Essentials: How to Focus to Change Your Brain

My name is Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

我叫安德鲁·胡伯曼，是斯坦福大学医学院的神经生物学和眼科教授。

Today we're talking about neuroplasticity, which is this incredible feature of our nervous system's that allows it to change in response to experience.

今天我们谈论的是神经可塑性，这是我们神经系统的一个令人难以置信的特征，它允许它根据经验而改变。

Neuroplasticity is arguably one of the most important aspects of our biology.

神经可塑性可以说是我们生物学最重要的方面之一。

It holds the promise for each and all of us to think differently, to learn new things, to forget painful experiences, and to essentially adapt to anything that life brings us by becoming better.

它让我们每个人都能以不同的方式思考，学习新事物，忘记痛苦的经历，并通过变得更好来从根本上适应生活给我们带来的一切。

So let's get started.

那么让我们开始吧。

Most people are familiar with the word "neuroplasticity," which is the brain and nervous system's ability to change itself.

大多数人都熟悉“神经可塑性”这个词，它是大脑和神经系统改变自身的能力。

All of us were born with a nervous system that isn't just capable of change but was designed to change.

我们所有人生来就有一个神经系统，它不仅能够改变，而且生来就是为了改变。

When we enter the world, our nervous system is primed for learning.

当我们来到这个世界时，我们的神经系统就做好了学习的准备。

The brain and nervous system of a baby is wired very crudely.

婴儿的大脑和神经系统的连接非常粗糙。

The connections are not precise, and we can see evidence of that in the fact that babies are kind of flopping there, like a little potato bug with limbs.

这种联系并不精确，我们可以从婴儿在那里扑通扑通的事实中看到证据，就像有四肢的小土豆虫一样。

They can't really do much in terms of coordinated movement.

他们在协调运动方面确实做不了什么。

They certainly can't speak, and they can't really do anything with precision.

他们当然不会说话，也无法真正精确地做任何事情。

So I want you to imagine in your mind that when you were brought into this world, you were essentially a widely connected web of connections that was really poor at doing any one thing, and that through your experience, what you were exposed to by your parents or other caretakers, through your social interactions, through your thoughts, through the languages that you learned, through the places you traveled or didn't travel, your nervous system became customized to your unique experience.

所以我想让你在脑海中想象一下，当你来到这个世界时，你本质上是一个广泛连接的联系网络，你真的不擅长做任何一件事，并且通过你的经历，你的父母或其他照顾者接触到的东西，通过你的社交互动，通过你的思想，通过你学到的语言，通过你旅行或未旅行的地方，你的神经系统变得适合你独特的经历。

Now, that's true for certain parts of your brain that are involved in what we call representations of the outside world.

现在，对于大脑中涉及我们所谓的外部世界表征的某些部分来说，情况确实如此。

A lot of your brain is designed to represent the visual world, or represent the auditory world, or represent the gallery of smells that are possible in the world.

你的大脑的很大一部分被设计来代表视觉世界，或代表听觉世界，或代表世界上可能的气味画廊。

However, there are aspects of your nervous system that were designed not to be plastic.

然而，你的神经系统的某些方面并不是被设计成可塑的。

They were wired so that plasticity or changes in those circuits is very unlikely.

它们的接线方式使得这些电路不太可能发生可塑性或变化。

Those circuits include things like the ones that control your heartbeat.

这些电路包括控制心跳的电路。

The ones that control your breathing.

那些控制你呼吸的东西。

The ones that control your digestion.

那些控制你的消化的东西。

And thank goodness that those circuits were set up that way, because you want those circuits to be extremely reliable.

谢天谢地，这些电路就是这样设置的，因为您希望这些电路非常可靠。

So many nervous system features, like digestion and breathing and heart rate, are hard to change.

许多神经系统特征，如消化、呼吸和心率，都很难改变。

Other aspects of our nervous system are actually quite easy to change.

我们神经系统的其他方面实际上很容易改变。

And one of the great gifts of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood is that we can learn through almost passive experience.

童年、青春期和成年初期的伟大礼物之一是我们可以通过几乎被动的经验来学习。

We don't have to focus that hard in order to learn new things.

我们不必为了学习新事物而集中精力。

And then after age 25, if we want to change those connections, those superhighways of connectivity, we have to engage in some very specific processes.

25 岁之后，如果我们想要改变这些联系，那些连接的高速公路，我们必须参与一些非常具体的过程。

And those processes, as we'll soon learn, are gated, meaning you can't just decide to change your brain.

我们很快就会了解到，这些过程是有门控的，这意味着你不能随便决定改变你的大脑。

You actually have to go through a series of steps to change your internal state in ways that will allow you to change your brain.

实际上，你必须通过一系列步骤来改变你的内部状态，从而改变你的大脑。

Many of us have been captivated by the stories in the popular press about the addition of new neurons, this idea, oh, if you go running or you exercise, your brain actually makes new neurons.

我们中的许多人都被大众媒体上关于添加新神经元的故事所吸引，这个想法，哦，如果你去跑步或锻炼，你的大脑实际上会产生新的神经元。

Well, I'm going to give you the bad news, which is that after puberty, the human brain and nervous system adds very few, if any, new neurons.

好吧，我要告诉你一个坏消息，那就是青春期后，人脑和神经系统添加的新神经元（如果有的话）很少。

So even though we can't add new neurons throughout our lifespan, at least not in very great numbers, it's clear that we can change our nervous system, that the nervous system is available for change, that if we create the right set of circumstances in our brain, chemical circumstances, and if we create the right environmental circumstances around us, our nervous system will shift into a mode in which change isn't just possible, but it's probable.

因此，尽管我们无法在一生中添加新的神经元，至少不能大量增加，但很明显，我们可以改变我们的神经系统，神经系统是可以改变的，如果我们在我们的大脑中创造出正确的环境，化学环境，如果我们在我们周围创造出正确的环境，我们的神经系统将转变为一种模式，在这种模式下，改变不仅是可能的，而且是可能的。

As I mentioned before, the hallmark of the child nervous system is change.

正如我之前提到的，儿童神经系统的标志是变化。

It wants to change.

它想要改变。

One of the ways in which we can all get plasticity at any stage throughout the lifespan is through deficits and impairments in what we call our sensory apparati-- our eyes, our ears, our nose, our mouth.

我们在一生中的任何阶段都能获得可塑性的方法之一是通过我们所谓的感觉器官——我们的眼睛、耳朵、鼻子、嘴巴——的缺陷和损伤。

In individuals that are blind from birth, the so-called occipital cortex, the visual cortex in the back, becomes overtaken by hearing.

对于天生失明的人来说，所谓的枕叶皮层（位于背部的视觉皮层）会被听觉所取代。

The neurons there will start to respond to sounds as well as Braille touch.

那里的神经元将开始对声音和盲文触摸做出反应。

And actually, there is one particularly tragic incident where a woman who was blind since birth and, because of neuroimaging studies, we knew her visual cortex was no longer visual.

事实上，有一个特别悲惨的事件，一名从出生起就失明的女性，通过神经影像学研究，我们知道她的视觉皮层不再具有视觉功能。

It was responsible for Braille reading and for hearing.

它负责盲文阅读和听力。

She had a stroke that actually took out most of the function of her visual cortex.

她的中风实际上损害了她视觉皮层的大部分功能。

So then she was blind, she couldn't Braille read, or hear.

所以后来她失明了，她无法阅读或聆听盲文。

She did recover some aspect of function.

她确实恢复了某些方面的功能。

Now, most people, they don't end up in that highly unfortunate situation.

现在，大多数人并没有陷入那种非常不幸的境地。

And what we know is that, for instance, blind people who use their visual cortex for Braille reading and for hearing have much better auditory acuity and touch acuity, meaning they can sense things with their fingers and they can sense things with their hearing that typical sighted folks wouldn't be able to.

例如，我们知道，利用视觉皮层进行盲文阅读和听力的盲人拥有更好的听觉敏锐度和触觉敏锐度，这意味着他们可以用手指和听觉来感知事物，而普通视力正常的人无法做到这一点。

In fact, you will find a much greater incidence of perfect pitch in people that are blind.

事实上，您会发现盲人的完美音高发生率要高得多。

And that tells us that the brain and, in particular, this area we call the neocortex, which is the outer part, is really designed to be a map of our own individual experience.

这告诉我们，大脑，特别是我们称为新皮质的区域，它是外部的部分，实际上是被设计成我们个人经验的地图。

So these, what I call experiments of impairment or loss, where somebody is blind from birth or deaf from birth or maybe has a limb development impairment where they have a stump instead of an entire limb with a functioning hand, their brain will represent the body plan that they have, not some other body plan.

因此，这些，我所说的损伤或丧失实验，如果某人生来失明或耳聋，或者可能有肢体发育障碍，他们只有残肢而不是整个肢体和一只功能正常的手，他们的大脑将代表他们所拥有的身体计划，而不是其他的身体计划。

But the beauty of the situation is that the real estate up in the skull, that neocortex, the essence of it is to be a customized map of experience.

但这种情况的美妙之处在于，头骨上的房地产，即新皮质，它的本质是成为一个定制的体验地图。

A few years ago, I was at a course, and a woman came up to me and she said, you know, I-- I wasn't teaching the course.

几年前，我参加一门课程，一位女士走过来对我说，你知道，我不是在教这门课程。

I was in the course.

我在课程中。

And she said, I just have to tell you that every time you speak, it really stresses me out.

她说，我必须告诉你，每次你说话，我都会感到压力很大。

And I said, well, I've heard that before.

我说，好吧，我以前听说过。

But do you want to be more specific?

但你想更具体一点吗？

And she said, yeah, your tone of voice reminds me of somebody that I had a really terrible experience with.

她说，是的，你的语气让我想起了一个和我有过非常糟糕经历的人。

I said, well, OK, well, I can't change my voice, but I really appreciate that you acknowledge that.

我说，好吧，好吧，我无法改变我的声音，但我真的很感激你承认这一点。

And it also will help explain why you seem to cringe every time I speak, which I hadn't noticed until then.

这也有助于解释为什么每次我说话时你似乎都感到畏缩，直到那时我才注意到。

But after that, I did notice she had a very immediate and kind of visceral response to my speech.

但在那之后，我确实注意到她对我的演讲做出了非常直接和发自内心的反应。

But in any event, over the period of this two-week course, she would come back every once in a while and say, you know what?

但无论如何，在这两周的课程期间，她每隔一段时间就会回来说，你知道吗？

I think just by telling you that your voice was really difficult for me to listen to, it's actually becoming more tolerable to me.

我想只要告诉你你的声音对我来说真的很难听，我实际上就变得更能忍受了。

And by the end, we actually became pretty good friends, and we're still in touch.

到最后，我们实际上成了很好的朋友，而且我们仍然保持联系。

And so what this says is that the recognition of something, whether or not that's an emotional thing or a desire to learn something else, is actually the first step in neuroplasticity.

所以这说明的是，对某事物的认识，无论是情感事物还是学习其他事物的愿望，实际上是神经可塑性的第一步。

If I get up out of this chair and walk out of the door, I don't think about each step that I'm taking.

如果我从椅子上站起来走出门，我不会考虑我所迈出的每一步。

And that's because I learned how to walk during development.

那是因为我在开发过程中学会了如何走路。

But when we decide that we're going to shift some sort of behavior or some reaction or some new piece of information that we want to learn is something that we want to bring into our consciousness, that awareness is a remarkable thing because it cues the brain and the rest of the nervous system that when we engage in those reflexive actions going forward, that those reflexive actions are no longer fated to be reflexive.

但是，当我们决定要改变某种行为、某种反应或一些我们想要了解的新信息，并将其带入我们的意识时，这种意识是一件了不起的事情，因为它会提示大脑和神经系统的其他部分，当我们继续进行这些反射性行为时，这些反射性行为将不再是反射性的。

Now, if this sounds a little bit abstract, we're going to talk about protocols for how to do this.

现在，如果这听起来有点抽象，我们将讨论如何做到这一点的协议。

But the first step in neuroplasticity is recognizing that you want to change something.

但神经可塑性的第一步是认识到你想要改变一些东西。

We have to know what it is exactly that we want to change.

我们必须知道我们到底想要改变什么。

Or if we don't know exactly what it is that we want to change, we at least have to know that we want to change something about some specific experience.

或者，如果我们不确切地知道我们想要改变什么，我们至少必须知道我们想要改变一些特定的经历。

Now, there are specific protocols that science tells us we have to follow if we want those changes to occur.

现在，科学告诉我们，如果我们希望发生这些变化，就必须遵循特定的协议。

What it is, is it's our forebrain, in particular our prefrontal cortex, signaling the rest of our nervous system that something that we're about to do, hear, feel, or experience is worth paying attention to.

它是什么，是我们的前脑，特别是我们的前额叶皮层，向我们神经系统的其余部分发出信号，表明我们即将要做、听到、感觉或经历的事情值得关注。

So we'll pause there, and then I'm going to move forward.

因此，我们将在此暂停，然后我将继续前进。

One of the biggest lies in the universe that seems quite prominent right now is that every experience you have changes your brain.

宇宙中目前看来相当突出的最大谎言之一是，你的每一次经历都会改变你的大脑。

People love to say this.

人们喜欢这么说。

They love to say, your brain is going to be different after this lecture, or your brain is going to be different after today's class than it was two days ago.

他们喜欢说，在这次讲座之后，你的大脑将会有所不同，或者在今天的课程之后，你的大脑将会与两天前有所不同。

And that's absolutely not true.

这绝对不是真的。

The nervous system doesn't just change because you experience something unless you're a very young child.

除非你是一个很小的孩子，否则神经系统不会仅仅因为你经历过某些事情而发生变化。

The nervous system changes when certain neurochemicals are released and allow whatever neurons are active in the period in which those chemicals are swimming around to strengthen or weaken the connections of those neurons.

当某些神经化学物质被释放时，神经系统会发生变化，并允许在这些化学物质游动期间活跃的任何神经元加强或削弱这些神经元的连接。

So when people tell you, oh, at the end of today's lecture, at the end of something, your brain is going to be completely different, that's simply not true.

所以当人们告诉你，哦，在今天的讲座结束时，在某件事结束时，你的大脑将会完全不同，那根本不是真的。

If you're older than 25, your brain will not change unless there's a selective shift in your attention or a selective shift in your experience that tells the brain it's time to change.

如果你超过 25 岁，你的大脑不会改变，除非你的注意力有选择性的转移，或者你的经历有选择性的转移，告诉大脑是时候改变了。

And those changes occur through strengthening and weakening of particular connections.

这些变化是通过加强和削弱特定联系而发生的。

But the important thing to understand is that if we want something to change, we really need to bring an immense amount of attention to whatever it is that we want to change.

但要理解的重要一点是，如果我们想要改变某些事情，我们确实需要对我们想要改变的事物给予极大的关注。

This is very much linked to the statement I made earlier about it all starts with an awareness.

这与我之前关于这一切都始于意识的声明密切相关。

Now, why is that attention important?

现在，为什么这种关注很重要？

In the early '90s, a graduate student by the name of Gregg Recanzone was in the laboratory of a guy named Mike Merzenich at UCSF.

20 世纪 90 年代初，加州大学旧金山分校 (UCSF) 迈克·梅泽尼奇 (Mike Merzenich) 的实验室里有一位名叫格雷格·雷坎佐 (Gregg Recanzone) 的研究生。

And they set out to test this idea that if one wants to change their brain, they need to do it early in life because the adult brain simply isn't plastic.

他们开始测试这一想法，即如果一个人想要改变他们的大脑，他们需要在生命早期就这样做，因为成年人的大脑根本不是可塑的。

It's not available for these changes.

它不适用于这些更改。

And they did a series of absolutely beautiful experiments, by now, I think we can say proving that the adult brain can change, provided certain conditions are met.

他们做了一系列绝对漂亮的实验，到现在为止，我想我们可以说证明了只要满足某些条件，成人的大脑就可以改变。

Now, the experiments they did are tough.

现在，他们所做的实验很艰难。

They were tough on the experimenter, and they were tough on the subject.

他们对实验者很严厉，对实验对象也很严厉。

I'll just describe one.

我只描述一个。

Let's say you were a subject in one of their experiments.

假设您是他们一项实验的受试者。

You would come into the lab, and you'd sit down at a table, and they would record from or image your brain and look at the representation of your fingers, the digits, as we call them.

你走进实验室，坐在一张桌子旁，他们会记录你的大脑或对你的大脑进行成像，并观察你的手指（我们称之为数字）的表现。

And there would be a spinning drum, literally like a stone drum in front of you, or metal drum, that had little bumps.

会有一个旋转的鼓，实际上就像你面前的石鼓，或者金属鼓，有一点凹凸。

Some of the bumps were spaced close together, some of them were spaced far apart.

有些凸起的间隔很近，有些凸起的间隔很远。

And they would do these experiments where they would expect their subjects to press a lever whenever, for instance, the bumps got closer together or further apart.

他们会做这些实验，他们希望受试者在凸块靠得更近或距离更远时按下杠杆。

And these were very subtle differences.

这些都是非常微妙的差异。

So in order to do this, you really have to pay attention to the distance between the bumps.

因此，为了做到这一点，您确实必须注意凸起之间的距离。

And these were not Braille readers or anyone skilled in doing these kinds of experiments.

这些人不是盲文读者，也不是擅长做此类实验的人。

What they found was that as people paid more and more attention to the distance between these bumps-- and they would signal when there was a change by pressing a lever.

他们发现，随着人们越来越关注这些凸起之间的距离，当发生变化时，他们会通过按下杠杆来发出信号。

As they did that, there was very rapid changes, plasticity in the representation of the fingers.

当他们这样做时，手指的表现发生了非常迅速的变化和可塑性。

And it could go in either direction.

它可以朝任何一个方向发展。

You could get people very good at detecting the distance between bumps that the distance was getting smaller or the distance was getting greater.

你可以让人们非常擅长检测颠簸之间的距离，即距离变小或距离变大。

So people could get very good at these tasks that are kind of hard to imagine how they would translate to the real world for a non-Braille reader.

因此，人们可以非常擅长完成这些任务，而这些任务对于非盲文读者来说很难想象如何转化为现实世界。

But what it told us is that these maps of touch were very much available for plasticity, and these were fully adult subjects.

但它告诉我们的是，这些触觉地图非常具有可塑性，而且这些都是完全成年的受试者。

What it proved is that the adult brain is very plastic.

它证明了成年人的大脑具有很强的可塑性。

And they did some beautiful control experiments that are important for everyone to understand, which is that sometimes they would bring people in and they would have them touch these bumps on this spinning drum, but they would have the person pay attention to an auditory cue.

他们做了一些漂亮的控制实验，对每个人来说都很重要，理解就是有时他们会让人们进来，让他们触摸这个旋转鼓上的这些凸起，但他们会让人们注意听觉提示。

Every time a tone would go off or there was a shift in the pitch of that tone, they would have to signal that.

每当声音响起或音调发生变化时，他们就必须发出信号。

So the subject thought they were doing something related to touch and hearing.

所以受试者认为他们正在做一些与触觉和听觉有关的事情。

And all that showed was that it wasn't just the mere action of touching these bumps; they had to pay attention to the bumps themselves.

所有这些都表明，这不仅仅是触摸这些凸起的动作；而是触摸这些凸起的动作。他们必须注意颠簸本身。

If they were placing their attention on the auditory cue, on the tone, well, then there was plasticity in the auditory portion of the brain, but not on the touch portion of the brain.

如果他们将注意力集中在听觉提示上，即音调上，那么大脑的听觉部分就有可塑性，但大脑的触觉部分则没有可塑性。

And this really spits in the face of this thing that you hear so often, which is, every experience that you have is going to change the way your brain works.

这确实是对你经常听到的一句话的反驳，那就是，你所拥有的每一次经历都会改变你大脑的工作方式。

Absolutely not.

绝对不是。

The experiences that you pay super careful attention to are what open up plasticity, and it opens up plasticity to that specific experience.

你特别关注的经历会开启可塑性，它也会开启特定体验的可塑性。

So the question then is, why?

那么问题是，为什么？

And Merzenich and his graduate students and postdocs went on to address this question of why.

梅泽尼奇和他的研究生和博士后继续解决这个“为什么”的问题。

And it turns out, the answer is a very straightforward neurochemical answer.

事实证明，答案是一个非常简单的神经化学答案。

And the first neurochemical is epinephrine, also adrenaline.

第一种神经化学物质是肾上腺素，也是肾上腺素。

We call it adrenaline when it's released from the adrenal glands above our kidneys.

当它从我们肾脏上方的肾上腺释放时，我们称之为肾上腺素。

That's in the body.

那是在身体里。

We call it epinephrine in the brain, but they are chemically identical substances.

我们将其称为大脑中的肾上腺素，但它们的化学性质相同。

Epinephrine is released from a region in the brainstem called locus ceruleus.

肾上腺素从脑干中称为蓝斑的区域释放。

Epinephrine is released when we pay attention and when we are alert.

当我们集中注意力和警觉时，肾上腺素就会被释放。

But the most important thing for getting plasticity is that there be epinephrine, which equates to alertness, plus the release of this neuromodulator acetylcholine.

但要获得可塑性，最重要的是要有肾上腺素，它相当于警觉性，再加上这种神经调节剂乙酰胆碱的释放。

Now, acetylcholine is released from two sites in the brain.

现在，乙酰胆碱从大脑的两个部位释放。

One is also in the brainstem, and it's named different things in different animals.

脑干中也有一种，不同的动物有不同的名称。

But in humans, the most rich site of acetylcholine neurons, or neurons that make acetylcholine, is the parabigeminal nucleus or the parabrachial region.

但在人类中，乙酰胆碱神经元或产生乙酰胆碱的神经元最丰富的部位是旁二联核或臂旁区域。

All you need to know is that you have an area in your brainstem, and that area sends wires, these axons, up into the area of the brain that filters sensory input.

您需要知道的是，您的脑干中有一个区域，该区域将电线（这些轴突）向上发送到过滤感觉输入的大脑区域。

So we have this area of the brain called the thalamus, and it is getting bombarded with all sorts of sensory input all the time.

我们大脑中的这个区域称为丘脑，它一直受到各种感官输入的轰炸。

But when I pay attention to something, I create a cone of attention, and what we call signal to noise goes up.

但是当我注意某件事时，我会产生一个注意力锥，我们所说的信噪比就会上升。

So those of you with an engineering background will be familiar with signal to noise.

因此，具有工程背景的人会熟悉信噪比。

Those of you who do not have an engineering background, don't worry about it.

那些没有工程背景的人不用担心。

All it means is that one particular shout in the crowd comes through.

这意味着人群中传来一声特殊的喊叫。

Acetylcholine acts as a spotlight.

乙酰胆碱充当聚光灯。

But epinephrine for alertness, acetylcholine spotlighting these inputs, those two things alone are not enough to get plasticity.

但是肾上腺素可以提高警觉性，乙酰胆碱则可以增强这些输入，仅凭这两点还不足以获得可塑性。

There needs to be this third component, and the third component is acetylcholine released from an area of the forebrain called nucleus basalis.

需要有第三种成分，第三种成分是从前脑称为基底核的区域释放的乙酰胆碱。

If you really want to get technical, it's called nucleus basalis of Meynert.

如果你真的想获得技术性的知识，它被称为迈纳特的基底核。

For any of you that are budding physicians or going to medical school, you should know that.

对于任何一个初出茅庐的医生或正在上医学院的人来说，你应该知道这一点。

If you have acetylcholine released from the brainstem, acetylcholine released from nucleus basalis, and epinephrine, you can change your brain.

如果你有脑干释放的乙酰胆碱、基底核释放的乙酰胆碱和肾上腺素，你就可以改变你的大脑。

And this has been shown again and again and again in a variety of papers, and it is now considered a fundamental principle of how the nervous system works.

这已在各种论文中一次又一次地得到证明，现在它被认为是神经系统工作原理的基本原理。

If you can access these three things of epinephrine, acetylcholine from these two sources, not only will the nervous system change, it has to change.

如果你能从这两个来源获取肾上腺素、乙酰胆碱这三种物质，那么神经系统不仅会改变，而且必须改变。

It absolutely will change.

它绝对会改变。

And that is the most important thing for people to understand if they want to change their brain.

如果人们想改变他们的大脑，这是最重要的事情。

So now let's talk about how we would translate all this scientific information into some protocols that you can actually apply because I think that's what many of you are interested in.

现在让我们谈谈如何将所有这些科学信息转化为一些您可以实际应用的协议，因为我认为这是你们许多人感兴趣的。

What you do with your health and your medical care is up to you.

您如何对待自己的健康和医疗保健取决于您自己。

You're responsible for your health and well-being.

您对自己的健康和福祉负责。

So I'm not going to tell you what to do or what to take, I'm going to describe what the literature tells us and suggests about ways to access plasticity.

因此，我不会告诉您该做什么或该采取什么，我将描述文献告诉我们的内容以及有关获得可塑性的方法的建议。

We know we need epinephrine.

我们知道我们需要肾上腺素。

That means alertness.

这意味着警觉性。

Most people accomplish this through a cup of coffee and a good night's sleep.

大多数人通过一杯咖啡和良好的睡眠来实现这一目标。

So I will say you should master your sleep schedule, and you should figure out how much sleep you need in order to achieve alertness when you sit down to learn.

所以我会说你应该掌握你的睡眠时间表，你应该弄清楚你需要多少睡眠才能在坐下来学习时保持警觉。

But once that's in place, the question then is, how do I access this alertness?

但一旦到位，问题就是，我如何获得这种警觉性？

Well, there are a number of ways.

嗯，有很多方法。

Some people use some pretty elaborate psychological gymnastics.

有些人会使用一些非常复杂的心理体操。

They will tell people that they're going to do something and create some accountability.

他们会告诉人们他们将做一些事情并建立一些责任。

That could be really good.

那可能真的很好。

Or they'll post a picture of themselves online, and they'll commit to learning a certain amount-- losing, excuse me, a certain amount of weight or something like this.

或者他们会在网上发布一张自己的照片，然后他们会承诺学习一定量的知识——对不起，减肥一定量的重量或类似的东西。

So they can use either shame-based practices to potentially embarrass themselves if they don't follow through.

因此，如果他们不坚持到底，他们可能会使用任何一种基于羞耻的做法来让自己难堪。

They'll write checks to organizations that they hate and insist that they'll cash them if they don't actually follow through.

他们会向他们讨厌的组织写支票，并坚持如果他们不真正履行职责，他们就会兑现支票。

Or they'll do it out of love.

或者他们会出于爱而这样做。

They'll decide that they're going to run a marathon or learn a language or something because of somebody they love, or they want to devote it to somebody.

他们会因为他们所爱的人而决定去跑马拉松或学习语言或其他东西，或者他们想把它奉献给某人。

The truth is that from the standpoint of epinephrine and getting alert and activated, it doesn't really matter.

事实是，从肾上腺素以及保持警觉和激活的角度来看，这并不重要。

Epinephrine is a chemical, and your brain does not distinguish between doing things out of love or hate, anger, or fear.

肾上腺素是一种化学物质，你的大脑无法区分出于爱或恨、愤怒或恐惧而做事。

It really doesn't.

确实没有。

All of those promote autonomic arousal and the release of epinephrine.

所有这些都会促进自主神经的唤醒和肾上腺素的释放。

So I think for most people, if you're feeling not motivated to make these changes, the key thing is to identify not just one, but probably a kit of reasons, several reasons as to why you would want to make this particular change.

所以我认为对于大多数人来说，如果你觉得没有动力去做出这些改变，关键是要找出不仅仅是一个原因，而且可能是一系列原因，几个原因来解释为什么你想要做出这个特定的改变。

And being drawn toward a particular goal that you're excited about can be one.

被某个令你兴奋的特定目标所吸引可能就是其中之一。

Also being motivated to not be completely afraid, ashamed, or humiliated for not following through on a goal is another.

另外，不要因为没有实现目标而完全感到害怕、羞耻或羞辱也是另一回事。

Come up with two or three things, fear-based, perhaps, love-based, perhaps, or perhaps several of those in order to ensure alertness, energy, and attention for the task.

提出两到三件事，也许是基于恐惧的，也许是基于爱的，也许是其中几件事，以确保对任务的警觉性、精力和注意力。

And that brings us to the attention part.

这让我们注意到了部分。

Now, it's one thing to have an electrode embedded into your brain and increase the amount of acetylcholine.

现在，将电极植入大脑并增加乙酰胆碱的量是一回事。

It's another to exist in the real world outside the laboratory and have trouble focusing, having trouble bringing your attention to a particular location in space for a particular event.

另一种情况是存在于实验室之外的现实世界中，无法集中注意力，无法将注意力集中到空间中针对特定事件的特定位置。

And there's a lot of discussion nowadays about smartphones and devices creating a sort of attention deficit, almost at a clinical level for many people, including adults.

现在有很多关于智能手机和设备造成某种注意力缺陷的讨论，这对于包括成年人在内的许多人来说几乎处于临床水平。

I think that's largely true.

我认为这基本上是正确的。

And what it means, however, is that we all are responsible for learning how to create depth of focus.

然而，这意味着我们都有责任学习如何创建焦深。

There are some important neuroscience principles to get depth of focus.

有一些重要的神经科学原理可以帮助我们获得焦点深度。

I want to briefly talk about the pharmacology first because I always get asked about this.

我想先简单谈谈药理学，因为我总是被问到这个问题。

People say, what can I take to increase my levels of acetylcholine?

人们问，我可以服用什么来增加乙酰胆碱的水平？

Well, there are things you can take.

嗯，有些东西你可以拿走。

Nicotine is called nicotine because acetylcholine binds to the nicotinic receptor.

尼古丁之所以被称为尼古丁，是因为乙酰胆碱与烟碱受体结合。

There are two kinds of acetylcholine receptors, muscarinic and nicotinic.

乙酰胆碱受体有两种，毒蕈碱型和烟碱型。

But the nicotinic ones are involved in attention and alertness.

但烟碱类物质与注意力和警觉性有关。

I have colleagues-- these are not my kind of like bro science buddies.

我有同事——他们不是我喜欢的科学伙伴。

I have those friends, too.

我也有那些朋友。

This is a Nobel Prize-winning colleague who chews Nicorette while he works.

这是一位诺贝尔奖得主同事，他在工作时嚼着尼古雷特。

But when I asked him, why are you doing this, he said, well, it increases my alertness and focus.

但当我问他，你为什么要这样做时，他说，好吧，这提高了我的警觉性和注意力。

Now, I've tried chewing Nicorette.

现在，我尝试咀嚼尼古雷特。

It makes me super jittery.

这让我超级紧张。

I don't like it because I can't focus very well.

我不喜欢它，因为我不能很好地集中注意力。

It kind of takes me too far up the level of autonomic arousal.

这让我在自主唤醒的层面上走得太远了。

I've got friends that dip Nicorette all day.

我有一些朋友整天都在吃尼可雷特。

If you're going to go down that route, you want to be very careful how much you rely on those all the time because the essence of plasticity is to create a window of attention and focus that's distinct from the rest of your day.

如果你打算走这条路，你需要非常小心你对这些的依赖程度，因为可塑性的本质是创造一个与一天中其他时间不同的注意力和焦点窗口。

So what are some ways that you can increase acetylcholine?

那么有哪些方法可以增加乙酰胆碱呢？

How do you increase focus?

你如何提高注意力？

The best way to get better at focusing is to use the mechanisms of focus that you were born with.

提高专注力的最佳方法是利用与生俱来的专注机制。

And the key principle here is that mental focus follows visual focus.

这里的关键原则是精神焦点跟随视觉焦点。

We are all familiar with the fact that our visual system can be unfocused, blurry, or jumping around, or we can be very laser-focused on one location in space.

我们都熟悉这样一个事实：我们的视觉系统可能会不聚焦、模糊或跳跃，或者我们可能会非常专注于空间中的一个位置。

What's interesting and vitally important to understanding how to access neuroplasticity is that you can use your visual focus, and you can increase your visual focus as a way of increasing your mental focus abilities more broadly.

对于理解如何获得神经可塑性来说，有趣且至关重要的是，您可以使用视觉焦点，并且可以通过增加视觉焦点来更广泛地提高精神焦点能力。

So I'm going to explain how to do that.

所以我将解释如何做到这一点。

Plasticity starts with alertness.

可塑性始于警觉性。

That alertness can come from a sense of love, a sense of joy, a sense of fear.

这种警觉可以来自爱的感觉、喜悦的感觉、恐惧的感觉。

Doesn't matter.

没关系。

There are pharmacologic ways to access alertness, too.

也有一些药理学方法可以提高警觉性。

The most common one is, of course, caffeine.

最常见的当然是咖啡因。

Many people are now also using Adderall.

现在许多人也在使用阿得拉。

Adderall will not increase focus.

Adderall 不会增加注意力。

It increases alertness.

它可以提高警觉性。

It does not touch the acetylcholine system.

它不接触乙酰胆碱系统。

The acetylcholine system and the focus that it brings is available, as I mentioned, through pharmacology, but also through these behavioral practices.

正如我提到的，乙酰胆碱系统及其带来的焦点可以通过药理学获得，也可以通过这些行为实践获得。

And the behavioral practices that are anchored in visual focus are going to be the ones that are going to allow you to develop great depth and duration of focus.

以视觉焦点为基础的行为实践将让你获得更大的深度和持续的专注力。

So let's think about visual focus for a second.

让我们考虑一下视觉焦点。

When we focus on something visually, we have two options.

当我们专注于视觉上的事物时，我们有两种选择。

We can either look at a very small region of space with a lot of detail and a lot of precision, or we can dilate our gaze and we can see big pieces of visual space with very little detail.

我们可以观察一个非常小的空间区域，其中有很多细节和很多精确度，或者我们可以扩大我们的视线，我们可以看到大块的视觉空间，但细节很少。

It's a trade-off.

这是一个权衡。

We can't look at everything at high resolution.

我们无法以高分辨率查看所有内容。

This is why we have these.

这就是我们拥有这些的原因。

The pupil more or less relates to the fovea of the eye, which is the area in which we have the most receptors, the highest density of receptors that perceive light.

瞳孔或多或少与眼睛的中央凹有关，这是我们拥有最多感受器的区域，感知光的感受器密度最高。

And so our acuity is much better in the center of our visual field than in our periphery.

因此，我们视野中心的敏锐度比周边的敏锐度要高得多。

When we focus our eyes, we do a couple of things.

当我们集中注意力时，我们会做几件事。

First of all, we tend to do that in the center of our visual field, and our two eyes tend to align in what's called a vergence eye movement towards a common point.

首先，我们倾向于在视野的中心这样做，并且我们的两只眼睛倾向于以所谓的趋向性眼球运动朝向共同点对齐。

The other thing that happens is the lens of our eye moves, so that our brain, now, no longer sees the entire visual world, but is seeing a small cone of visual imagery.

发生的另一件事是我们眼睛的晶状体移动，因此我们的大脑现在不再看到整个视觉世界，而是看到一小部分视觉图像。

That small cone of visual imagery, or soda straw view of the world, has much higher acuity, higher resolution, than if I were to look at everything.

那个小锥体的视觉图像，或者苏打稻草的世界观，比我观察一切事物具有更高的敏锐度和分辨率。

Now you say, of course, this makes perfect sense.

现在你说，当然，这是完全有道理的。

But that's about visual attention, not mental attention.

但这是关于视觉注意力，而不是精神注意力。

Well, it turns out that focus in the brain is anchored to our visual system.

事实证明，大脑的注意力集中在我们的视觉系统上。

I'll talk about blind people in a moment.

稍后我将谈论盲人。

But assuming that somebody is sighted, the key is to learn how to focus better visually if you want to bring about higher levels of cognitive or mental focus.

但假设某人有视力，如果你想提高认知或精神集中度，关键是要学习如何更好地集中视觉。

When we move our eyes slightly inward-- maybe you can tell that I'm doing this-- like so, basically shortening or making the interpupillary distance, as it's called, smaller, two things happen.

当我们将眼睛稍微向内移动时——也许你可以看出我正在这样做——像这样，基本上缩短或使瞳孔间距变小，就像所谓的那样，会发生两件事。

Not only do we develop a smaller visual window into the world, but we activate a set of neurons in our brain stem that trigger the release of both norepinephrine, epinephrine, and acetylcholine.

我们不仅开发了一个更小的观察世界的视觉窗口，而且还激活了脑干中的一组神经元，这些神经元触发去甲肾上腺素、肾上腺素和乙酰胆碱的释放。

Norepinephrine is kind of similar to epinephrine.

去甲肾上腺素与肾上腺素有点相似。

So in other words, when our eyes are relaxed in our head, when we're just kind of looking at our entire visual environment, moving our head around, moving through space, we're in optic flow, things moving past us, we're sitting still, we're looking broadly at our space, we're relaxed.

换句话说，当我们的眼睛在头脑中放松时，当我们只是观察整个视觉环境，转动我们的头部，在空间中移动时，我们就处于光流中，事物从我们身边经过，我们静静地坐着，广泛地观察我们的空间，我们是放松的。

When our eyes move slightly inward toward a particular visual target, our visual world shrinks, our level of visual focus goes up, and we know that this relates to the release of acetylcholine and epinephrine at the relevant sites in the brain for plasticity.

当我们的眼睛稍微向内移向特定的视觉目标时，我们的视觉世界会缩小，视觉焦点水平会上升，我们知道这与大脑中相关部位释放乙酰胆碱和肾上腺素以实现可塑性有关。

Now, what this means is that if you have a hard time focusing your mind for sake of reading or for listening, you need to practice-- and you can practice-- focusing your visual system.

现在，这意味着，如果你很难为了阅读或听力而集中注意力，你需要练习——而且你可以练习——集中你的视觉系统。

Now, this works best if you practice focusing your visual system at the precise distance from the work that you intend to do for sake of plasticity.

现在，如果您为了可塑性而练习将视觉系统聚焦在距您打算做的工作的精确距离上，那么效果最好。

So how would this look in the real world?

那么这在现实世界中会是什么样子呢？

Let's say I am trying to concentrate on something related to, I don't know, science.

假设我正试图专注于与我不知道的科学相关的事情。

I'm reading a science paper and I'm having a hard time.

我正在读一篇科学论文，但我遇到了困难。

It's not absorbing.

它不吸引人。

Spending just 60 to 120 seconds focusing my visual attention on a small window of my screen, meaning just on my screen with nothing on it, but bringing my eyes to that particular location increases not just my visual acuity for that location, but it brings about an increase in activity in a bunch of other brain areas that are associated with gathering information from this location.

只需花 60 到 120 秒将我的视觉注意力集中在屏幕的一个小窗口上，即只是在屏幕上什么都没有，但是将我的眼睛移至该特定位置不仅会增加我对该位置的视力，还会增加与从该位置收集信息相关的其他大脑区域的活动。

So, put simply, if you want to improve your ability to focus, practice visual focus.

所以，简单来说，如果你想提高专注能力，就练习视觉聚焦。

Now, you may ask, well, what about the experiment where people were feeling this rotating drum or listening to the auditory cue?

现在，您可能会问，那么，让人们感觉旋转的鼓或聆听听觉提示的实验怎么样？

That does involve vision at all.

这确实涉及视觉。

Ah.

啊。

If you look at people who are learning things with their auditory system, they will often close their eyes.

如果你观察那些用听觉系统学习东西的人，他们常常会闭上眼睛。

And that's not a coincidence.

这并非巧合。

If somebody is listening very hard, please don't ask them to look you directly in the eye while also asking that they listen to you.

如果有人很认真地听你说话，请不要要求他们直视你的眼睛，同时也要求他们听你说话。

That's actually one of the worst ways to get somebody to listen to you.

这实际上是让别人听你说话的最糟糕的方法之一。

If you say, now listen to me and look me in the eye, the visual system will take over and they'll see your mouth move, but they're going to hear their thoughts more than they're going to hear what you're saying.

如果你说，现在听我说，看着我的眼睛，视觉系统就会接管，他们会看到你的嘴在动，但他们会听到自己的想法，而不是听到你在说什么。

Closing the eyes is one of the best ways to create a cone of auditory attention.

闭上眼睛是创造听觉注意力锥体的最佳方法之一。

And this is what low-vision or no-vision folks do.

这就是低视力或无视力的人所做的事情。

They have tremendous capacity to focus their attention in particular locations.

他们具有将注意力集中在特定地点的巨大能力。

And for most people, vision is the primary way to train up this focus ability and these cones of attention.

对于大多数人来说，视觉是训练这种专注能力和注意力锥的主要方式。

So you absolutely have to focus on the thing that you're trying to learn, and you will feel some agitation because of the epinephrine in your system.

因此，你绝对必须专注于你想要学习的事情，并且由于你的系统中存在肾上腺素，你会感到有些不安。

If you're feeling agitation and it's challenging to focus and you're feeling like you're not doing it right, chances are you're doing it right.

如果你感到焦躁，难以集中注意力，并且感觉自己做得不对，那么很可能你做得对。

So once you get this epinephrine, this alertness, you get the acetylcholine released and you can focus your attention, then the question is, for how long?

所以一旦你得到了肾上腺素，这种警觉性，你就会释放乙酰胆碱，你就可以集中注意力，那么问题是，能持续多久？

And in an earlier podcast, I talked about these ultradian cycles that last about 90 minutes.

在早期的播客中，我谈到了这些持续约 90 分钟的超电周期。

The typical learning bout should be about 90 minutes.

典型的学习时间约为 90 分钟。

I think that learning bout will no doubt include 5 to 10 minutes of a warm-up period.

我认为学习比赛无疑会包括5到10分钟的热身期。

I think everyone should give themselves permission to not be fully focused in the early part of that bout, but that in the middle of that bout for the middle hour or so, you should be able to maintain focus for about an hour or so.

我认为每个人都应该允许自己在比赛的早期部分不完全集中注意力，但是在比赛的中间大约一个小时左右，你应该能够保持注意力大约一个小时左右。

So that, for me, means eliminating distractions.

所以，对我来说，这意味着消除干扰。

That means turning off the Wi-Fi.

这意味着关闭 Wi-Fi。

I put my phone in the other room.

我把手机放在另一个房间了。

I encourage you to try experiencing what it is to be completely immersed in an activity where you feel the agitation that your attention is drifting, but you continually bring it back.

我鼓励你尝试体验完全沉浸在一项活动中是什么感觉，在这种活动中，你会感到注意力分散而感到不安，但你会不断地把它拉回来。

And that's an important point, which is that attention drifts, but we have to re-anchor it.

这是很重要的一点，那就是注意力发生了漂移，但我们必须重新定位它。

We have to keep grabbing it back.

我们必须不断地把它夺回来。

And the way to do that, if you're sighted, is with your eyes, that as your attention drifts and you look away, you want to try and literally maintain visual focus on the thing that you're trying to learn.

如果你有视力，那么做到这一点的方法就是用你的眼睛，当你的注意力转移并且你把目光移开时，你想要尝试将视觉焦点真正保持在你想要学习的东西上。

That's the trigger for plasticity.

这就是可塑性的触发因素。

But the real secret is that neuroplasticity doesn't occur during wakefulness, it occurs during sleep.

但真正的秘密是，神经可塑性不会在清醒时发生，而是在睡眠时发生。

We now know that if you focus very hard on something for about 90 minutes or so, maybe you even do several bouts of that per day, if you can do that-- some people can.

我们现在知道，如果你非常专注于某件事大约 90 分钟左右，你甚至可能每天做几次这样的事情，如果你能做到的话——有些人可以。

Some people can only do one focus bout of learning-- that night and the following nights while you sleep, the neural circuits that were highlighted, if you will, with acetylcholine transmission, will strengthen.

有些人只能进行一次集中学习——那天晚上和接下来的晚上，当你睡觉时，如果你愿意的话，通过乙酰胆碱传输，突出的神经回路将会加强。

And other ones will be lost, which is wonderful because that's the essence of plasticity.

而其他的将会丢失，这很棒，因为这就是可塑性的本质。

And what it means is that when you eventually wake up a couple of days or a week later, you will have acquired the knowledge forever, unless you go through some process to actively unlearn it.

这意味着当你最终在几天或一周后醒来时，你将永远获得这些知识，除非你经历一些过程来主动忘记它。

So mastering sleep is key in order to reinforce the learning that occurs.

因此，掌握睡眠是加强学习的关键。

But let's say you get a really poor night of sleep after a bout of learning.

但假设你在学习了一段时间后晚上睡得很差。

Chances are, if you sleep the next night or the following night, that learning will occur.

如果你第二天晚上或后天晚上睡觉，这种学习很可能就会发生。

There's a stamp in the brain where this acetylcholine was released.

大脑中有一个印记，乙酰胆碱就是在其中释放的。

It actually marks those synapses neurochemically and metabolically so that those synapses are more biased to change.

它实际上在神经化学和代谢上标记了这些突触，因此这些突触更容易发生变化。

Now, if you don't ever get that deep sleep, then you probably won't get those changes.

现在，如果你没有得到深度睡眠，那么你可能不会得到这些改变。

There is also a way in which you can bypass the need for deep sleep, at least partially, by engaging in what I call non-sleep deep rest, these NSDR protocols.

还有一种方法可以让你至少部分地绕过深度睡眠的需要，通过参与我所说的非睡眠深度休息，这些 NSDR 协议。

But I just want to discuss the science of this.

但我只是想讨论一下这个问题的科学性。

There was a paper that was published in Cell Reports last year that shows that if people did-- it was a spatial memory task, actually quite difficult one, where they had to remember the sequence of lights lighting up.

去年《细胞报告》上发表的一篇论文表明，如果人们这样做的话——这是一项空间记忆任务，实际上是相当困难的任务，他们必须记住灯亮起的顺序。

And if there were just two or three lights in a particular sequence, it's easy.

如果特定序列中只有两三个灯，那就很容易了。

But as you get up to 15 or 16 lights and numbers in the sequence, it actually gets quite challenging.

但当序列中的灯光和数字达到 15 或 16 个时，它实际上变得相当具有挑战性。

If immediately after-- and it was immediately after the learning, the actual performance of this task, people took a 20-minute non-sleep deep-rest protocol or took a shallow nap, so lying down, feet slightly elevated, perhaps, just closing their eyes, no sensory input, the rates of learning were significantly higher for that information than were they to just had a good night's sleep the following night.

如果紧接着——也就是在学习、实际执行这项任务之后，人们采取了 20 分钟的非睡眠深度休息方案或小睡一下，然后躺下，双脚稍微抬高，也许只是闭上眼睛，没有任何感官输入，那么对于这些​​信息的学习率明显高于他们第二天晚上睡个好觉的情况。

So you can actually accelerate learning with these NSDR protocols or with brief naps, 90 minutes or less.

因此，您实际上可以通过这些 NSDR 协议或短暂的小睡（90 分钟或更短时间）来加速学习。

For many people, letting the mind drift, where it's not organized in thought, after a period of very deliberate, focused effort, is the best way to accelerate learning and depth of learning.

对于许多人来说，经过一段时间的深思熟虑、专注的努力后，让思想在思想上没有组织起来，是加速学习和学习深度的最佳方法。

I want to synthesize some of the information that we've covered up until now.

我想综合一下我们到目前为止所涵盖的一些信息。

Today, I want to make sure that these key elements that form the backbone of neuroplasticity are really embedded in people's minds.

今天，我想确保这些构成神经可塑性支柱的关键要素真正根植于人们的头脑中。

First of all, plasticity occurs throughout the lifespan.

首先，可塑性贯穿整个生命周期。

If you want to learn as an adult, you have to be alert.

如果你想像成年人一样学习，你必须保持警惕。

It might seem so obvious, but I think a lot of people don't think about when in their 24-hour cycle they're most alert.

这看起来似乎很明显，但我认为很多人都没有想到在 24 小时周期中什么时候他们最警觉。

Just ask yourself when during the day do you typically tend to be most alert?

问问自己，一天中什么时候你通常最警觉？

That will afford you an advantage in learning specific things during that period of time.

这将为您在那段时间学习特定事物提供优势。

So don't give up that period of time for things that are meaningless, useless, or not aligned with your goals.

所以不要为了那些无意义、无用或者与你的目标不符的事情而放弃那段时间。

That epinephrine released from your brain stem is going to occur more readily at particular phases of your 24-hour cycle than others-- during the waking phase, of course.

脑干释放的肾上腺素在 24 小时周期的特定阶段比其他阶段更容易发生——当然是在清醒阶段。

You should know when those are.

你应该知道这些是什么时候。

Increasing acetylcholine can be accomplished pharmacologically through nicotine.

增加乙酰胆碱可以通过尼古丁在药理学上实现。

However, there are certain dangers for many people to do that, as well as a cost.

然而，对于许多人来说，这样做存在一定的危险以及成本。

financial cost.

财务成本。

Learning how to engage the cholinergic system through the use of the visual system.

学习如何通过使用视觉系统来参与胆碱能系统。

Practicing; how long can you maintain focus with blinks as you need them.

练习；根据需要，您可以通过眨眼来保持注意力多长时间。

But how long can you maintain visual focus on a target, just on a piece of paper set a few feet away in the room, or at the level of your computer screen.

但是，您可以将视觉焦点保持在目标上多长时间，该目标仅位于房间中几英尺远的一张纸上，或者位于计算机屏幕的水平上。

These are actually things that people do in communities where high levels of visual focus are necessary.

这些实际上是人们在需要高度视觉聚焦的社区中所做的事情。

What we're really talking about here is trying to harness the mechanisms of attention and get better at paying attention.

我们在这里真正讨论的是尝试利用注意力机制并更好地集中注意力。

You may want to do that with your auditory system, not with your visual system, either because you're low-vision or no-vision, or because you're trying to learn something that relates more to sounds.

您可能想用听觉系统而不是视觉系统来做到这一点，这要么是因为您视力低下或无视力，要么是因为您正在尝试学习与声音更多相关的东西。

You should also ask yourself whether or not you're trying to focus too much for too long during the day.

您还应该问自己是否在一天中太长时间集中注意力。

I know some very high-performing individuals, very high-performing in a variety of contexts, and none of them are focused all day long.

我认识一些表现非常出色的人，他们在各种情况下都表现出色，但他们中没有一个人是整天专注的。

Many of them take walks down the hallway, sometimes mumbling to themselves or not paying attention to anything else.

他们中的许多人沿着走廊散步，有时自言自语或不注意其他任何事情。

They go for bike rides, they take walks.

他们骑自行车，散步。

They are not trying to engage their mind at maximum focus all the time.

他们并没有试图始终全神贯注。

Very few people do that because we learn best in these 90-minute bouts inside of one of these ultradian cycles.

很少有人这样做，因为我们在超日周期之一的 90 分钟回合中学习得最好。

And I should repeat again that within that 90-minute cycle, you should not expect yourself to focus for the entire period of one 90-minute cycle.

我应该再次重申，在 90 分钟的周期内，你不应该期望自己在 90 分钟的周期的整个时间内都保持专注。

The beginning and end are going to be a little bit flickering in and out of focus.

开始和结束的焦点会有点闪烁。

How do you know when one of these 90-minute cycles is starting?

您如何知道这些 90 分钟周期之一何时开始？

Well, typically when you wake up is the beginning of the first 90-minute cycle, but it's not down to the minute.

嗯，通常当你醒来时是第一个 90 分钟周期的开始，但并不是精确到分钟。

You'll be able to tap into your sense of these 90-minute cycles as you start to engage in these learning practices, should you choose.

当您开始参与这些学习实践时，您将能够利用这些 90 分钟周期的感觉（如果您选择的话）。

And then, of course, getting some non-sleep deep rest or just deliberate disengagement, such as walking or running or just sitting, eyes closed or eyes open, kind of mindlessly, it might seem, in a chair.

当然，然后，进行一些非睡眠深度休息或只是故意脱离，例如散步或跑步或只是坐着，闭上眼睛或睁开眼睛，看起来有点漫不经心地坐在椅子上。

Just letting your thoughts move around after a learning bout will accelerate the rate of plasticity.

在一次学习之后让你的思想四处走动会加快可塑性的速度。

And then, of course, deep sleep.

然后，当然是深度睡眠。

Many of you have very graciously asked how you can help support the Huberman Lab podcast.

你们中的许多人都非常客气地询问如何帮助支持 Huberman 实验室播客。

The best way to do that is to subscribe on YouTube.

最好的方法是在 YouTube 上订阅。

You might want to also hit the Notification button so that you don't miss any upcoming episodes.

您可能还想点击通知按钮，这样您就不会错过任何即将播出的剧集。

Leave a comment as well.

也发表评论。

If you go to Apple, you can give us a five-star rating, and there's a place there where also you can leave a comment.

如果你去苹果，你可以给我们五星级的评价，那里还有一个地方你也可以发表评论。

And if you prefer to listen on Spotify, subscribe and download on Spotify.

如果您喜欢在 Spotify 上收听，请在 Spotify 上订阅和下载。

In addition, it's always helpful if you recommend the podcast to your friends and family and others who you think might benefit from the information.

此外，如果您将播客推荐给您的朋友、家人以及您认为可能会从该信息中受益的其他人，这总是有帮助的。

And as well, please check out our sponsors.

另外，请查看我们的赞助商。

That's a great way to help us.

这是帮助我们的好方法。

Thanks so much for your time and attention, and as always, thank you for your interest in science.

非常感谢您的时间和关注，并一如既往地感谢您对科学的兴趣。