010-1-14 19:14 编辑
How to Train the Aging Brain
By BARBARA STRAUCH
Published: December 29, 2009
GRAY MATTER Neurons make new connections during learning. 在学习的过程中，大脑皮层的神经元之间建立了新的连接I LOVE reading history, and the shelves in my living room are lined with fat, fact-filled books. There’s “The Hemingses of Monticello,” about the family of Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress; there’s “House of Cards,” about the fall of Bear Stearns; there’s “Titan,” about John D. Rockefeller Sr. 我热爱阅读历史书籍。在我的起居室里，塞满了大部头的充满着丰富史料的书籍的书架成行列队。这些书里，有The Hemingses of Monticello -蒙蒂塞洛的赫敏斯，一部以托马斯·杰斐逊，美国第三任总统的奴隶兼情妇为题材的历史书籍；也有“House of Cards,” 关于Bear Stearns-美国投资银行的衰落的一本书；还有巨人-Titan，以John D. Rockefeller Sr-洛克菲勒（1839-1937,这个工业大亨，推动了石油工业的革新和定义了现代慈善事业）为主题。
The problem is, as much as I’ve enjoyed these books, I don’t really remember reading any of them. Certainly I know the main points. But didn’t I, after underlining all those interesting parts, retain anything else? It’s maddening and, sorry to say, not all that unusual for a brain at middle age: I don’t just forget whole books, but movies I just saw, breakfasts I just ate, and the names, oh, the names are awful. Who are you?
问题来了。在我愈来愈欣赏这些书的同时，我愈来愈不能记得我是否阅读过它们。当然，我还记得这些书的要点。然而，除去那些划了下画线的重点内容以外，是否我还可以记住一些其他的细节呢？这真令我抓狂。除了忘记所有的那些书以外，令我感到难堪的还有，忘记刚看过的电影，刚结束的早餐，还有名字。恩，那些可怕的名字：你究竟是谁？这些对一个步入中年的大脑而言，并非那么的不同寻常。
Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta, go answer the doorbell and — whoosh — all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what’s called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.
中年人的大脑，随着（社会平均）寿命从早些时候的40多扩展到最近的60多，同样也变得容易被（外面事物所）扰乱。烧开水，为做意大利面条而开始烧开水，走开去应答门铃-然后，呜的一下-所有烧水有关的念想统统消失了。确实如此，老化中的大脑，甚至是在中年时期，会陷入一种被称做缺省状态的模式。在这种状态下，容易走神并且开始做白日梦。
Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school?
考虑到这些，问题出来了。中年人的大脑能学会并且牢记学过的内容吗？换句话说，这样的人应该去学校吗？
As it happens, yes. While it’s tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they’ve become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.
假使这只是偶然发生，那么答案是，是的。在试图把焦点集中在老龄大脑的缺陷上时，其诱因也在于研究老化的大脑其功能发生了那些变化。在过去的几年里，学术界对大脑老化的深入研究确信，在人的中年阶段以及过了这个阶段之后，大脑仍然一直在持续的发育。
Many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.
很多过去为人们接受的观点，包括哪个40%的大脑细胞会在中年阶段死亡的论调，已经被颠覆。大脑里的记忆也许并没有消失，而只是简单的储存在神经元的褶皱里。
One explanation for how this occurs comes from Deborah M. Burke, a professor of psychology at Pomona College in California. Dr. Burke has done research on “tots,” those tip-of-the-tongue times when you know something but can’t quite call it to mind. Dr. Burke’s research shows that such incidents increase in part because neural connections, which receive, process and transmit information, can weaken with disuse or age.
关于这些是如何发生的，加利福尼亚波莫纳学院的心理学教授Deborah M. Burke的研究工作提供了一些答案。 Burke 博士从事“tots”的研究工作。“tots”-舌尖现象，也就是你分明知道某事，但一时却回想不起来。Burke 博士的研究表明引发这种意外事件的部分原因在于接受，处理以及传送信息的神经元连接有因为赋闲导致功能的弱化或老化。
But she also finds that if you are primed with sounds that are close to those you’re trying to remember — say someone talks about cherry pits as you try to recall Brad Pitt’s name — suddenly the lost name will pop into mind. The similarity in sounds can jump-start a limp brain connection. (It also sometimes works to silently run through the alphabet until landing on the first letter of the wayward word.)
但是，她也发现，假如在人们试图回忆起某些事物时，预先听到了接近这些事物的声音信息-比如在你尝试想起Brad Pitt’s 的名字时，有人正好在谈论樱桃核-那些你忘记的名字猛然出现在你的脑海。那些相似的声音信息能触发弱化了的神经元之间的连接。（有时这个过程是静默的浏览字母表直到找到这个乖张的词的首字母。）
This association often happens automatically, and goes unnoticed. Not long ago I started reading “The Prize,” a history of the oil business. When I got to the part about Rockefeller’s early days as an oil refinery owner, I realized, hey, I already know this from having read “Titan.” The material was still in my head; it just needed a little prodding to emerge.
这种联想经常是无意识的，也不被觉察的。不久前，我开始读“The Prize,” “石油世纪”一书，一本关于石油历史的书。在我读到关于洛克菲勒早期的炼油厂老板的事情时，我意识到，嘿嘿，在我读巨人一书时，已经了解到这些故事了。那些细节一直在我的头脑里，只是需要一点点刺激，才会浮现出来。
Recently, researchers have found even more positive news. The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.
最近以来，研究人员发现了更多的正面消息。中年人的大脑，在核心问题的认知，以及对大局的把握上，有着优势。如果大脑的形态被维持的很好，那么它将继续帮助其主人建立更多的认知模式。也因此，使其主人能在发现事物意义所在以及提出解决方案方面比年轻人更有速度上的优势。
The trick is finding ways to keep brain connections in good condition and to grow more of them.
其秘密在于找到能保持神经元之间的良好连接的方法以及让它们更多的形成。
“The brain is plastic and continues to change, not in getting bigger but allowing for greater complexity and deeper understanding,” says Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary’s College of California, who has studied ways to teach adults effectively. “As adults we may not always learn quite as fast, but we are set up for this next developmental step.”
大脑是可塑的并且在持续的变化中，虽然外形不再扩大，但构造变的更为复杂，以及理解力变的更强。在寻找提高成人教育效率的途径方面进行研究的加利福尼亚圣玛丽大学教授Kathleen Taylor说。做为成年人，我们在学习的时候，或许领悟的速度并不快，但是在此后的步骤上，我们有了自己的模式。
Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66.
有些教育工作者说到，对成人而言，一个促使神经元向正确的方向发展的途径是挑战他们在年轻时候积累起来的根深蒂固的假设。由于大脑已经建立起了良好关联的途径，中年学生应该通过面对和他们固有的想法相左的新思路来“触动（神经元轴突的）突触”，66岁的Taylor博士说。
Teaching new facts should not be the focus of adult education, she says. Instead, continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different. In a history class, that might mean reading multiple viewpoints, and then prying open brain networks by reflecting on how what was learned has changed your view of the world.
教授新的事实不应该是成人教育的侧重点。取而代之的是，继续大脑的发育，以及丰富的学习模式，这或许要求（成年学生）“面对观点和人群的对抗”。上述两者之间是不同的。她说。在历史课程班里，这意味着阅读多样化的观点，然后通过仔细的思考所学到的内容里那些以及如何改变了你对世界的看法来撬开你的大脑网络。
“There’s a place for information,” Dr. Taylor says. “We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections.”
信息在大脑里有其固有的位置（来存储）。Taylor博士说。我们需要知道那些内容，但是我们需要了解的更多，（我们）需要挑战我们对世界的认知。如果你总是在你有相同意见的人群和观点中徘徊，以及你总是阅读那些和你想法类似的或你早已经知晓的东西，那么你的大脑也就没有机会挑战已经建立的神经元之间的连接。
Such stretching is exactly what scientists say best keeps a brain in tune: get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work.
这种扩张是精确的。科学家认为这是最好的保持大脑协调的途径。避开使你感到舒适的地带，推动以及养育你自己的大脑。做任何（有助于推动你的大脑继续发育的）事情，比如学习一门新的外语，或用不同的方法处理你的工作。
“As adults we have these well-trodden paths in our synapses,” Dr. Taylor says. “We have to crack the cognitive egg and scramble it up. And if you learn something this way, when you think of it again you’ll have an overlay of complexity you didn’t have before — and help your brain keep developing as well.”
作为成年人，我们的大脑细胞的（神经元轴突的）突触有着固有的模式。Taylor博士说。我们必须打破自设的认知屏障并且超越它。如果你按照这种方法学习，当你再次回想的时候，你（的脑神经）将得到从未有过的复杂的叠加-这也将有助于你的大脑保持发育。
Jack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a “disorienting dilemma,” or something that “helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you’ve acquired.”
Jack Mezirow，哥伦比亚师范学院的退休教授，他曾提出这样的观点，那就是成年人在面临disorienting dilemma-困惑时，学习的效果更好。或者说，那些使你能反思你固有的观点的东西能使你学习的更好。
Dr. Mezirow developed this concept 30 years ago after he studied women who had gone back to school. The women took this bold step only after having many conversations that helped them “challenge their own ingrained perceptions of that time when women could not do what men could do.”
30年前，Mezirow博士在研究那些返回学校的女性人群时，使他的这种观点变的成熟。那些女性在经历很多的帮助她们克服当时社会上通行的同时也被她们自己完全接受的观点-女性不能胜任男性擅长的工作的讨论后，获得了长足的进步。
Such new discovery, Dr. Mezirow says, is the “essential thing in adult learning.”
这样的新论调，在Mezirow博士看来，是成年人学习时必须了解的事情。
“As adults we have all those brain pathways built up, and we need to look at our insights critically,” he says. “This is the best way for adults to learn. And if we do it, we can remain sharp.”
他说，作为成年人，我们的大脑的学习模式已经建立，我们需要严苛的审视我们自己的内心。对成年人而言，这是最好的学习方法。如果我们这么做了，我们将保持（思维）的敏锐性。
And so I wonder, was my cognitive egg scrambled by reading that book on Thomas Jefferson? Did I, by exploring the flaws in a man I admire, create a suitably disorienting dilemma? Have I, as a result, shaken up and fed a brain cell or two?
因此，我在问自己，是否通过阅读以Thomas Jefferson为主题的书籍突破了我的认知屏障？我是否在审视这个我仰慕的伟人的缺点时，相应的也建立了我自己的困惑-disorienting dilemma?是否我也因此而重组并且培养了一个或两个脑细胞？
And perhaps it doesn’t matter that I can’t, at times, recall the given name of the slave with whom Jefferson had all those children. After all, I can Google a simple name.
如果没有这么好的结果，或许也没什么关系。偶尔在回想哪个和Jefferson养育了几个孩子的奴隶的名字时，我可以用Google 来搜索这个简单的名字。
Sally.
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