非常專(zhuān)注于某件事情，并不容易做到，是吧？這是因?yàn)槲覀兊淖⒁饬?同時(shí)會(huì)被不同的東西吸引。實(shí)際上如果你能保持專(zhuān)注，會(huì)讓人感到很佩服。

Many people think that attention is allabout what we are focusing on, but it's also about what information our brainis trying to filter out.

許多人認(rèn)為注意力只與我們專(zhuān)注的東西有關(guān)，但它實(shí)際上也與我們的大腦要過(guò)濾的信息有關(guān)。

There are two ways you direct yourattention. First, there's overt attention. In overt attention, you move youreyes towards something in order to pay attention to it. Then there's covertattention. In covert attention, you pay attention to something, but withoutmoving your eyes. Think of driving for a second. Your overt attention, yourdirection of the eyes, are in front, but that's your covert attention which isconstantly scanning the surrounding area, where you don't actually look atthem.

有兩種方式主導(dǎo)了你的注意力。首先是外顯注意力。在外顯注意力中，你的眼睛會(huì)隨著物品移動(dòng)，這樣就可以專(zhuān)注于它。然后就是內(nèi)隱注意力。在內(nèi)隱注意力中，你無(wú)需移動(dòng)你的眼睛就可以專(zhuān)注于某樣?xùn)|西。想一下你開(kāi)車(chē)時(shí)的過(guò)程。你的外顯注意力，你目光的方向 都在前方，但你的內(nèi)隱注意力 會(huì)時(shí)常掃視周?chē)h(huán)境，但你并沒(méi)有真正去仔細(xì)觀(guān)察。

I'm a computational neuroscientist, and Iwork on cognitive brain-machine interfaces, or bringing together the brain andthe computer. I love brain patterns. Brain patterns are important for usbecause based on them we can build models for the computers, and based on thesemodels computers can recognize how well our brain functions. 

我是一名計(jì)算神經(jīng)科學(xué)家，致力于做基于認(rèn)知的腦機(jī)接口的研究，也可以說(shuō)是腦機(jī)融合的研究。我愛(ài)腦電波，腦電波對(duì)于我們來(lái)說(shuō)很重要，因?yàn)橛辛怂鼈儯覀兛梢越o電腦建立模型，然后基于這些模型，電腦可以識(shí)別我們的大腦是怎樣運(yùn)作的。

And if it doesn't function well, then these computers themselves can be used as assistive devicesfor therapies. But that also means something, because choosing the wrongpatterns will give us the wrong models and therefore the wrong therapies.Right? In case of attention, the fact that we can shift our attention not onlyby our eyes but also by thinking -- that makes covert attention an interestingmodel for computers.

如果大腦不能很好地運(yùn)作，這些電腦就可以成為治療的輔助裝置。但這也意味著，如果選擇了錯(cuò)誤的腦電波，會(huì)讓我們建立錯(cuò)誤的模型，最終會(huì)導(dǎo)致錯(cuò)誤治療方法的產(chǎn)生，對(duì)吧？關(guān)于注意力，事實(shí)上我們不僅可以 通過(guò)轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)眼球來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)移注意力，還可以通過(guò)思考—— 讓內(nèi)隱注意力 變成電腦里一個(gè)有趣的模型。

So I wanted to know what are the brainwavepatterns when you look overtly or when you look covertly. I set up anexperiment for that. In this experiment there are two flickering squares, oneof them flickering at a slower rate than the other one. Depending on which ofthese flickers you are paying attention to, certain parts of your brain willstart resonating in the same rate as that flickering rate. So by analyzing yourbrain signals, we can track where exactly you are watching or you are payingattention to.

因此我想知道在你進(jìn)行外顯觀(guān)察和 內(nèi)隱觀(guān)察的時(shí)候腦電波 會(huì)發(fā)生什么變化。我為此設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)。實(shí)驗(yàn)中會(huì)有兩個(gè)正在閃爍的方塊，其中一個(gè)方塊閃爍的速度比另一個(gè)慢。你專(zhuān)注于哪一個(gè)方塊，你大腦里的某個(gè)區(qū)域就會(huì)開(kāi)始產(chǎn)生相應(yīng)的頻率，同方塊的閃爍頻率一樣。所以通過(guò)分析你的大腦信號(hào)，我們可以跟蹤到你正在看哪里，或者專(zhuān)注于哪個(gè)地方。

So to see what happens in your brain whenyou pay overt attention, I asked people to look directly in one of the squaresand pay attention to it. In this case, not surprisingly, we saw that theseflickering squares appeared in their brain signals which was coming from theback of their head, which is responsible for the processing of your visualinformation. But I was really interested to see what happens in your brain whenyou pay covert attention. 

為了觀(guān)察你在運(yùn)用外顯注意力時(shí) 大腦里發(fā)生的情況，我會(huì)讓大家都直接看著其中一個(gè)方塊，然后專(zhuān)注于它。在這種情況下 ，毫無(wú)意外地，我們能看到這些閃爍方塊的頻率出現(xiàn)在了他們的大腦信號(hào)中，這些信號(hào)是從頭部后方發(fā)出的，這個(gè)地方負(fù)責(zé)處理你的視覺(jué)信息。但我真的很有興趣，想要看看當(dāng)你在運(yùn)用內(nèi)隱注意力時(shí) 大腦里會(huì)發(fā)生什么。

So this time I asked people to look in the middle ofthe screen and without moving their eyes, to pay attention to either of thesesquares. When we did that, we saw that both of these flickering rates appearedin their brain signals, but interestingly, only one of them, which was paidattention to, had stronger signals, so there was something in the brain whichwas handling this information so that thing in the brain was basically theactivation of the frontal area. 

所以這一次，我讓大家看著屏幕的正中間，并且眼睛不要移動(dòng)，這樣能夠注意到任何一個(gè)方塊。當(dāng)我們這樣操作時(shí)，我們看到兩個(gè)閃爍方塊的頻率都出現(xiàn)在他們的大腦信號(hào)中了。而有趣的是，被投以關(guān)注的其中一個(gè)方塊 信號(hào)更加強(qiáng)烈，因此大腦里存在有某樣?xùn)|西 負(fù)責(zé)處理這類(lèi)型的信息，而這基本上就是在大腦前額的活動(dòng)。

The front part of your brain is responsible forhigher cognitive functions as a human. The frontal part, it seems that it worksas a filter trying to let information come in only from the right flicker thatyou are paying attention to and trying to inhibit the information coming fromthe ignored one.

大腦的前額負(fù)責(zé)人類(lèi)更高級(jí)的認(rèn)知功能。大腦前額區(qū)就像是過(guò)濾器，它會(huì)嘗試只讓你專(zhuān)注的閃爍方塊信號(hào) 進(jìn)入大腦，而將那個(gè)被忽略的方塊信號(hào)屏蔽掉。

The filtering ability of the brain isindeed a key for attention, which is missing in some people, for example inpeople with ADHD. So a person with ADHD cannot inhibit these distractors, andthat's why they can't focus for a long time on a single task. But what if thisperson could play a specific computer game with his brain connected to thecomputer, and then train his own brain to inhibit these distractors?

大腦的過(guò)濾能力的確是 注意力產(chǎn)生的關(guān)鍵，這種能力在某些人身上存在缺失，比如有注意缺陷多動(dòng)癥（ADHD）的人。因?yàn)橛凶⒁馊毕荻鄤?dòng)癥的人 無(wú)法抑制這些干擾物，這就是他們不能長(zhǎng)時(shí)間 專(zhuān)注于某個(gè)單一任務(wù)的原因。但假如這個(gè)人可以玩某一個(gè)電腦游戲，讓他的大腦與電腦連接，然后訓(xùn)練他自己的大腦，最終學(xué)會(huì)抑制這些干擾物呢？

Well, ADHD is just one example. We can usethese cognitive brain-machine interfaces for many other cognitive fields. Itwas just a few years ago that my grandfather had a stroke, and he lost completeability to speak. He could understand everybody, but there was no way to respond,even not writing because he was illiterate. So he passed away in silence. 

注意力缺陷多動(dòng)癥只是其中一個(gè)例子。我們可以把這些基于認(rèn)知的腦機(jī)接口 運(yùn)用到許多其他認(rèn)知領(lǐng)域中。就在幾年前，我祖父中風(fēng)了，完全喪失了說(shuō)話(huà)的能力。他能聽(tīng)見(jiàn)任何人的聲音，卻沒(méi)有辦法作出回應(yīng)。他不識(shí)字，所以也不能通過(guò)寫(xiě)字來(lái)表達(dá)。最后他安靜地離開(kāi)了人世。

Iremember thinking at that time: What if we could have a computer which couldspeak for him? Now, after years that I am in this field, I can see that thismight be possible. Imagine if we can find brainwave patterns when people thinkabout images or even letters, like the letter A generates a different brainwavepattern than the letter B, and so on. 

我記著我那時(shí)就在想： 假如我們有一臺(tái)電腦，可以替他講話(huà) 該有多好？幾年后，我深入了這個(gè)領(lǐng)域，預(yù)見(jiàn)到這是有可能的。想象一下，如果人們?cè)谒伎紙D像甚至文字時(shí)，我們可以找到相應(yīng)的腦電波，比如字母A形成的腦電波 會(huì)與字母B不一樣，諸如此類(lèi)的。

Could a computer one day communicate forpeople who can't speak? What if a computer can help us understand the thoughtsof a person in a coma? We are not there yet, but pay close attention. We willbe there soon.Thank you.

那么電腦會(huì)不會(huì)有一天就能替那些失語(yǔ)者講話(huà)？如果電腦 能幫助我們了解處于昏迷狀態(tài)中的 人的想法又會(huì)怎樣呢？我們還沒(méi)有實(shí)現(xiàn)這個(gè)目標(biāo)，但大家請(qǐng)持續(xù)關(guān)注，我們很快就會(huì)達(dá)到目的。謝謝。