How Your Brain Works & Changes

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

我是安德鲁·胡伯曼，斯坦福大学医学院神经生物学和眼科教授。

For today's podcast, we're going to talk about the parts list of the nervous system.

在今天的播客中，我们将讨论神经系统的零件清单。

Now that might sound boring, but these are the bits and pieces that together make up everything about your experience of life, from what you think about to what you feel, what you imagine, and what you accomplish from the day you're born until the day you die.

这听起来可能很无聊，但这些点点滴滴共同构成了你生活经历的一切，从你出生的那天到你去世的那天，从你的想法到你的感受、你的想象以及你所完成的事情。

That parts list is really incredible because it has a history associated with it that really provides a window into all sorts of things like engineering, warfare, religion, and philosophy.

这份零件清单确实令人难以置信，因为它有与之相关的历史，它确实为了解工程、战争、宗教和哲学等各种事物提供了一个窗口。

So I'm going to share with you the parts lists that makes up who you are, through the lens of some of those other aspects of life and other aspects of the history of the discovery of the nervous system.

因此，我将通过生活的其他一些方面以及神经系统发现历史的其他方面的镜头，与您分享构成您的部件列表。

By the end of this podcast, I promise you're going to understand a lot more about how you work and how to apply that knowledge.

在本播客结束时，我保证您将更多地了解您的工作方式以及如何应用这些知识。

There's going to be a little bit of story; there's going to be a lot of discussion about the people who made these particular discoveries.

会有一些故事；关于做出这些特殊发现的人将会有很多讨论。

There'll be a little bit of technical language, there's no way to avoid that.

会有一点技术语言，这是无法避免的。

But at the end, you're going to have in hand what would be the equivalent of an entire semester of learning about the nervous system and how you work.

但最后，你将掌握相当于一整个学期的知识来了解神经系统和你的工作方式。

So a few important points before we get started.

在我们开始之前有几个重要的要点。

I am not a medical doctor, that means I don't prescribe anything.

我不是医生，这意味着我不开任何处方。

I'm a professor, so sometimes I'll profess things.

我是一名教授，所以有时我会承认一些事情。

In fact, I profess a lot of things.

事实上，我承认很多事情。

We are going to talk about some basic functioning of the nervous system parts and etcetera, but we're also going to talk about how to apply that knowledge.

我们将讨论神经系统部分的一些基本功能等，但我们还将讨论如何应用这些知识。

That said, your healthcare, your wellbeing is your responsibility.

也就是说，您的医疗保健、您的福祉是您的责任。

So anytime we talk about tools, please filter it through that responsibility.

因此，每当我们谈论工具时，请通过责任来过滤它。

Talk to a healthcare professional if you're going to explore any new tools or practices, and be smart in your pursuit of these new tools.

如果您要探索任何新工具或实践，请咨询医疗保健专业人士，并明智地寻求这些新工具。

I also want to emphasize that this podcast and the other things I do on social media are my personal goal of bringing zero-cost-to-consumer information to the general public.

我还想强调，这个播客和我在社交媒体上做的其他事情都是我个人的目标，即向公众带来零成本的消费者信息。

It is separate from my role at Stanford University.

它与我在斯坦福大学的角色是分开的。

In that spirit, I really want to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.

本着这种精神，我真的要感谢今天播客的赞助商。

So let's talk about the nervous system.

那么我们来谈谈神经系统。

The reason I say your nervous system and not your brain is because your brain is actually just one piece of this larger, more important thing, frankly, that we call the nervous system.

我之所以说你的神经系统而不是你的大脑，是因为你的大脑实际上只是这个更大、更重要的东西（坦率地说，我们称之为神经系统）的一部分。

The nervous system includes your brain and your spinal cord, but also all the connections between your brain and your spinal cord and the organs of your body.

神经系统包括您的大脑和脊髓，还包括您的大脑和脊髓以及身体器官之间的所有连接。

It also includes, very importantly, all the connections between your organs back to your spinal cord and brain.

非常重要的是，它还包括器官与脊髓和大脑之间的所有连接。

So the way to think about how you function at every level, from the moment you're born until the day you die, everything you think and remember and feel and imagine, is that your nervous system is this continuous loop of communication between the brain, spinal cord and body and body, spinal cord and brain.

因此，思考你在各个层面上如何运作的方法，从你出生的那一刻到你死亡的那一天，你所思考、记住、感觉和想象的一切，你的神经系统就是大脑、脊髓和身体之间、脊髓和大脑之间不断沟通的循环。

In fact, we really can't even separate them.

事实上，我们真的无法将它们分开。

It's one continuous loop.

这是一个连续的循环。

You may have heard of something called a mobius strip.

您可能听说过一种叫做莫比乌斯带的东西。

A mobius strip is almost like one of these impossible figures that no matter which angle you look at it from, you can't tell where it starts and where it ends.

莫比乌斯带几乎就像这些不可能的图形之一，无论你从哪个角度看它，你都无法分辨它的起点和终点。

And that's really how your nervous system is built.

这就是你的神经系统的构建方式。

That's the structure that allows you to, for instance, deploy immune cells to release cells that will go kill infection when you're in the presence of infection.

例如，这种结构允许您部署免疫细胞来释放细胞，当您存在感染时，这些细胞将杀死感染。

Most people just think about that as a function of the immune system, but actually it's your nervous system that tells organs like your spleen to release killer cells that go and hunt down those bacterial and viral invaders and gobbled them up.

大多数人只是认为这是免疫系统的功能，但实际上是您的神经系统告诉您的脾脏等器官释放杀伤细胞，这些杀伤细胞会追捕那些细菌和病毒入侵者并将其吞噬。

If you have a stomachache, for instance, sure you feel that in your stomach, but it's really your nervous system that's causing the stomach ache.

例如，如果您胃痛，您肯定会感觉到胃痛，但实际上是您的神经系统导致了胃痛。

The ache aspect of it is a nervous system feature.

它的疼痛方面是神经系统的特征。

So when we want to talk about experience or we want to talk about how to change the self in any way, we really need to think about the nervous system first.

所以当我们想要谈论经验或者我们想要谈论如何以任何方式改变自我时，我们确实需要首先考虑神经系统。

It is fair to say that the nervous system governs all other biological systems of the body, and it's also influenced by those other biological systems.

可以说，神经系统支配着身体的所有其他生物系统，并且也受到其他生物系统的影响。

So if we're talking about the nervous system, we need to get a little specific about what we mean.

因此，如果我们谈论神经系统，我们需要具体说明一下我们的意思。

It's not just this big loop of wires.

这不仅仅是这么大的电线环。

In fact, there's an interesting story about that because at the turn of the sort of 1800s to 1900s, it actually was believed that our nervous system was just one giant cell.

事实上，有一个有趣的故事，因为在 1800 年代到 1900 年代之交，人们实际上相信我们的神经系统只是一个巨大的细胞。

But two guys, names aren't super important.

但两个人，名字并不是那么重要。

But in fairness to their important discovery, Ramon Cajal, a Spaniard, Camillo Golgi, an Italian guy, figured out how to label or stain the nervous system in a way that revealed, oh my goodness, we're actually made up of trillions of these little cells, nerve cells, that are called neurons.

但公平地说，西班牙人拉蒙·卡哈尔 (Ramon Cajal) 和意大利人卡米洛·高尔基 (Camillo Golgi) 找到了如何对神经系统进行标记或染色的方法，这种方法揭示了，天哪，我们实际上是由数万亿个小细胞、神经细胞（称为神经元）组成的。

And that's what a neuron is, it's just a nerve cell.

这就是神经元，它只是一个神经细胞。

They also saw that those nerve cells weren't touching one another.

他们还发现这些神经细胞没有相互接触。

They're actually separated by little gaps.

它们实际上被一些小间隙隔开。

And those little gaps you may have heard of before, they're called synapses.

您以前可能听说过那些小间隙，它们被称为突触。

Those synapses are where the chemicals from one neuron are kind of spit out or vomited into, and then the next nerve cell detects those chemicals and then passes electricity down its length to the next nerve cell and so forth.

这些突触是一个神经元的化学物质被吐出或吐入的地方，然后下一个神经细胞检测到这些化学物质，然后将电流沿着其长度传递到下一个神经细胞，依此类推。

So really the way to think about your body and your thoughts and your mind is that you are a flow of electricity.

因此，思考你的身体、你的思想和你的思想的真正方式是，你是一股电流。

There's nothing mystical about this.

这并没有什么神秘的。

You're a flow of electricity between these different nerve cells, and depending on which nerve cells are active, you might be lifting your arm or lowering your arm.

你是这些不同神经细胞之间的电流，根据哪些神经细胞处于活动状态，你可能会举起手臂或放下手臂。

You might be seeing something and perceiving that it's red or you might be seeing something and perceiving that it's green, all depending on which nerve cells are electrically active at a given moment.

您可能会看到某物并感知到它是红色的，或者您可能会看到某物并感知到它是绿色的，这一切都取决于哪些神经细胞在给定时刻处于电活动状态。

The example of perceiving red or perceiving green is a particularly good example, because so often our experience of the world makes it seem as if these things that are happening outside us are actually happening inside us, but the language of the nervous system is just electricity.

感知红色或感知绿色的例子是一个特别好的例子，因为我们对世界的体验常常让人觉得这些发生在我们外部的事情实际上发生在我们内部，但神经系统的语言只是电。

It's just like a Morse code of some sort, or the syllables, or, and words and consonants and vowels of language, that just depends on how they're assembled, what order.

它就像某种莫尔斯电码，或者音节，或者语言的单词、辅音和元音，这取决于它们的组合方式和顺序。

And so that brings us to the issue of how the nervous system works.

这给我们带来了神经系统如何运作的问题。

The way to think about how the nervous system works is that our experiences, our memories—everything is sort of like the keys on a piano being played in a particular order.

思考神经系统如何工作的方式是我们的经历、我们的记忆——一切都有点像钢琴上的琴键以特定的顺序弹奏。

If I play the keys on a piano in a particular order and with a particular intensity, that's a given song; we could make that analogous to a given experience.

如果我以特定的顺序和特定的强度弹奏钢琴上的琴键，那就是一首给定的歌曲；我们可以将其与给定的经历进行类比。

It's not really that the key A sharp or E flat is the song.

这并不是说升A调或降E调就是这首歌。

It's just one component of the song.

这只是歌曲的一个组成部分。

So when you hear that, for instance, there's a brain area called the hippocampus, which there is, that's involved in memory.

例如，当你听到这个消息时，大脑中有一个叫做海马体的区域，它与记忆有关。

Well, it's involved in memory but it's not that memories are stored there as you know, sentences.

嗯，它与记忆有关，但记忆并不是像你知道的那样存储在那里，句子。

They're stored there as patterns of electricity and neurons that when repeated give you the sense that you are experiencing the thing again.

它们以电流和神经元的形式存储在那里，当重复时，会让你感觉自己正在再次经历同样的事情。

In fact, deja vu, the sense that what you're experiencing is so familiar and something that you've experienced previously, is merely that the neurons that were active in one circumstance are now becoming active in the same circumstance again.

事实上，似曾相识的感觉，即你所经历的事情是如此熟悉，并且是你以前经历过的事情，只是在一种情况下活跃的神经元现在在相同的情况下再次变得活跃。

And so it's really just like hearing the same song, maybe not played on a piano, but next time on a classical guitar, there's something similar about that song, even though it's being played on two different instruments.

所以这真的就像听到同一首歌，也许不是在钢琴上演奏，但下次在古典吉他上演奏时，这首歌有一些相似的东西，即使它是在两种不同的乐器上演奏的。

So I think it's important that people understand the parts of their nervous system and that it includes so much more than just the brain, and that there are these things, neurons and synapses, but really that it's the electrical activity of these neurons that dictates our experience.

所以我认为人们了解神经系统的各个部分很重要，它不仅仅包括大脑，还有神经元和突触这些东西，但实际上是这些神经元的电活动决定了我们的体验。

So if the early 1900s were when these neurons were discovered, certainly a lot has happened since then.

因此，如果这些神经元是在 1900 年代初期被发现的，那么从那时起肯定发生了很多事情。

And in that time between the early 1900s and now, there some important events that actually happened in history that give us insight, or gave us insight, into how the nervous system works.

在 1900 年代初到现在的这段时间里，历史上实际发生的一些重要事件让我们深入了解了神经系统是如何运作的。

One of the more surprising ones was actually warfare.

更令人惊讶的事情之一实际上是战争。

So as most everybody knows, in warfare, people get shot and people often die, but many people get shot and they don't die.

众所周知，在战争中，人们经常被枪杀，但很多人被枪杀，但他们并没有死。

And in World War I, there were some changes in artillery, in bullets, that made for a situation where bullets would enter the body and brain at very discreet locations and would go out the other side of the body of your brain and also make a very small hole at that exit location.

在第一次世界大战中，火炮和子弹发生了一些变化，导致子弹会在非常隐蔽的位置进入身体和大脑，然后从大脑身体的另一侧射出，并在出口位置打出一个非常小的洞。

And in doing so, produced a lot of naturally occurring lesions of the nervous system.

这样做，产生了许多神经系统自然发生的病变。

Now you say, okay, well how does that relate to neuroscience?

现在你说，好吧，这与神经科学有什么关系？

Well, unlike previous years where a lot of the artillery would create these big sort of holes as the bullets would blow out of the brain or body; I know this is rather gruesome.

嗯，与前几年不同的是，当子弹从大脑或身体中射出时，许多大炮会造成这些大洞；我知道这相当可怕。

When the holes were very discrete, they entered at one point and left at another point; they would take out or destroy very discrete bits of neural tissue, of the nervous system.

当孔非常离散时，它们从一点进入，从另一点离开；它们会取出或破坏神经系统中非常离散的神经组织。

So people were coming back from war with holes in their brain and in other parts of their nervous system that were limited to very specific locations.

因此，人们从战争中回来后，他们的大脑和神经系统的其他部分都出现了缺陷，这些缺陷仅限于非常特定的位置。

In addition to that, there was some advancement in the cleaning of wounds that happened.

除此之外，伤口的清洁也取得了一些进展。

So many more people were surviving.

还有更多的人幸存下来。

What this meant was that neurologists now had a collection of patients that would come back and they'd have holes in very specific locations of their brain, and they'd say things like, well, I can recognize faces, but I can't recognize who those faces belong to.

这意味着神经科医生现在收集了一批回来的患者，他们的大脑特定位置有洞，他们会说，好吧，我可以认出面孔，但我无法认出这些面孔属于谁。

I know it's a face, but I don't know who it belongs to.

我知道这是一张脸，但我不知道它属于谁。

And after that person eventually died, the neurologist would figure out, ah, I've had 10 patients that all told me that they couldn't recognize faces, and they all had these bullet holes that went through a particular region of the brain.

在那个人最终死后，神经科医生会发现，啊，我有 10 个病人都告诉我他们无法识别面孔，而且他们都有穿过大脑特定区域的弹孔。

And that's how we know a lot about how particular brain regions like the hippocampus work.

这就是我们如何了解海马体等特定大脑区域如何工作的方式。

In fact, some of the more amazing examples of this, where people would come back and they, for instance, would speak in complete gibberish, whereas previously they could speak normally.

事实上，一些更令人惊奇的例子是，人们回来后会说完全是胡言乱语，而以前他们可以正常说话。

And even though they were speaking in complete gibberish, they could understand language perfectly.

即使他们说的是完全胡言乱语，他们也能完全理解语言。

That's how we know that speech and language are actually controlled by separate portions of the nervous system.

这就是我们如何知道言语和语言实际上是由神经系统的不同部分控制的。

And there are many examples like that, people that couldn't recognize the faces of famous people.

类似这样的例子还有很多，人们认不出名人的面孔。

And that actually brings us to an interesting example in modern times.

这实际上给我们带来了一个现代有趣的例子。

Many, many years later, in the early 2000s, there was actually a paper that was published in the journal Nature, excellent journal, showing that in a human being, a perfectly healthy human being; there was a neuron that would become active, electrically active, only when the person viewed the picture of Jennifer Aniston, the actress.

很多很多年后，在2000年代初期，实际上有一篇论文发表在《自然》杂志上，这是一本优秀的杂志，表明在一个人身上，一个完全健康的人；只有当人看到女演员詹妮弗·安妮斯顿的照片时，神经元才会变得活跃，电活动活跃。

So literally a neuron that represented Jennifer Aniston, so-called Jennifer Aniston cells.

从字面上看，一个代表詹妮弗·安妮斯顿的神经元，即所谓的詹妮弗·安妮斯顿细胞。

Neuroscientists know about these Jennifer Aniston cells.

神经科学家了解这些詹妮弗·安妮斯顿细胞。

If you can recognize Jennifer Aniston's face, you have Jennifer Aniston neurons, and presumably you also have neurons that can recognize the faces of other famous and nonfamous people.

如果你能识别詹妮弗·安妮斯顿的脸，那么你就有了詹妮弗·安妮斯顿神经元，并且想必你也有可以识别其他名人和非名人脸的神经元。

So, that indicates that our brain is really a map of our experience.

所以，这表明我们的大脑实际上是我们经验的地图。

We come into the world and our brain has a kind of bias towards learning particular kinds of things.

我们来到这个世界上，我们的大脑有一种偏向于学习特定类型的事物。

It's ready to receive information and learn that information, but the brain is really a map of experience.

它已经准备好接收信息并学习该信息，但大脑实际上是一张经验地图。

So let's talk about what experience really is.

那么我们来谈谈什么是真正的体验。

What does it mean for your brain to work?

你的大脑工作意味着什么？

Well, I think it's fair to say that the nervous system really does five things, maybe six.

嗯，我认为可以公平地说，神经系统确实做了五件事，也许是六件事。

The first one is sensation.

第一个是感觉。

So this is important to understand for any and all of you that want to change your nervous system or to apply tools to make your nervous system work better.

因此，对于所有想要改变神经系统或应用工具让神经系统更好地工作的人来说，理解这一点很重要。

Sensation is a nonnegotiable element of your nervous system.

感觉是神经系统中不可忽视的元素。

You have neurons in your eye that perceive certain colors of light and certain directions of movement.

你的眼睛里有神经元，可以感知某些颜色的光和某些运动方向。

You have neurons in your skin that perceive particular kinds of touch, like light touch or firm touch or painful touch.

皮肤中的神经元可以感知特定类型的触摸，例如轻触、用力触摸或疼痛触摸。

You have neurons in your ears that perceive certain sounds.

你的耳朵里有神经元，可以感知某些声音。

Your entire experience of life is so filtered by these, what we call sensory receptors, if you want to know what the name is.

你的整个生活经历都被这些感受器过滤，如果你想知道它的名字是什么的话。

So this always raises an interesting question.

所以这总是提出一个有趣的问题。

People ask, well, is there much more out there?

人们会问，还有更多吗？

Is there a lot more happening in the world that I'm not experiencing or that humans aren't experiencing?

世界上还有很多我没有经历过的事情或者人类没有经历过的事情吗？

And the answer of course is yes, There are many species on this planet that are perceiving things that we will never perceive unless we apply technology.

答案当然是肯定的，这个星球上有许多物种正在感知我们除非应用技术否则永远无法感知的事物。

The best example I could think of off the top of my head would be something like infrared vision.

我能想到的最好的例子就是红外视觉。

There are snakes out there, pit vipers, and so forth, that can sense heat emissions from other animals.

那里有蛇、毒蛇等等，它们可以感知其他动物散发的热量。

They don't actually see their shape.

他们实际上并没有看到自己的形状。

They sense their heat shape and their heat emissions.

它们感知它们的热形状和热排放。

Humans can't do that unless of course they put on infrared goggles or something that would allow them to detect those heat emissions.

人类无法做到这一点，除非他们戴上红外护目镜或能让他们检测到这些热排放的东西。

There are turtles and certain species of birds that migrate long distances that can detect magnetic fields because they have neurons.

有些海龟和某些长途迁徙的鸟类可以检测磁场，因为它们有神经元。

Again, it's the nervous system that allows them to do this.

同样，神经系统让它们能够做到这一点。

So they have neurons in their nose and in their head that allow them to migrate along magnetic fields in order to, as amazing as this sounds, go from one particular location in the ocean, thousands of miles away, to all aggregate on one particular beach at a particular time of year so that they can mate, lay eggs and then wander back off into the sea to die.

因此，它们的鼻子和头部中有神经元，使它们能够沿着磁场迁移，以便，听起来很神奇，从数千英里外的海洋中的一个特定位置，在一年中的特定时间聚集在一个特定的海滩上，以便它们可以交配，产卵，然后漫步回到大海中死去。

And then their young will eventually hatch.

然后它们的幼崽最终会孵化。

Those little cute little turtles will shuffle to the ocean, swim off and go do the exact same thing.

那些可爱的小海龟会拖着脚步走向大海，游走，然后做同样的事情。

They don't do, migrate that distance by vision.

他们不这样做，通过视觉来移动那个距离。

They don't do it by smell.

他们不是靠嗅觉来做到这一点的。

They do it by sensing magnetic fields.

他们通过感应磁场来做到这一点。

Many other species do these incredible things.

许多其他物种也会做出这些令人难以置信的事情。

Humans are not magnetic sensing organisms.

人类不是磁感应生物。

We can't do that because we don't have receptors that sense magnetic fields.

我们做不到这一点，因为我们没有感知磁场的受体。

There are some data that maybe some humans can sense magnetic fields, but you should be very skeptical of anyone that's convinced that they can do that with any degree of robustness or accuracy.

有一些数据表明，也许有些人可以感知磁场，但你应该对任何确信自己可以以任何程度的鲁棒性或准确性做到这一点的人持怀疑态度。

Because even the people that can do this aren't necessarily aware that they can, maybe a topic for a future podcast.

因为即使是能够做到这一点的人也不一定意识到他们可以，这可能是未来播客的主题。

So we have sensation, then we have perception.

所以我们有感觉，然后我们有知觉。

Perception is our ability to take what we're sensing and focus on it and make sense of it, to explore it, to remember it.

感知是我们接受我们所感知的事物并专注于它并理解它、探索它、记住它的能力。

So really, perceptions are just whichever sensations we happen to be paying attention to at any moment.

事实上，感知就是我们在任何时刻碰巧注意到的任何感觉。

And you can do this right now, you can experience perception and the difference between perception and sensation very easily.

你现在就可以这样做，你可以很容易地体验感知以及感知和感觉之间的差异。

If for instance, I tell you to pay attention to the contact of your feet, the bottoms of your feet, with whatever surface they happen to be in contact with, maybe it's shoes, maybe it's the floor, if your feet are up maybe it's air.

举例来说，如果我告诉你要注意你的脚的接触，你的脚底，以及它们碰巧接触到的任何表面，也许是鞋子，也许是地板，如果你的脚朝上，也许是空气。

The moment you place your, what we call the spotlight of attention or the spotlight of perception, on your feet, you are now perceiving what was happening there, what was being sensed there.

当你把我们所说的注意力聚光灯或感知聚光灯放在你的脚上的那一刻，你现在正在感知那里发生了什么，在那里感受到什么。

The sensation was happening all along however.

然而这种感觉一直在发生。

So while sensation is not negotiable, you can't change your receptors unless you adopt some new technology.

因此，虽然感觉是不可协商的，但除非采用一些新技术，否则您无法改变受体。

Perception is under the control of your attention.

感知是在你的注意力的控制之下的。

And the way to think about attention is it's like a spotlight, except it's not one spotlight.

思考注意力的方式就像是一盏聚光灯，只不过它不是一个聚光灯。

You actually have two attentional spotlights.

你实际上有两个注意力聚光灯。

Anyone that tells you you can't multitask, tell them they're wrong.

如果有人告诉你不能同时处理多项任务，请告诉他们他们错了。

And if they disagree with you, tell them to contact me.

如果他们不同意你的观点，请告诉他们与我联系。

Because in Old World primates, of which humans are, we are able to do what's called "covert attention." We can place a spotlight of attention on something, for instance, something we're reading or looking at or someone that we're listening to, and we can place a second spotlight of attention on something we're eating and how it tastes, or our child running around in the room or my dog.

因为在旧世界的灵长类动物中，比如人类，我们能够进行所谓的“隐蔽注意力”。我们可以将注意力放在某件事上，例如，我们正在阅读或正在看的东西或我们正在听的人，我们可以将第二个注意力放在我们正在吃的东西及其味道上，或者我们的孩子在房间里跑来跑去或我的狗上。

You can split your attention into two locations.

您可以将注意力分散到两个地方。

But of course, you can also bring your attention, that is your perception, to one particular location.

当然，你也可以将你的注意力，即你的感知，带到一个特定的位置。

You can dilate your attention, kind of like making a spotlight more diffuse, or you can make it more concentrated.

你可以扩大你的注意力，有点像让聚光灯更加分散，或者你可以让它更加集中。

This is very important to understand if you're going to think about tools to improve your nervous system, whether or not that tool is in the form of a chemical that you decide to take, maybe a supplement to increase some chemical in your brain, if that's your choice or a brain machine device, or you're going to try and learn something better by engaging in some focus or motivated pursuit for some period of time each day.

如果您打算考虑改善神经系统的工具，无论该工具是否是您决定服用的化学物质的形式，也许是增加大脑中某种化学物质的补充剂，如果这是您的选择或脑机设备，或者您打算通过每天一段时间的集中注意力或有动力的追求来尝试更好地学习一些东西，了解这一点非常重要。

Attention is something that is absolutely under your control.

注意力是完全由你控制的东西。

In particular when you're rested, and we'll get back to this.

特别是当你休息的时候，我们会回到这个话题。

But when you are rested, and we'll define rest very clearly, you are able to direct your attention in very deliberate ways.

但是当你休息时，我们将非常清楚地定义休息，你就能够以非常谨慎的方式引导你的注意力。

And that's because we have something in our nervous system, which is sort of like a two-way street.

那是因为我们的神经系统中有一些东西，有点像双向街道。

And that two-way street is a communication between the aspects of our nervous system that are reflexive and the aspects of our nervous system that are deliberate.

这条双向路是我们的神经系统的反射性方面和我们的神经系统的故意性方面之间的沟通。

So we all know what it's like to be reflexive.

所以我们都知道条件反射是什么感觉。

You go through life; you're walking.

你经历人生；你正在走路。

If you already know how to walk, you don't think about your walking, you just walk.

如果你已经知道如何走路，你就不会考虑你的走路，你只是走路。

And that's because the nervous system wants to pass off as much as it can to reflexive action.

这是因为神经系统想要尽可能多地传递反射动作。

That's called bottom-up processing.

这就是所谓的自下而上的处理。

It really just means that information is flowing in through your senses; regardless of what you're perceiving, that information is flowing up and it's directing your activity.

它实际上只是意味着信息通过你的感官流入；无论你感知到什么，这些信息都会向上流动并指导你的活动。

But at any moment, for instance, let's say a car screeches in front of you around the corner, and you suddenly pause; you are now moving into deliberate action; you would start looking around in a very deliberate way.

但在任何时候，例如，假设一辆汽车在拐角处在你面前发出尖叫声，你突然停了下来；你现在正在采取刻意的行动；你会开始以一种非常谨慎的方式环顾四周。

The nervous system can be reflexive in its action or it can be deliberate.

神经系统的行为可以是反射性的，也可以是有意的。

If reflexive action tends to be what we call bottom-up deliberate action, and deliberate perceptions and deliberate thoughts are top down.

如果说反射性的行动往往是我们所说的自下而上的刻意行动，那么刻意的感知和刻意的想法就是自上而下的。

They require some effort and some focus, but that's the point.

它们需要一些努力和一些专注，但这就是重点。

You can decide to focus your attention and energy on anything you want.

您可以决定将注意力和精力集中在您想要的任何事情上。

You can decide to focus your behavior in any way you want, but it will always feel like it requires some effort and some strain.

你可以决定以任何你想要的方式集中你的行为，但总是感觉这需要一些努力和一些压力。

Whereas when you're in reflexive mode, just walking and talking and eating and doing your thing, it's going to feel very easy.

而当你处于反射模式时，只是走路、说话、吃饭、做你的事情，就会感觉很容易。

And that's because your nervous system basically wired up to be able to do most things easily without much metabolic demand, without consuming much energy.

那是因为你的神经系统基本上能够轻松完成大多数事情，无需太多代谢需求，也无需消耗太多能量。

But the moment you try and do something very specific, you're going to feel a sort of mental friction, it's going to be challenging.

但当你尝试做一些非常具体的事情时，你会感受到一种精神摩擦，这将是具有挑战性的。

So we've got sensations, perceptions, and then we've got things that we call feelings/emotions.

所以我们有感觉、知觉，然后我们有我们称之为感觉/情绪的东西。

And these get a little complicated because almost all of us, I would hope all of us, are familiar with things like happiness and sadness or boredom or frustration.

这些变得有点复杂，因为几乎我们所有人，我希望我们所有人，都熟悉诸如幸福和悲伤或无聊或沮丧之类的事情。

Scientists argue like crazy; neuroscientists and psychologists and philosophers, for that matter, argue like crazy about what these are and how they work.

科学家们疯狂地争论；就此而言，神经科学家、心理学家和哲学家疯狂地争论这些是什么以及它们如何发挥作用。

Certainly emotions and feelings are the product of the nervous system.

当然，情绪和感觉是神经系统的产物。

They involve the activity of neurons.

它们涉及神经元的活动。

But as I mentioned earlier, neurons are electrically active, but they also release chemicals.

但正如我之前提到的，神经元具有电活性，但它们也会释放化学物质。

And there's a certain category of chemicals that has a very profound influence on our emotional states, they're called neuromodulators.

有一种化学物质对我们的情绪状态有着非常深远的影响，它们被称为神经调节剂。

And those neuromodulators have names that probably you've heard of before, things like dopamine and serotonin and acetylcholine, epinephrine.

这些神经调节剂的名字你可能以前听说过，比如多巴胺、血清素、乙酰胆碱、肾上腺素。

Neuromodulators are really interesting because they bias which neurons are likely to be active and which ones are likely to be inactive.

神经调节剂非常有趣，因为它们会偏向哪些神经元可能活跃，哪些神经元可能不活跃。

A simple way to think about neuromodulators is they are sort of playlists that you would have on any kind of device where you're going to play particular categories of music.

思考神经调节器的一个简单方法是，它们是一种播放列表，您可以在任何类型的设备上播放特定类别的音乐。

So for instance, dopamine, which is often discussed as the molecule of reward or joy, is involved in reward.

例如，多巴胺经常被讨论为奖励或快乐的分子，它与奖励有关。

And it does tend to create a sort of upbeat mood when released in appropriate amounts in the brain.

当它在大脑中释放适量时，确实会产生一种乐观的情绪。

But the reason it does that is because it makes certain neurons and neural circuits, as we call them, more active and others less active.

但它这样做的原因是因为它使某些神经元和神经回路（我们称之为）更加活跃，而其他神经元和神经回路则不那么活跃。

So serotonin, for instance, is a molecule that when released tends to make us feel really good with what we have, our sort of internal landscape and the resources that we have.

例如，血清素是一种分子，当它被释放时，往往会让我们对我们所拥有的、我们的内部景观和我们所拥有的资源感觉非常良好。

Whereas dopamine, more than being a molecule of reward is really more a molecule of motivation toward things that are outside us and that we want to pursue.

而多巴胺不仅仅是一种奖励分子，实际上更是一种对我们之外的事物和我们想要追求的事物的动机分子。

And we can look at healthy conditions or situations like being in pursuit of a goal, where every time we accomplish something en route to that goal, a little bit of dopamine is released and we feel more motivation, that happens.

我们可以看看健康的条件或情况，比如在追求一个目标时，每当我们在实现目标的过程中完成某件事时，就会释放一点多巴胺，我们会感到更有动力，这种情况就会发生。

We can also look at the extreme example of something like mania, where somebody is so relentlessly in pursuit of external things like money and relationships that they're sort of in this delusional state of thinking that they have the resources that they need in order to pursue all these things, when in fact they don't.

我们还可以看看狂热症这样的极端例子，有人如此不懈地追求金钱和人际关系等外在事物，以至于他们陷入了一种妄想状态，认为自己拥有追求所有这些事物所需的资源，而事实上他们没有。

So these neuromodulators can exist in normal levels, low levels, high levels, and that actually gives us a window into a very important aspect of neuroscience history that all of us are impacted by today, which is the discovery of antidepressants and so-called antipsychotics.

因此，这些神经调节剂可以以正常水平、低水平、高水平存在，这实际上为我们提供了一个窗口，让我们了解今天影响我们所有人的神经科学历史的一个非常重要的方面，即抗抑郁药和所谓的抗精神病药的发现。

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, it was discovered that there are compounds, chemicals that can increase or decrease serotonin, that can increase or decrease dopamine and that led to the development of most of what we call antidepressants.

在 20 世纪 50 年代、60 年代和 70 年代，人们发现有些化合物和化学物质可以增加或减少血清素，可以增加或减少多巴胺，从而导致了大多数我们所说的抗抑郁药的开发。

Now, the trick here, or the problem is that most of these drugs, especially in the 1950s and 60s, they would reduce serotonin, but they would also reduce dopamine or they would increase serotonin, but they would also increase some other neuromodulator or chemical.

现在，这里的窍门，或者说问题是，大多数这些药物，特别是在 20 世纪 50 年代和 60 年代，它们会减少血清素，但它们也会减少多巴胺，或者会增加血清素，但它们也会增加一些其他神经调节剂或化学物质。

And that's because all these chemical systems in the body, but the neuromodulators in particular, have a lot of receptors.

这是因为体内所有这些化学系统，特别是神经调节剂，都有很多受体。

Now, these are different than the receptors we were talking about earlier.

现在，它们与我们之前讨论的受体不同。

The receptors I'm talking about now are sort of like parking spots where dopamine is released, and if it attaches to a receptor, say on the heart, it might make the heartbeat faster because there's a certain kind of receptor on the heart.

我现在谈论的受体有点像释放多巴胺的停车位，如果它附着在受体上，比如心脏上，它可能会使心跳加快，因为心脏上有某种受体。

Whereas if dopamine is released and goes and attaches to muscle, it might have a completely different effect on muscle, and in fact, it does.

然而，如果多巴胺被释放并附着在肌肉上，它可能会对肌肉产生完全不同的影响，事实上，确实如此。

So different receptors on different organs of the body are the ways that these neuromodulators can have all these different effects on different aspects of our biology.

因此，身体不同器官上的不同受体是这些神经调节剂对我们生物学的不同方面产生所有这些不同影响的方式。

This is most salient in the example of some of the antidepressants that have sexual side effects or that blunt appetite or that blunt motivation.

这在一些具有性副作用或抑制食欲或抑制动机的抗抑郁药的例子中最为突出。

Many of these which increase serotonin can be very beneficial for people; it can elevate their mood, it can make them feel better, but they also at, if they're, the doses are too high or if that particular drug isn't right for somebody, that person experiences challenges with motivation or appetite or libido because serotonin is binding to receptors in the areas of the brain that control those other things as well.

其中许多可以增加血清素的物质对人们非常有益。它可以提高他们的情绪，可以让他们感觉更好，但如果他们服用的剂量太高，或者如果某种药物不适合某人，那么该人就会在动机、食欲或性欲方面遇到挑战，因为血清素与大脑区域中控制其他事物的受体结合。

So, we talked about sensation, we talked about perception, when we talk about feelings we have to consider these neuromodulators.

所以，我们谈论感觉，我们谈论知觉，当我们谈论感觉时，我们必须考虑这些神经调节剂。

And we have to consider also that feelings and emotions are contextual.

我们还必须考虑到感觉和情绪是与情境相关的。

In some cultures showing a lot of joy or a lot of sadness is entirely appropriate.

在某些文化中，表现出很多快乐或很多悲伤是完全合适的。

In other cultures, it's considered inappropriate.

在其他文化中，这被认为是不合适的。

So I don't think it's fair to say that there's a sadness circuit or area of the brain or a happiness circuit or area of the brain.

所以我认为说大脑中存在悲伤回路或区域或者大脑中存在快乐回路或区域是不公平的。

However, it is fair to say that certain chemicals and certain brain circuits tend to be active when we are in motivated states, tend to be active when we are in nonmotivated, lazy states, tend to be active when we are focused and tend to be active when we are not focused.

然而，可以公平地说，当我们处于有动力的状态时，某些化学物质和某些大脑回路往往会活跃；当我们处于无动力、懒惰的状态时，某些化学物质和某些大脑回路往往会活跃；当我们集中注意力时，某些化学物质和某些大脑回路往往会活跃；而当我们不集中注意力时，某些化学物质和某些大脑回路往往会活跃。

I want to emphasize also that emotions are something that we generally feel are not under our control.

我还想强调的是，情绪是我们通常感觉不受我们控制的东西。

We feel like they kind of geyser up within us and they just kind of happen to us, and that's because they are somewhat reflexive.

我们感觉它们就像在我们内心涌动一样，它们就发生在我们身上，那是因为它们在某种程度上是反射性的。

We don't really set out with a deliberate thought to be happier, deliberate thought to be sad.

我们并不是真的刻意地想变得更快乐，刻意地想悲伤。

We tend to experience them in kind of a passive reflexive way.

我们倾向于以被动反射的方式体验它们。

And that brings us to the next thing, which thoughts.

这把我们带到了下一件事，即思想。

Thoughts are really interesting because in many ways they're like perceptions, except that they draw on not just what's happening in the present but also things we remember from the past and things that we anticipate about the future.

想法确实很有趣，因为在很多方面它们就像感知一样，只不过它们不仅利用了当前发生的事情，还利用了我们对过去的记忆和对未来的预期。

The other thing about thoughts that's really interesting is that thoughts can be both reflexive—they can just be occurring all the time, sort of pop-up windows on a poorly filtered web browser—or they can be deliberate, we can decide to have a thought.

关于思想的另一件非常有趣的事情是，思想可以是反射性的——它们可以一直发生，就像过滤不良的网络浏览器上的弹出窗口一样——或者它们可以是故意的，我们可以决定有一个想法。

In fact, right now, you could decide to have a thought just like you would decide to write something out on a piece of paper.

事实上，现在，你可以决定有一个想法，就像你决定在一张纸上写下一些东西一样。

You could decide that you're listening to a podcast, that you are in a particular location.

您可以确定您正在收听播客，并且您位于某个特定位置。

You're not just paying attention to what's happening, you're directing your thought process.

你不只是关注正在发生的事情，你还在引导你的思维过程。

And a lot of people don't understand or at least appreciate that the thought patterns and the neural circuits that underlie thoughts can actually be controlled in this deliberate way.

许多人不理解或至少不理解思想模式和思想背后的神经回路实际上可以通过这种刻意的方式进行控制。

And then finally, there are actions.

最后，还有行动。

Actions or behaviors are perhaps the most important aspect to our nervous system because first of all, our behaviors are actually the only thing that are going to create any fossil record of our existence.

行动或行为可能是我们神经系统最重要的方面，因为首先，我们的行为实际上是唯一能够创造我们存在的化石记录的东西。

After we die, the nervous system deteriorates, our skeleton will remain, but it's, in the moment of experiencing something very joyful or something very sad, it can feel so all-encompassing that we actually think that it has some meaning beyond that moment.

我们死后，神经系统会恶化，我们的骨骼会留下来，但在经历一些非常快乐或非常悲伤的事情的那一刻，它会感觉如此包罗万象，以至于我们实际上认为它具有超越那一刻的意义。

But actually for humans, and I think for all species, the sensations, the perceptions and the thoughts and the feelings that we have in our lifespan, none of that is actually carried forward except the ones that we take and we convert into actions such as writing, actions such as words, actions such as engineering new things.

但实际上，对于人类来说，我认为对于所有物种来说，我们在一生中所拥有的感觉、知觉、思想和感情，除了我们采取并转化为诸如写作之类的行动、诸如言语之类的行动、诸如设计新事物之类的行动之外，没有任何一种实际上得到了延续。

And so the fossil record of our species and each one of us is really through action.

因此，我们物种和我们每个人的化石记录实际上都是通过行动来记录的。

And that, in part, is why so much of our nervous system is devoted to converting sensation, perceptions, feelings and thoughts into actions.

这在一定程度上就是为什么我们的神经系统如此多的部分致力于将感觉、知觉、感受和思想转化为行动。

In fact, the great neuroscientist or physiologist, Sherrington, won a Nobel Prize for his work in mapping some of the circuitry, the connections between nerve cells that give rise to movement, and he said movement is the final common pathway.

事实上，伟大的神经科学家或生理学家谢林顿因其在绘制一些电路图（引起运动的神经细胞之间的连接）方面的工作而获得了诺贝尔奖，他说运动是最终的共同路径。

The other way to think about it is that one of the reasons that our central nervous system, our brain and spinal cord, include this stuff in our skull but also connects so heavily to the body, is because most everything that we experience, including our thoughts and feelings, was really designed to either impact our behavior or not.

另一种思考方式是，我们的中枢神经系统、大脑和脊髓将这些东西包含在我们的头骨中，但又与身体紧密相连，原因之一是因为我们经历的大多数事情，包括我们的思想和感受，实际上都是为了影响我们的行为而设计的。

And the fact that thoughts allow us to reach into the past and anticipate the future and not just experience what's happening in the moment gave rise to an incredible capacity for us to engage in behaviors that are not just for the moment, they're based on things that we know from the past and that we would like to see in the future.

事实上，思想让我们能够回顾过去、预测未来，而不仅仅是体验当下正在发生的事情，这一事​​实赋予我们令人难以置信的能力，使我们能够做出不只是为了当下的行为，而是基于我们从过去知道的事情以及我们希望在未来看到的事情。

And this aspect to our nervous system of creating movement occurs through some very simple pathways.

我们的神经系统产生运动的这一方面是通过一些非常简单的途径发生的。

That reflexive pathway basically includes areas of the brain stem we call central pattern generators.

该反射通路基本上包括我们称为中枢模式生成器的脑干区域。

When you walk, provided you already know how to walk, you are basically walking because you have these central pattern generators, groups of neurons that generate right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot kind of movement.

当你走路时，只要你已经知道如何走路，你基本上就是在走路，因为你有这些中枢模式发生器，即产生右脚、左脚、右脚、左脚运动的神经元组。

However, when you decide to move in a particular deliberate way that requires a little more attention, you start to engage areas of your brain for top-down processing where your forebrain works from the top down to control those central pattern generators so that maybe it's right foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, right foot, left foot, if maybe you're hiking along some rocks or something and you have to engage in that kind of movement.

然而，当你决定以一种需要更多注意力的特定方式移动时，你开始调动你的大脑区域进行自上而下的处理，你的前脑从上到下工作以控制那些中央模式生成器，这样也许是右脚，右脚，左脚，右脚，右脚，左脚，如果你沿着一些岩石或其他东西徒步旅行，并且你必须进行这种运动。

So movement is just like thoughts, can be either reflexive or deliberate.

所以运动就像思想一样，可以是本能的，也可以是有意的。

And when we talk about deliberate, I want to be very specific about how your brain works in the deliberate way because it gives rise to a very important feature of the nervous system that we're going to talk about next, which is your ability to change your nervous system.

当我们谈论刻意时，我想非常具体地说明你的大脑如何以刻意的方式工作，因为它产生了我们接下来要讨论的神经系统的一个非常重要的特征，这就是你改变神经系统的能力。

And what I'd like to center on for a second is this notion of what does it mean for the nervous system to do something deliberately?

我想集中讨论一下神经系统故意做某事意味着什么？

Well, when you do something deliberately, you pay attention, you are bringing your perception to an analysis of three things.

好吧，当你刻意做某事时，你会集中注意力，你会带着你的感知来分析三件事。

Duration, how long something is going to take, or should be done.

持续时间，某件事将花费多长时间或应该完成。

Path, what you should be doing.

路径，你应该做什么。

And outcome, if you do something for a given length of time, what's going to happen?

结果是，如果你在给定的时间内做某事，会发生什么？

Now when you're walking down the street or you're eating or you're just talking reflexively, you're not doing this what I call DPO, duration, path, outcome type of deliberate function in your brain and nervous system.

现在，当你走在街上，或者你正在吃东西，或者你只是反射性地说话时，你并不是在做我所说的 DPO，即大脑和神经系统中有意功能的持续时间、路径、结果类型。

But the moment you decide to learn something or to resist speaking or to speak up when you would rather be quiet, anytime you're deliberately forcing yourself over a threshold, you are engaging these brain circuits and these nervous system circuits that suddenly make it feel as if something is challenging, something has changed.

但是，当你决定学习某些东西或拒绝说话或在你宁愿安静时大声说话的那一刻，任何时候你故意强迫自己超过一个阈值，你就正在参与这些大脑回路和这些神经系统回路，这些回路突然让人感觉好像有什么事情具有挑战性，有些事情已经改变了。

Well, what's changed?

嗯，有什么变化吗？

What's changed is that when you engage in this duration, path, and outcome type of thinking or behavior or way of being, you start to recruit these neuromodulators that are released from particular areas of your brain, and also, it turns out, from your body, and they start cuing to your nervous system something's different.

改变的是，当你从事这种持续时间、路径和结果类型的思维或行为或存在方式时，你开始招募这些从你大脑的特定区域释放的神经调节剂，而且事实证明，从你的身体释放，它们开始向你的神经系统发出不同的提示。

Something's different now about what I'm doing.

现在我所做的事情有所不同。

Something's different about what I'm feeling.

我的感觉有些不同。

Let's give an example where perhaps somebody says something that's triggering to you, you don't like it, and you know shouldn't respond.

让我们举一个例子，也许有人说了一些触动你的话，你不喜欢它，并且你知道不应该回应。

You feel like, oh, I shouldn't respond, I shouldn't respond, I shouldn't respond.

你觉得，哦，我不应该回应，我不应该回应，我不应该回应。

You're actively suppressing your behavior through top-down processing.

你通过自上而下的处理方式积极抑制自己的行为。

Your forebrain is actually preventing you from saying the thing that you know shouldn't say or that maybe you should wait to say or say in a different form.

你的前脑实际上阻止你说出你知道不应该说的话，或者你应该等待或以不同的形式说的话。

This feels like agitation and stress because you're actually suppressing a circuit.

这感觉就像焦躁和压力，因为你实际上是在抑制电路。

We actually can see examples of what happens when you're not doing this well, some of the examples come from children.

我们实际上可以看到当你做得不好时会发生什么的例子，其中一些例子来自孩子。

If you look at young children, they don't have the forebrain circuitry to engage in this top-down processing until they reach age 22, even 25.

如果你观察幼儿，就会发现他们直到 22 岁甚至 25 岁之前都没有前脑回路来进行这种自上而下的处理。

But in young children, you see this in a really robust way.

但在年幼的孩子身上，你会以一种非常强烈的方式看到这一点。

You'll see they'll be rocking back and forth.

你会看到他们会来回摇摆。

It's hard for them to sit still because those central pattern generators are constantly going in the background, whereas adults can sit still.

他们很难安静地坐着，因为那些中央模式发生器一直在后台运行，而成年人却可以安静地坐着。

A kid sees a piece of candy that it wants and will just reach out and grab it, whereas an adult probably would ask if they could have a piece or wait until they were offered a piece in most cases.

孩子看到一块他想要的糖果，就会伸手去抓，而成年人在大多数情况下可能会问他们是否可以吃一块，或者等到有人给他们一块糖果。

People that have damage to the, certain areas of the frontal lobes don't have this kind of restriction.

额叶某些区域受损的人则没有这种限制。

They'll just blurt things out.

他们只会脱口而出。

They'll just say things.

他们只会说一些事情。

We all know people like this.

我们都认识这样的人。

Impulsivity is a lack of top-down control, a lack of top-down processing.

冲动是缺乏自上而下的控制，缺乏自上而下的处理。

The other thing that will turn off the forebrain and make it harder to top-down processing is a couple of drinks containing alcohol.

另一件会关闭前脑并使自上而下的处理变得更加困难的事情是一些含酒精的饮料。

The removal of inhibition is actually removal of neural inhibition, of nerve cells suppressing the activity of other nerve cells.

消除抑制实际上是消除神经抑制，即消除抑制其他神经细胞活动的神经细胞。

And so when you look at people that have damage to their frontal lobes, or you look at puppies or you look at young children, everything's a stimulus.

因此，当你观察额叶受损的人、小狗或幼儿时，一切都是刺激。

Everything is a potential interaction for them, and they have a very hard time restricting their behavior and their speech.

对他们来说，一切都是潜在的互动，他们很难限制自己的行为和言论。

So a lot of the motor system is designed to just work in a reflexive way.

因此，许多运动系统被设计为以反射性方式工作。

And then when we decide we want to learn something or do something or not do something, we have to engage in this top-down restriction and it feels like agitation because it's accompanied by the release of a neuromodulator called norepinephrine, which in the body we call adrenaline, and it actually makes us feel agitated.

然后，当我们决定要学习某件事或做某事或不做某事时，我们必须进行这种自上而下的限制，这感觉就像焦躁不安，因为它伴随着一种称为去甲肾上腺素的神经调节剂的释放，在体内我们称之为肾上腺素，它实际上让我们感到焦躁不安。

So for those of you that are trying to learn something new or to learn to suppress your responses or be more deliberate and careful in your responses, that is going to feel challenging for a particular reason: it's going to feel challenging because the chemicals in your body that are released in association with that effort are designed to make you feel kind of agitated.

因此，对于那些试图学习新东西或学习抑制自己的反应或在反应中更加深思熟虑和谨慎的人来说，这会因特定原因而感到具有挑战性：这会感到具有挑战性，因为与这种努力相关的体内释放的化学物质旨在让您感到某种焦躁。

That low-level tremor that sometimes people feel when they're really, really angry is actually a chemically induced low-level tremor.

有时人们在非常非常生气时感到的低级震颤实际上是化学引起的低级震颤。

And it's the what I call limbic friction.

这就是我所说的边缘摩擦。

There's an area of your brain that's involved in our more primitive reflexive responses called the limbic system.

大脑中有一个区域涉及我们更原始的反射反应，称为边缘系统。

And the frontal cortex is in a friction, it's in a tug-of-war with that system all the time.

额叶皮层一直处于摩擦状态，一直在与该系统进行拉锯战。

Unless of course you have damage to the frontal lobe or you've had too much to drink or something, in which case you tend to just say and do whatever.

当然，除非你的额叶受损，或者你喝了太多酒或者其他什么，在这种情况下，你往往会说什么做什么。

And so this is really important to understand because if you want to understand neuroplasticity, you want to understand how to shape your behavior, how to shape your thinking, how to change how you're able to perform in any context, the most important thing to understand is that it requires top-down processing.

因此，理解这一点非常重要，因为如果你想了解神经可塑性，你想了解如何塑造你的行为，如何塑造你的思维，如何改变你在任何情况下的表现方式，最重要的是要理解它需要自上而下的处理。

It requires this feeling of agitation.

它需要这种激动的感觉。

In fact, I would say the agitation and strain is the entry point to neuroplasticity.

事实上，我想说，激动和紧张是神经可塑性的切入点。

So let's take a look at what neuroplasticity is, let's explore it not as the way it's normally talked about in modern cultures, a neuroplasticity, plasticity is great.

所以让我们来看看什么是神经可塑性，让我们探索它，而不是像现代文化中通常谈论的那样，神经可塑性，可塑性很棒。

What exactly do people mean?

人们到底是什么意思？

Plasticity itself is just a process by which neurons can change their connections in the way they work so that you can go from things being very challenging and deliberate, requiring a lot of effort and strain to them being reflexive.

可塑性本身只是一个过程，通过这个过程，神经元可以改变它们的工作方式，这样你就可以从非常具有挑战性和深思熟虑的、需要大量努力和压力的事情转变为条件反射的事情。

And typically when we hear about plasticity, we're thinking about positive or what I call adaptive plasticity.

通常，当我们听到可塑性时，我们会想到积极的或我所说的适应性可塑性。

A lot of plasticity can be induced, for instance, by brain damage, but that's generally not the kind of plasticity that we want.

例如，大脑损伤可以诱发很多可塑性，但这通常不是我们想要的那种可塑性。

So when I say plasticity, unless I say otherwise, I mean adaptive plasticity.

所以当我说可塑性时，除非我另有说明，我指的是适应性可塑性。

And in particular, most of the neuroplasticity that people want is self-directed plasticity, because if there's one truism to neuroplasticity, it's that from birth until about age 25, the brain is incredibly plastic.

特别是，人们想要的大多数神经可塑性都是自我导向的可塑性，因为如果说神经可塑性有一个不言而喻的话，那就是从出生到 25 岁左右，大脑的可塑性令人难以置信。

Kids are learning all sorts of things, but they can learn it passively.

孩子们正在学习各种各样的东西，但他们可以被动地学习。

They don't have to work too hard or focus too hard, although focus helps, to learn new things, acquire new languages, acquire new skills.

他们不必工作太努力或太专注，尽管专注有助于学习新事物、掌握新语言、掌握新技能。

But if you're an adult and you want to change your neural circuitry at the level of emotions or behavior or thoughts or anything really, you absolutely need to ask two important questions.

但如果你是一个成年人，并且你想在情绪、行为、思想或任何其他层面上改变你的神经回路，你绝对需要问两个重要的问题。

One, what particular aspect of my nervous system am I trying to change?

第一，我想改变神经系统的哪些特定方面？

Meaning, am I trying to change my emotions or my perceptions, my sensations, and which ones are available for me to change?

意思是，我是否试图改变我的情绪或我的看法、我的感觉，以及哪些是我可以改变的？

And then the second question is how are you going to go about that?

第二个问题是你将如何去做？

What is the structure of a regimen to engage neuroplasticity?

参与神经可塑性的方案的结构是什么？

And it turns out that the answer to that second question is governed by how awake or how sleepy we are.

事实证明，第二个问题的答案取决于我们的清醒程度或困倦程度。

So let's talk about that next.

那么接下来我们就来谈谈这个问题。

Neuroplasticity is the ability for these connections in the brain and body to change in response to experience.

神经可塑性是大脑和身体中的这些连接根据经验而改变的能力。

And what's so incredible about the human nervous system in particular is that we can direct our own neural changes.

人类神经系统的神奇之处在于我们可以控制自己的神经变化。

We can decide that we want to change our brain.

我们可以决定要改变我们的大脑。

In other words, our brain can change itself and our nervous system can change itself.

换句话说，我们的大脑可以自我改变，我们的神经系统也可以自我改变。

And the same can't be said for other organs of the body, even though our other organs of the body have some ability to change, they can't direct it.

而身体的其他器官则不能这样说，即使我们身体的其他器官有一定的改变能力，但它们无法指挥它。

They can't think and decide.

他们无法思考和决定。

Your gut doesn't say, oh, I want to be able to digest spicy foods better, so I'm going to rearrange the connections to be able to do that.

你的直觉不会说，哦，我希望能够更好地消化辛辣食物，所以我要重新安排连接才能做到这一点。

Whereas your brain can decide that you want to learn a language or you want to be less emotionally reactive or more emotionally engaged, and you can undergo a series of steps that will allow your brain to make those changes so that eventually it becomes reflexive for you to do that, which is absolutely incredible.

然而你的大脑可以决定你想要学习一门语言，或者你想要减少情绪反应还是更多地投入情绪，而你可以经历一系列步骤，让你的大脑做出这些改变，最终它会条件反射地让你这样做，这绝对是令人难以置信的。

For a long time it was thought that neuroplasticity was the unique gift of young animals and humans, that it could only occur when we're young.

长期以来，人们认为神经可塑性是年轻动物和人类的独特天赋，它只能在我们年轻时发生。

And in fact, the young brain is incredibly plastic.

事实上，年轻的大脑具有令人难以置信的可塑性。

Children can learn three languages without an accent, reflexively.

孩子们可以条件反射地学习三种没有口音的语言。

Whereas adults, it's very challenging, it takes a lot more effort and strain, a lot more of that duration path-outcome kind of thinking in order to achieve those plastic changes.

而对于成年人来说，这非常具有挑战性，需要付出更多的努力和压力，需要更多的持续路径结果思维才能实现这些可塑性改变。

We now know, however, that the adult brain can change in response to experience.

然而，我们现在知道，成年人的大脑可以根据经历而发生变化。

Nobel prizes were given for the understanding that the young brain can change very dramatically.

诺贝尔奖因认识到年轻的大脑可以发生巨大的变化而获得。

I think one of the most extreme examples would be for people that are born blind from birth, they use the area of their brain that normally would be used for visualizing objects and colors and things outside of them for braille reading.

我认为最极端的例子之一是对于那些天生失明的人来说，他们使用通常用于可视化物体、颜色以及外部事物的大脑区域来进行盲文阅读。

In brain imaging studies, it's been shown that, you know, people who are blind from birth, when they braille read, the area of the brain that would normally light up, if you will, for vision lights up for braille reading.

大脑成像研究表明，出生时失明的人在阅读盲文时，大脑中通常会亮起的区域（如果你愿意的话）会因盲文阅读而亮起。

So that real estate is reallocated for an entirely different function.

因此，房地产被重新分配用于完全不同的功能。

If someone is made blind in adulthood, it's unlikely that their entire visual brain will be taken over by the areas of the brain that are responsible for touch.

如果一个人在成年后失明，他的整个视觉大脑不太可能被负责触觉的大脑区域所接管。

However, there's some evidence that areas of the brain that are involved in hearing and touch can kind of migrate into that area.

然而，有一些证据表明，大脑中与听觉和触觉有关的区域可能会迁移到该区域。

And there's a lot of interest now in trying to figure out how more plasticity can be induced in adulthood, more positive plasticity.

现在人们对如何在成年期诱导更多的可塑性、更积极的可塑性产生了很大的兴趣。

And in order to understand that process, we really have to understand something that might at first seem totally divorced from neuroplasticity, but actually lies at the center of neuroplasticity.

为了理解这个过程，我们确实必须理解一些乍一看似乎与神经可塑性完全无关的东西，但实际上是神经可塑性的核心。

And for any of you that are interested in changing your nervous system so that something that you want can go from being very hard or seem almost impossible and out of reach to being very reflexive, this is especially important to pay attention to.

对于任何有兴趣改变你的神经系统的人来说，这样你想要的东西可以从非常困难或看起来几乎不可能和遥不可及变成非常反射性的，这一点尤其需要注意。

Plasticity in the adult human nervous system is gated, meaning it is controlled by neuromodulators.

成年人神经系统的可塑性是门控的，这意味着它受到神经调节剂的控制。

These things that we talked about earlier, dopamine, serotonin, and one in particular called acetylcholine are what open up plasticity.

我们之前谈到的这些东西，多巴胺、血清素，以及一种特别被称为乙酰胆碱的物质，是开启可塑性的东西。

They literally unveil plasticity and allow brief periods of time in which whatever information, whatever thing we're sensing or perceiving or thinking or whatever emotions we feel can literally be mapped in the brain such that later it will become much easier for us to experience and feel that thing.

它们确实揭示了可塑性，并允许短暂的时间段，在这段时间内，无论我们感知、感知或思考的任何事物，或者我们感受到的任何情绪，都可以真正地映射到大脑中，这样以后我们就会更容易地体验和感受那些东西。

Now, this has a dark side and a positive side.

现在，这有阴暗面和积极的一面。

The dark side is it's actually very easy to get neuroplasticity as an adult through traumatic or terrible or challenging experiences.

黑暗的一面是，作为一个成年人，实际上很容易通过创伤、可怕或具有挑战性的经历而获得神经可塑性。

But the important question is to say, why is that?

但重要的问题是，这是为什么？

And the reason that's the case is because when something very bad happens, there's the release of two sets of neuromodulators in the brain, epinephrine, which tends to make us feel alert and agitated, which is associated with most bad circumstances, and acetylcholine, which tends to create even more intense and focused perceptual spotlight.

之所以会出现这种情况，是因为当发生非常糟糕的事情时，大脑中会释放两组神经调节剂：肾上腺素，它往往会让我们感到警觉和焦躁，这与大多数糟糕的情况有关；乙酰胆碱，它往往会产生更强烈和集中的感知焦点。

Remember earlier we were talking about perception and how it's kind of like a spotlight; acetylcholine makes that light particularly bright and particularly restricted to one region of our experience, and it does that by making certain neurons in our brain and body active much more than all the rest.

还记得之前我们讨论过感知以及它如何有点像聚光灯吗？乙酰胆碱使这种光特别明亮，并且特别限制在我们经验的一个区域，它是通过使我们大脑和身体中的某些神经元比其他神经元更加活跃来实现这一点的。

So acetylcholine is sort of like a highlighter marker upon which neuroplasticity then comes in later and says wait, which neurons were active in this particularly alerting phase of, whatever day or night, whenever this thing happened to happen?

因此，乙酰胆碱有点像荧光笔标记，神经可塑性随后出现并说等等，无论白天还是晚上，每当这件事发生时，哪些神经元在这个特别警觉的阶段是活跃的？

So the way it works is this, you can think of epinephrine as creating this alertness and this kind of unbelievable level of increased attention compared to what you were experiencing before.

所以它的工作原理是这样的，你可以认为肾上腺素会产生这种警觉性，并且与你之前经历的相比，这种令人难以置信的注意力增加程度。

And you can think of acetylcholine as being the molecule that highlights whatever happens during that period of heightened alertness.

您可以将乙酰胆碱视为一种分子，它可以突出显示在高度警觉期间发生的任何事情。

So just to be clear, it's epinephrine creates the alertness that's coming from a subset of neurons in the brain stem, if you're interested.

需要澄清的是，如果你感兴趣的话，肾上腺素会产生来自脑干神经元子集的警觉性。

And acetylcholine coming from an area of the forebrain is tagging or marking the neurons that are particularly active during this heightened level of alertness.

来自前脑区域的乙酰胆碱正在标记或标记在这种高度警觉性期间特别活跃的神经元。

Now that marks the cells, the neurons, and the synapses for strengthening, for becoming more likely to be active in the future, even without us thinking about it.

现在，这标志着细胞、神经元和突触的强化，在未来变得更有可能活跃，即使我们没有想到这一点。

So in bad circumstances, this all happens without us having to do much.

因此，在恶劣的情况下，这一切都会发生，而我们无需做太多事情。

When we want something to happen, however, we want to learn a new language, we want to learn a new skill, we want to become more motivated, what do we know for certain?

然而，当我们想要某件事发生时，我们想要学习一门新语言，我们想要学习一项新技能，我们想要变得更有动力，我们确定知道什么？

We know that that process of getting neuroplasticity so that we have more focus, more motivation, absolutely requires the release of epinephrine.

我们知道，获得神经可塑性以便我们更加专注、更有动力的过程绝对需要肾上腺素的释放。

We have to have alertness in order to have focus.

我们必须保持警觉才能集中注意力。

And we have to have focus in order to direct those plastic changes to particular parts of our nervous system.

我们必须集中注意力，以便将这些可塑性变化引导到我们神经系统的特定部分。

Now, this has immense implications in thinking about the various tools, whether or not those are chemical tools or machine tools or just self-induced regimens of how long or how intensely you're going to focus in order to get neuroplasticity.

现在，这对于思考各种工具具有巨大的影响，无论这些工具是化学工具还是机械工具，或者只是自我诱导的养生法，即你要集中注意力多长时间或多强烈才能获得神经可塑性。

But there's another side to it.

但它还有另一面。

The dirty secret of neuroplasticity is that no neuroplasticity occurs during the thing you're trying to learn, during the terrible event, during the great event, during the thing that you're really trying to shape and learn, nothing is actually changing between the neurons that is going to last.

神经可塑性的肮脏秘密是，在你试图学习的事情期间，在可怕的事件期间，在伟大的事件期间，在你真正试图塑造和学习的事情期间，没有神经可塑性发生，在将持续的神经元之间实际上没有任何变化。

All the neuroplasticity, the strengthening of the synapses, the addition in some cases of new nerve cells, or at least connections between nerve cells—all of that occurs at a very different phase of life, which is when we are in sleep and non-sleep deep rest.

所有的神经可塑性、突触的强化、某些情况下新神经细胞的添加，或者至少是神经细胞之间的连接——所有这些都发生在生命的一个非常不同的阶段，即我们处于睡眠和非睡眠深度休息的阶段。

And so neuroplasticity, which is the kind of holy grail of human experience of, you know, this is the new year and everyone's thinking New Year's resolutions and right now perhaps everything's organized and people are highly motivated, but what happens in March or April or May?

神经可塑性是人类体验的圣杯，你知道，这是新的一年，每个人都在思考新年决心，现在也许一切都井井有条，人们积极性很高，但三月、四月或五月会发生什么？

Well, that all depends on how much attention and focus one can continually bring to whatever it is they're trying to learn.

嗯，这一切都取决于一个人能够持续对他们想要学习的东西投入多少注意力和专注力。

So much so that agitation and a feeling of strain are actually required for this process of neuroplasticity to get triggered.

如此之多以至于激动和紧张感实际上是触发神经可塑性过程所必需的。

But the actual rewiring occurs during periods of sleep and non-sleep deep rest.

但实际的重新布线发生在睡眠和非睡眠深度休息期间。

There was a study published last year that's particularly relevant here that I want to share, was not done by my laboratory, that showed that 20 minutes of deep rest, this is not deep sleep but essentially doing something very hard and very intense and then taking 20 minutes afterward, immediately afterwards, to deliberately turn off the deliberate focused thinking and engagement, actually accelerated neuroplasticity.

去年发表的一项研究与这里特别相关，我想分享，但不是由我的实验室完成的，该研究表明，20 分钟的深度休息，这不是深度睡眠，而是本质上做一些非常努力和非常激烈的事情，然后立即花 20 分钟刻意关闭刻意的集中思考和参与，实际上加速了神经可塑性。

There's another study that's just incredible, and we're going to go into this in a future episode of the podcast not too long from now, that showed that if people are learning a particular skill, it could be a language skill or a motor skill, and they hear a tone just playing in the background, the tone is playing periodically through the background, like just a bell, in deep sleep if that bell is played, learning is much faster for the thing that they were learning while they were awake.

还有一项令人难以置信的研究，我们将在不久后的播客节目中讨论这个问题，该研究表明，如果人们正在学习一项特定技能，它可能是一项语言技能或一项运动技能，他们会听到背景中播放的音调，该音调会在背景中定期播放，就像铃声一样，在深度睡眠中，如果播放铃声，那么他们在醒着时学习的东西的学习速度要快得多。

It somehow cues the nervous system in sleep, it doesn't even have to be in dreaming, that something that happened in the waking phase was especially important.

它以某种方式提示睡眠中的神经系统，甚至不必在梦中，在清醒阶段发生的事情尤其重要。

So much so that that bell is sort of a Pavlovian cue.

以至于那个铃声有点像巴甫洛夫式的提示。

It's sort of a reminder to the sleeping brain, oh, you need to remember what it is that you were learning at that particular time of day.

这对睡眠中的大脑来说是一个提醒，哦，你需要记住你在一天中的特定时间正在学习什么。

And the learning rates and the rates of retention, meaning how much people can remember from the thing they learned, are significantly higher under those conditions.

在这些条件下，学习率和保留率（意味着人们能从所学到的东西中记住多少）要显着更高。

So I'm going to talk about how to apply all this knowledge in a little bit more in this podcast episode, but also in future episodes.

因此，我将在本播客节目以及未来的节目中更多地讨论如何应用所有这些知识。

But it really speaks to the really key importance of sleep and focus, these two opposite ends of our attentional state.

但这确实说明了睡眠和注意力的真正关键重要性，这两个是我们注意力状态的相反两端。

When we're in sleep, these DPOs—duration, path and outcome analysis—are impossible.

当我们处于睡眠状态时，这些 DPO（持续时间、路径和结果分析）是不可能的。

We just can't do that.

我们就是不能这么做。

We are only in relation to what's happening inside of us.

我们只与我们内心发生的事情有关。

So sleep is key.

所以睡眠是关键。

Also key are periods of non-sleep deep rest where we're turning off our analysis of duration, path and outcome, in particular for the thing that we were just trying to learn.

同样关键的是非睡眠深度休息的时期，我们会关闭对持续时间、路径和结果的分析，特别是对于我们刚刚想学习的事情。

And we're in this kind of liminal state where our attention is kind of drifting all over.

我们正处于这种阈限状态，我们的注意力有点飘忽不定。

It turns out that's very important for the consolidation, for the changes between the nerve cells that will allow what we were trying to learn to go from being deliberate and hard and stressful and a strain to easy and reflexive.

事实证明，这对于巩固、神经细胞之间的变化非常重要，这将使我们试图学习的内容从刻意、困难、压力和紧张转变为轻松和反射性的。

This also points to how different people, including many modern clinicians, are thinking about how to prevent bad circumstances, traumas, from routing their way into our nervous system permanently.

这也表明不同的人，包括许多现代临床医生，正在思考如何防止恶劣的环境和创伤永久地进入我们的神经系统。

It says that you might want to interfere with certain aspects of brain states that are away from the bad thing that happened, the brain states that happened the next day or the next month or the next year.

它说你可能想要干扰大脑状态的某些方面，这些方面远离发生的坏事，第二天、下个月或明年发生的大脑状态。

And also, I want to make sure that I pay attention to the fact that, for many of you, you're thinking about neuroplasticity, not just in changing your nervous system to add something new, but to also get rid of things that you don't like, that you want to forget bad experiences, or at least remove the emotional contingency of a bad relationship or a bad relationship to some thing or some person or some event.

而且，我想确保我注意到这样一个事实，对于你们中的许多人来说，你们正在考虑神经可塑性，不仅仅是改变你的神经系统以添加新的东西，而且还要摆脱你不喜欢的东西，你想要忘记不好的经历，或者至少消除不良关系或与某些事物、某些人或某些事件的不良关系的情感偶然性。

Learning to fear certain things less, to eliminate a phobia, to erase a trauma.

学会减少对某些事物的恐惧，消除恐惧症，消除创伤。

The memories themselves don't get erased.

记忆本身不会被删除。

I'm sorry to say that the memories don't themselves get erased, but the emotional load of memories can be reduced.

我很遗憾地说，记忆本身不会被删除，但记忆的情感负担可以减轻。

And there are a number of different ways that that can happen.

实现这一目标的方式有很多种。

But they all require this thing that we're calling neuroplasticity.

但它们都需要我们称之为神经可塑性的东西。

We're going to have a large number of discussions about neuroplasticity in depth, but the most important thing to understand is that it is indeed a two-phase process.

我们将对神经可塑性进行大量深入的讨论，但最重要的是要理解它确实是一个两阶段的过程。

What governs the transition between alert and focused and these deep rest and deep sleep states is a system in our brain and body, a certain aspect of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system.

控制警觉和专注以及深度休息和深度睡眠状态之间转换的是我们大脑和身体中的一个系统，即神经系统的某个方面，称为自主神经系统。

And it is immensely important to understand how this autonomic nervous system works.

了解这种自主神经系统的工作原理非常重要。

It has names like the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system, which frankly are complicated names because they're a little bit misleading.

它有诸如交感神经系统和副交感神经系统之类的名称，坦率地说，这些名称很复杂，因为它们有点误导。

Sympathetic is the one that's associated with more alertness.

富有同情心与更加警觉性相关。

Parasympathetic is the one that's associated with more calmness.

副交感神经是一种与更加平静相关的神经。

And it gets really misleading because the sympathetic nervous system sounds like sympathy and then people think it's related to calm.

这确实具有误导性，因为交感神经系统听起来像是同情，然后人们认为它与平静有关。

I'm going to call it the alertness system and the calmness system because even though sympathetic and parasympathetic are sometimes used, people really get confused.

我将其称为警觉系统和冷静系统，因为尽管有时会使用交感神经和副交感神经，但人们确实会感到困惑。

So the way to think about the autonomic nervous system, and the reason it's important for every aspect of your life, but in particular for neuroplasticity and engaging in these focused states and then these de-focused states, is that it works sort of like a seesaw.

因此，思考自主神经系统的方式，以及它对你生活的各个方面都很重要的原因，特别是对于神经可塑性和参与这些专注状态，然后这些分散注意力的状态，是因为它的工作原理有点像跷跷板。

Every 24 hours, we're all familiar with the fact that when we wake up in the morning, we might be a little bit groggy, but then generally we're more alert.

每 24 小时，我们都熟悉这样一个事实：早上醒来时，我们可能会有点昏昏沉沉，但通常我们会更加警觉。

And then as evening comes around, we tend to become a little more relaxed, and sleeping—eventually at some point at night, we go to sleep.

然后，当夜幕降临时，我们往往会变得更加放松，然后就睡觉了——最终在晚上的某个时刻，我们睡着了。

So we go from alert to deeply calm.

所以我们从警觉到深度平静。

And as we do that, we go from an ability to engage in these very focused duration path outcome types of analyses to states in sleep that are completely divorced from duration, path and outcome in which everything is completely random and untethered in terms of our sensations, perceptions and feelings and so forth.

当我们这样做时，我们从参与这些非常集中的持续时间路径结果类型分析的能力，转变为完全脱离持续时间、路径和结果的睡眠状态，在这种状态下，一切都是完全随机的，在我们的感觉、感知和感受等方面不受束缚。

So every 24 hours we have a phase of our day that is optimal for thinking and focusing and learning and neuroplasticity and doing all sorts of things; we have energy as well.

因此，每 24 小时，我们一天中都会有一个最适合思考、集中注意力、学习、神经可塑性和做各种事情的阶段；我们也有能量。

And at another phase of our day, we're tired and we have no ability to focus, we have no ability to engage in duration path outcome types of analyses.

在一天的另一个阶段，我们很累，没有能力集中注意力，没有能力进行持续时间路径结果类型的分析。

And it's interesting that both phases are important for shaping our nervous system in the ways that we want.

有趣的是，这两个阶段对于以我们想要的方式塑造我们的神经系统都很重要。

So if we want to engage neuroplasticity and we want to get the most of out of our nervous system, we each have to master both the transition between wakefulness and sleep and the transition between sleep and wakefulness.

因此，如果我们想要发挥神经可塑性，并且想要充分利用我们的神经系统，我们每个人都必须掌握清醒和睡眠之间的过渡以及睡眠和清醒之间的过渡。

Now so much has been made of the importance of sleep, and it is critically important for wound healing, for learning, as I just mentioned, for consolidating learning, for all aspects of our immune system.

现在人们已经对睡眠的重要性做了很多阐述，睡眠对于伤口愈合、学习（正如我刚才提到的那样）、巩固学习、免疫系统的各个方面都至关重要。

It is the one period of time in which we're not doing these duration path and outcomes types of analyses.

这是我们不进行这些持续时间路径和结果类型分析的一段时间。

And it is critically important to all aspects of our health, including our longevity.

它对我们健康的各个方面都至关重要，包括我们的长寿。

Much less has been made, however, of how to get better at sleeping, how to get better at the process that involves falling asleep, staying asleep, and accessing these states of mind and body that involve total paralysis; most people don't know this, but you're actually paralyzed during much of your sleep so that you can't act out your dreams, presumably.

然而，关于如何改善睡眠、如何改善入睡、保持睡眠以及进入完全瘫痪的身心状态的问题却少之又少。大多数人不知道这一点，但实际上你在睡眠的大部分时间里都处于瘫痪状态，因此你可能无法实现你的梦想。

But also where your brain is in a total idle state, where it's not controlling anything, it's just left to kind of free run.

但当你的大脑处于完全空闲状态时，它不控制任何东西，它只是自由运行。

And there are certain things that we can all do in order to master that transition in order to get better at sleeping.

我们都可以做一些事情来掌握这种转变，从而改善睡眠。

And it involves much more than just how much we sleep.

它不仅仅涉及我们的睡眠时间。

We're all being told, of course, that we need to sleep more.

当然，我们都被告知我们需要多睡觉。

But there's also the issue of sleep quality, accessing those deep states of non-DPO thinking.

但还有睡眠质量问题，即进入非 DPO 思维的深层状态。

Accessing the right timing of sleep—not a lot has been discussed publicly as far as I'm aware of when to time your sleep.

掌握正确的睡眠时间——据我所知，关于何时睡觉的问题，公开讨论的并不多。

I think we all can appreciate that sleeping for half an hour throughout the day so that you get a total of eight hours of sleep every 24-hour cycle is probably very different and not optimal compared to a solid block of eight hours of sleep.

我想我们都可以理解，全天睡半小时，以便每个 24 小时周期总共睡 8 小时，与固定的 8 小时睡眠相比，这可能是非常不同的，而且不是最佳选择。

Although there are people that have tried this, I think it's been written about in various books, not many people can stick to that schedule.

虽然有人尝试过这一点，但我认为这在各种书籍中都有记载，但没有多少人能够坚持这个时间表。

Incidentally, I think it's called the Huberman schedule, not to be confused with the Huberman schedule because first of all, my schedule doesn't look anything like that.

顺便说一句，我认为它被称为胡伯曼时间表，不要与胡伯曼时间表混淆，因为首先，我的时间表看起来不像那样。

And second of all, I would never attempt such a sleeping regime.

其次，我永远不会尝试这样的睡眠习惯。

The other thing that is really important to understand is that we have not explored, as a culture, the rhythms that occur in our waking states.

另一件真正需要理解的事情是，作为一种文化，我们还没有探索我们清醒状态下发生的节奏。

So much has been focused on the value of sleep and the importance of sleep, which is great.

人们对睡眠的价值和重要性的关注如此之多，这很好。

But I don't think that most people are paying attention to what's happening in their waking states and when their brain is optimized for focus, when their brain is optimized for these DPOs, these duration path outcome types of engagements for learning and for changing.

但我不认为大多数人会关注他们清醒状态下发生的事情，以及当他们的大脑针对注意力进行优化时，当他们的大脑针对这些 DPO 进行优化时，这些持续时间路径结果类型的学习和改变的参与。

And when their brain is probably better suited for more reflexive thinking and behaviors.

当他们的大脑可能更适合更多的反射性思维和行为时。

And it turns out that there's a vast amount of scientific data which points to the existence of what are called ultradian rhythms.

事实证明，大量科学数据表明存在所谓的超电节律。

We may have heard of circadian rhythms.

我们可能听说过昼夜节律。

Circadian means, circa about a day.

昼夜节律的意思是大约一天。

So it's 24-hour rhythms because the earth spins once every 24 hours.

所以这是24小时的节奏，因为地球每24小时自转一次。

Ultradian rhythms occur throughout the day, in, and they require less time, They're shorter.

超昼夜节律全天发生，并且它们需要的时间更少，它们更短。

The most important ultradian rhythm for sake of this discussion is the 90-minute rhythm that we're going through all the time in our ability to attend and focus.

在本次讨论中，最重要的超日节奏是 90 分钟的节奏，我们一直在经历这种节奏，以提高我们的注意力和注意力。

And in sleep, our sleep is broken up into 90-minute segments.

在睡眠中，我们的睡眠被分成 90 分钟的片段。

Early in the night, we have more phase one and phase two lighter sleep.

晚上早些时候，我们的第一阶段睡眠较多，第二阶段睡眠较浅。

And then we go into our deeper phase three and phase four sleep.

然后我们进入更深的第三阶段和第四阶段睡眠。

And then we return to phase one, two, three, four.

然后我们回到第一、二、三、四阶段。

So all night you're going through these ultradian rhythms of stage one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four—it's repeating.

所以整个晚上你都会经历第一阶段、第二阶段、第三阶段、第四阶段、一阶段、二阶段、三阶段、四阶段的这些超电节奏——它在重复。

Most people perhaps know that, maybe they don't.

大多数人也许知道这一点，也许他们不知道。

But when you wake up in the morning, these ultradian rhythms continue.

但当你早上醒来时，这些超电节律仍在继续。

And it turns out that we are optimized for focus and attention within these 90-minute cycles.

事实证明，在这 90 分钟的周期内，我们的注意力得到了优化。

So that at the beginning of one of these 90-minute cycles, maybe you sit down to learn something new or to engage in some new challenging behavior for the first five or 10 minutes of one of those cycles.

因此，在其中一个 90 分钟周期开始时，也许您会坐下来学习一些新东西，或者在其中一个周期的前 5 或 10 分钟内进行一些新的具有挑战性的行为。

It's well known that the brain and the neural circuits and the neuromodulators are not going to be optimally tuned to whatever it is you're trying to do.

众所周知，大脑、神经回路和神经调节器不会针对您想要做的事情进行最佳调整。

But as you drop deeper into that 90-minute cycle, your ability to focus and to engage in this DPO process and to direct neuroplasticity and to learn is actually much greater.

但当你深入到 90 分钟的循环中时，你集中注意力、参与这个 DPO 过程、指导神经可塑性和学习的能力实际上会变得更强。

And then you eventually pop out of that at the end of the 90-minute cycle.

然后你最终会在 90 分钟的循环结束时摆脱这种状态。

So these cycles are occurring in sleep and these cycles are occurring in wakefulness.

所以这些周期发生在睡眠中，这些周期发生在清醒时。

And all of those are governed by this seesaw of alertness to calmness that we call the autonomic nervous system.

所有这些都受到我们称之为自主神经系统的警觉与平静的跷跷板的控制。

So if you want to master and control your nervous system, regardless of what tool you reach to, whether or not it's a pharmacologic tool or whether or not it's a behavioral tool or whether or not it's a brain machine interface tool, it's vitally important to understand that your entire existence is occurring in these 90-minute cycles, whether or not you're asleep or awake.

因此，如果你想掌握和控制你的神经系统，无论你使用什么工具，无论它是药理工具还是行为工具或脑机接口工具，了解你的整个存在都发生在这 90 分钟的周期中是至关重要的，无论你是睡着还是醒着。

And so you really need to learn how to wedge into those 90-minute cycles.

所以你真的需要学习如何融入这 90 分钟的周期。

And for instance, it would be completely crazy and counterproductive to try and just learn information while in deep sleep by listening to that information, because you're not able to access it.

例如，尝试在深度睡眠时通过聆听信息来学习信息将是完全疯狂且适得其反的，因为你无法访问它。

It would be perfectly good, however, to engage in a focused bout of learning each day.

然而，每天集中精力学习是非常好的。

And now we know how long that focused bout of learning should be.

现在我们知道集中学习应该持续多长时间。

It should be at least one 90-minute cycle.

至少应为一个 90 分钟的周期。

And the expectation should be that the early phase of that cycle is going to be challenging.

预计该周期的早期阶段将充满挑战。

It's going to hurt.

会很痛。

It's not going to feel natural.

这不会感觉很自然。

It's not going to feel like flow.

它不会感觉像流动。

But that you can learn and the circuits of your brain that are involved in focus and motivation can learn to drop into a mode of more focus, get more neuroplasticity.

但你可以学习，你的大脑中涉及注意力和动机的回路可以学习进入一种更专注的模式，获得更多的神经可塑性。

In other words, by engaging these ultradian cycles at the appropriate times of day.

换句话说，通过在一天中的适当时间参与这些超电周期。

For instance, some people are very good learners early in the day and not so good in the afternoon.

例如，有些人在一天的早些时候学习得很好，但在下午就不那么好了。

So you can start to explore this process even without any information about the underlying neurochemicals by simply paying attention, not just to when you go to sleep and when you wake up each morning, how deep or how shallow your sleep felt to you subjectively, but also throughout the day when your brain tends to be most anxious, because it turns out that has a correlate related to perception that we will talk about.

因此，即使没有任何有关潜在神经化学物质的信息，你也可以开始探索这个过程，只需注意，不仅要注意你何时入睡和每天早上醒来，主观上你的睡眠感觉有多深或多浅，还要注意一整天你的大脑往往最焦虑的时间，因为事实证明这与我们将要讨论的感知有关。

You can ask yourself, when are you most focused?

你可以问问自己，什么时候你最专注？

When you least anxious?

你什么时候最不焦虑？

When do you feel most motivated?

你什么时候感觉最有动力？

When do you feel most least motivated?

你什么时候感觉最没有动力？

By understanding how the different aspects of your perception, sensation, feeling, thought and actions tend to want to be engaged or not want to be engaged, you develop a very good window into what's going to be required to shift your ability to focus or shift your ability to engage in creative-type thinking at different times of day, should you choose.

通过了解你的感知、感觉、感觉、思想和行动的不同方面如何倾向于想要参与或不想参与，你就可以了解需要什么来改变你在一天中不同时间集中注意力的能力或改变你进行创造性思维的能力（如果你选择的话）。

And so that's where we're heading going forward; it all starts with mastering this seesaw that is the autonomic nervous system that at a course level is a transition between wakefulness and sleep, but at a finer level, and just as important, are the various cycles, these ultradian 90-minute cycles that govern our life all the time, 24 hours a day, every day of our life.

这就是我们前进的方向；这一切都始于掌握这个跷跷板，即自主神经系统，在课程层面上，它是清醒和睡眠之间的过渡，但在更精细的层面上，同样重要的是各种周期，这些超电的 90 分钟周期，每天 24 小时，每一天，一直控制着我们的生活。

And so we're going to talk about how you can take control of the autonomic nervous system so that you can better access neuroplasticity, better access sleep, even take advantage of the phase that is the transition between sleep and waking to access things like creativity, and so forth.

因此，我们将讨论如何控制自主神经系统，以便更好地获得神经可塑性，更好地获得睡眠，甚至利用睡眠和清醒之间的过渡阶段来获得创造力等。

All based on studies that have been published over the last 100 years, mainly within the last 10 years, and some that are very, very new and that point to the use of specific tools that will allow you to get the most out of your nervous system.

所有这些都基于过去 100 年（主要是过去 10 年）发表的研究，其中一些研究非常非常新，指出使用特定工具可以让您充分利用您的神经系统。

So today we covered a lot of information.

所以今天我们涵盖了很多信息。

It was sort of a whirlwind tour of everything from neurons and synapses to neuroplasticity in the autonomic nervous system.

这是一次旋风之旅，涉及从神经元、突触到自主神经系统的神经可塑性等各个方面。

We will revisit a lot of these themes going forward.

未来我们将重新审视其中的许多主题。

So if all of that didn't sink in one pass, please don't worry.

因此，如果所有这些都没有一次性解决，请不要担心。

We will come back to these themes over and over again.

我们将一遍又一遍地回到这些主题。

I wanted to equip you with a language that we're all developing, a kind of common, base set of information going forward, and I hope the information is valuable to you and you're thinking about what is working well for you and what's working less well and what's been exceedingly challenging and what's been easy for you in terms of your pursuit of particular behaviors or emotional states.

我想为你提供一种我们都在开发的语言，一种通用的、未来的基本信息集，我希望这些信息对你有价值，并且你正在思考什么对你来说效果很好，什么效果不太好，什么对你来说是极具挑战性的，什么对你来说在你追求特定行为或情绪状态方面是容易的。

Where your challenges or the challenges of people that you know might reside.

您的挑战或您认识的人的挑战可能存在的地方。

As promised in our welcome video, the format of the Huberman Lab podcast is to dive deep into individual topics for an entire month at a time.

正如我们在欢迎视频中所承诺的那样，胡伯曼实验室播客的格式是一次深入探讨各个主题整整一个月。

So for the entire month of January, we're going to explore this incredible state that is sleep and a related state, which is non-sleep deep rest, and what they do for things like learning, resetting our emotional capacity.

因此，在整个一月份，我们将探索这种令人难以置信的状态，即睡眠和相关状态，即非睡眠深度休息，以及它们对学习、重置我们的情绪能力等方面的作用。

Everyone's probably familiar with the fact that when we're sleep deprived, we're so much less good at dealing with life circumstances, we're more emotionally labile, why is that?

每个人可能都熟悉这样一个事实：当我们睡眠不足时，我们处理生活情况的能力就会大大降低，我们的情绪也会更加不稳定，这是为什么呢？

How is that?

怎么样？

But most importantly, we're going to talk about how to get better at sleeping and then how to access better sleep even when your sleep timing or duration is compromised.

但最重要的是，我们将讨论如何改善睡眠，以及如何在睡眠时间或持续时间受到影响的情况下获得更好的睡眠。

We're also going to talk about the data that support this very interesting state called non-sleep deep rest, where one is neither asleep nor awake, but it turns out one can recover some of the neuromodulators and, more importantly, the processes involved in sensation, perception, feeling, thought and action.

我们还将讨论支持这种非常有趣的状态的数据，称为非睡眠深度休息，即一个人既不睡也不醒，但事实证明，一个人可以恢复一些神经调节剂，更重要的是，恢复涉及感觉、知觉、感觉、思想和行动的过程。

It's sure to be a very rich discussion back and forth, where I'm answering your questions and providing tools.

这肯定是一次非常丰富的来回讨论，我将回答您的问题并提供工具。

And I'm certain you're also going to learn a lot of information about neuroscience and what makes up this incredible phase of your life where you think you're not conscious but you're actually resetting and renewing yourself in order to perform better, feel better, etcetera, in the waking state.

我确信你也会学到很多关于神经科学的信息，以及是什么构成了你生命中这个令人难以置信的阶段，你认为自己没有意识，但实际上你正在重置和更新自己，以便在清醒状态下表现更好、感觉更好等等。

If you want to support the podcast, please click the light button and subscribe on YouTube.

如果您想支持播客，请点击灯光按钮并在 YouTube 上订阅。

Leave us a comment if you have any feedback for us.

如果您对我们有任何反馈，请给我们留言。

And on Apple, you can also leave a review and comments for us to improve the podcast experience for you.

在 Apple 上，您还可以给我们留下评论和意见，以改善您的播客体验。

Please also check out our sponsors, and thank you so much, and we'll see you on the episode next week.

另请查看我们的赞助商，非常感谢，我们下周在节目中见。