- People are worried about their memory. If you're forgetting to show up for your four o'clock meeting, or you forgot the actor who played Tony Soprano in the HBO series 'The Sopranos.' 'Can't remember that guy's name, what is it?' A lot of us tend to blame ourselves. 人們擔(dān)心自己的記憶力下降。如果你忘記參加下午四點的會議，或者忘記誰演了HBO系列劇《黑道家族》中的托尼·索普拉諾，你會說：“記不住那個演員的名字，是什么來著？”很多人記不住時傾向于責(zé)怪自己。This absent-mindedness is a sign of mental weakness, or a failing memory, or a lack of character, but 99% of forgetting that happens to all of us, is normal. So there are things that we can do to be less afraid, less panicked, to have a better relationship with our memory today- because forgetting is a normal part of being human.人們將遺忘看作精神衰弱、記憶力衰退，亦或是人格缺陷的特征，但對每個人來說，99%的遺忘都是正?，F(xiàn)象。我們可以采用一些方法，減少對遺忘的擔(dān)憂和恐慌，更好地改善與記憶力的關(guān)系，因為遺忘是人類普遍存在的正?，F(xiàn)象。My name is Lisa Genova. I am an author and neuroscientist. The name of my book is 'Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.' So how do we reinforce our memories? How do we make our memories stronger, resilient to time, so that we can recall them decades later? 我叫麗薩·吉諾瓦，我是一名作家和神經(jīng)學(xué)家。我的書名叫《記憶：記憶的科學(xué)與遺忘的藝術(shù)》。那么，我們?nèi)绾螐娀洃浟?？如何讓我們的記憶更加牢固，?jīng)得起時間的考驗，以便我們幾十年后還能追憶過往的點點滴滴？The first essential ingredient in creating a memory that's going to last longer than this present moment is attention. 形成長時間持續(xù)記憶而不是瞬間遺忘的第一個關(guān)鍵要素是：集中注意力。If I put my glasses down and don't give it a moment's attention to notice where I've put this, I can't remember where they are because I never formed that memory to begin with. Your brain will never remember what you don't pay attention to. 如果我摘下我的眼鏡，卻絲毫沒有注意到我把眼鏡放在哪里，我就無法記住眼鏡放在哪里了，因為從一開始我的大腦就沒有形成記憶。大腦不會記住你沒有注意到的事物。Chronic stress is really bad for our memory. Stress hormones mobilize your brain and body to respond, to fight, to flee, to react quickly- not to think. Stress is meant to be an acute, quick, on and off phenomenon. So what happens in your brain and body if you're exposed to chronic, unrelenting stress, and how does that affect your memory?長期持續(xù)不斷的壓力對記憶力非常不利。壓力激素會使人的大腦和身體處于響應(yīng)、戰(zhàn)斗、逃離、迅速反應(yīng)的狀態(tài)，而不是思考的狀態(tài)。壓力本來應(yīng)該是一種急性的、快速的、短暫的現(xiàn)象，而非長期持續(xù)不斷。如果你長時間面臨持續(xù)緊繃的壓力，你的大腦和身體會發(fā)生什么變化，怎樣影響你的記憶力？Under chronic stress, your body will just keep dumping adrenaline and cortisol, and it can't shut off. This is bad for memory. You are actually shrinking your hippocampus-the part of your brain that's essential for forming consciously-held memories is going to be smaller. You'll be inhibiting 'neurogenesis,' the birth of new neurons. 在持續(xù)性壓力下，身體會持續(xù)釋放腎上腺素和皮質(zhì)醇，而且停不下來，這對記憶很不利。而且實際上，你的海馬體正在縮小-海馬體是形成有意識記憶的關(guān)鍵腦部區(qū)域。長期壓力會抑制“神經(jīng)發(fā)生”，也就是新神經(jīng)元的產(chǎn)生。The very good news about all of this, because I've probably just scared everyone, is that there are things that we can do to combat stress. This is where things like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and exercise come into play. All of these have been shown to restore the size of people's hippocampus who have been chronically stressed. 非常好的消息是，我剛剛可能嚇倒你們每個人了，我們可以采用一些方式來應(yīng)對壓力。這就是瑜伽、冥想、正念和鍛煉等活動發(fā)揮作用的地方。所有這些活動都已經(jīng)被證明，能夠恢復(fù)長期受壓力困擾的人的海馬體大小。A quick word on meditation: A lot of people are intimidated by meditation. They sort of know that this is probably good for them in lots of ways, but maybe don't know how to do it. Here's a nine-second meditation to help restore your cortisol levels, and to help save your hippocampus and your ability to remember.關(guān)于冥想的簡短說明：很多人對冥想感到有些擔(dān)心。他們大概知道冥想對他們有諸多好處，但不知道如何進行冥想。接下來是九秒冥想教程，有助于恢復(fù)皮質(zhì)醇水平，拯救你的海馬體和記憶力。Close your eyes if you can. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four. Hold it for a second, and then breathe out through your nose to the count of four. And notice how you feel. Here's what's going on: Stress response causes you to breathe like this- By breathing slowly in and out through your nose, you are telling your brain and body that you are safe. 如果可以的話，閉上眼睛。通過鼻子吸氣，數(shù)到四。稍微停頓一下，然后通過鼻子呼氣，數(shù)到四。留意你的感受。你正面臨的問題：壓力會導(dǎo)致你呼吸像狗一樣急促-而通過鼻子緩慢吸氣和呼氣，你在告訴你的大腦和身體你是安全的。We also wanna get enough sleep. Sleep is not a state of doing nothing where you're unconscious and it's a waste of time. You're very biologically busy while you sleep, and there are a number of super-important things that are going on in your brain with respect to memory.我們還要確保獲得足夠的睡眠。睡眠不是一種失去意識、浪費時間的沒有意義的狀態(tài)。在你睡覺的時候，身體內(nèi)的生理活動非?；钴S，與記憶有關(guān)的大腦內(nèi)正在進行許多非常重要的生理活動。For example, if I got a horrible night's sleep last night, I'm gonna wake up today and my frontal lobe is gonna have a hard time dragging itself to its day job- and one of its most important jobs is paying attention. And if I can't pay attention to what's going on today, what am I not gonna be able to do well today? Form new memories. Also, your hippocampus consolidates the information you're learning into a lasting memory that you can consciously retrieve while you sleep. 例如，如果我昨晚睡得很糟糕，今天早上我醒來時，我的額葉將很難履行它的日常功能-其中一個最重要的功能就是集中注意力。如果我不能關(guān)注今天發(fā)生的事情，那我今天無法做好的事情是什么？無法形成新的記憶。此外，在睡眠期間，你的海馬體將鞏固你所學(xué)的信息，并有意識地形成持久記憶。So what happens if you don't get enough sleep? Your hippocampus might not have had enough time to do the job, and so your memories from what happened yesterday and the stuff you learned yesterday, might not be fully formed today, or they might not be formed at all. 如果你沒有足夠的睡眠會發(fā)生什么？你沒有足夠的睡眠時間，你的海馬體可能就沒有足夠的時間來鞏固和存儲你在前一天所經(jīng)歷和學(xué)到的信息，那么在今天，昨日的記憶可能就不能完全形成，甚至可能根本沒有形成。Caffeine is actually good for memory, because caffeine increases your attention. So anything that's an attention booster is gonna be a memory booster. We know that sleep is super important for forming memories, so caffeine's good for memory. You just wanna be careful that it's not compromising your sleep. Our brains are not designed to remember people's names. These are abstract concepts. They live in neurological cul-de-sacs. Ultimately, there's only one way into that house that lives at the end of that street, and there's no other way to get there.咖啡因?qū)嶋H上對記憶有好處，因為咖啡因會強化你的注意力。任何能提高注意力的東西都會增強記憶。我們知道睡眠對于形成記憶超級重要，咖啡因?qū)τ洃浻幸妗Ｖ皇且璨灰绊懩愕乃?。大腦并不是為了記住人的名字而存在的。人名是抽象概念。抽象概念進入大腦，就好比進入死胡同。最終，抽象概念進入大腦只有一條路徑，而沒有其他途徑可走。So can we supply more associations to the person's name to give us a chance? In psychology, this is called the 'Baker-Baker Paradox.' If I'm trying to remember your name and your name is Mr. Baker, that's really tough for me to remember- abstract concept. But if I were asked to remember the word 'baker,' I can picture him wearing an apron, and he's got flour on his face and, 'Oh, I remember the bakery I used to love as a kid and we used to get danishes there on Sundays.' So now I've got all of these associations in my brain, attaching to that word 'baker,' and gives me a chance to hook into it.那么我們能否通過更多的聯(lián)想來記住某人的名字呢？在心理學(xué)中，這被稱為“貝克-貝克爾悖論”。如果我試圖記住你的名字，而你的名字是貝克先生，那對我來說真的很難記住，因為這是一個抽象概念。但如果我被要求記住單詞“面包師”，我可以想象他穿著圍裙，臉上沾滿了面粉，然后我想起了小時候喜歡的面包店，我們每個星期天都去那里買甜點?，F(xiàn)在我腦海中有了與“面包師”這個詞相關(guān)的所有聯(lián)想，這給了我記住“面包師”的可能。For all of these memories, they benefit from repetition. The more we repeat, the more we practice, the more we rehearse a memory, we are strengthening those neural connections, making that neural circuit stronger, and more likely to be fully retrieved. 我們所有的記憶，受益于重復(fù)。我們重復(fù)、練習(xí)、反復(fù)記憶的次數(shù)越多，我們就在強化那些神經(jīng)連接，使神經(jīng)回路更強大，記憶更有可能被完全檢索出來。One of the ways that we can repeat a memory is by writing it down. If I've experienced a certain number of things today, and I keep a journal- what I've chosen to write down will become a stronger, more reinforced memory in my brain. 重復(fù)記憶的方式之一是寫下來。如果我今天經(jīng)歷了一些事情，而我一直堅持寫日記——我選擇寫下來的東西將在我的大腦中變得更加強大、更加牢固。I will also have the opportunity to revisit that memory by reading it later. So many people come up to me, so worried, saying, 'If I don't write what I need to do later down, I'm gonna forget to do it. That's gotta mean I'm getting Alzheimer's.' And I tell all of them, 'No, it's your prospective memory. It's terrible. It's not cheating to write it down. It's actually good practice.' Airline pilots do not rely on their brains and their prospective memories to remember to lower the wheels before landing the plane. They outsource the job to a to-do list, a checklist. We should all write it down, put it in your phones, put it in your calendar alerts, make to-do lists. If you wanna remember to pick up milk at the grocery store, write it down. 今后，我還有機會通過閱讀日記來回顧那段記憶。很多人來找我，非常擔(dān)心地說：“如果我不寫下我接下來需要做的事情，我就會忘記它。這一定意味著我得了阿爾茨海默癥。”而我告訴他們所有人：“不是那樣，那是你的預(yù)期記憶，預(yù)期記憶很差勁。寫下來并不是作弊，實際上是一種很好的練習(xí)?！憋w行員在降落飛機之前并不依賴于他們的大腦和預(yù)期記憶來記住如何放下起落架。他們將記憶任務(wù)外包給待辦事項清單，一個備忘錄。我們都應(yīng)該把待辦事項寫下來，寫在在手機里，加入日歷提醒，制定待辦事項清單。如果你想記住要在雜貨店買牛奶，就把它寫下來。Another way to better remember this information has to do with self-testing. If I'm trying to consolidate something into memory, and I'm only putting the information in, I'm traveling one way on the neurons. If I then try to recall the information, I'm pulling the information out- now I'm going the other way. Going over those circuits in both directions will help reinforce and make that memory stronger. 更好地記住信息的另一個方法是：自我測試。如果我試圖鞏固某些記憶，只是將信息輸入，那我只是在神經(jīng)元上單向傳遞。如果我嘗試回憶這些信息，我就是在提取信息—意味著現(xiàn)在我是在另一個方向上傳遞。雙向激活這些回路將有助于加強和鞏固記憶。Okay, having a word stuck on the tip of your tongue is a normal glitch in memory retrieval. It's just a byproduct of how our brains are organized. So looking up a word, Googling a word that's on the tip of your tongue isn't cheating. It will not cause digital amnesia. It will not make your memory weaker in any way. It frees you up. We can Google anything that we can't remember in a moment's notice, and then use that information to continue thinking, to continue the conversation, to learn more. 舌尖上卡住一個詞是記憶檢索中正常的小故障。說話卡詞只是我們大腦運作方式的副產(chǎn)品。查找一個卡在舌尖上的詞，用谷歌搜索它，并不是作弊。搜索不會導(dǎo)致數(shù)字遺忘，不會以任何方式減弱你的記憶。搜素讓你更自由。我們可以在瞬間內(nèi)搜索任何我們記不起的東西，然后利用這些信息來繼續(xù)思考、繼續(xù)對話、繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)。You have my permission to Google it and look it up. What I would love for you to take away from all of this is that your memory is amazing. It is limitless in what it's capable of remembering if you supply it with the right kind of information, if you supply it with the right kind of tools and associations. And it's wildly imperfect, and that's just the price of owning a human brain. 我準許你，使用搜索與查找。我希望你能從中得出的結(jié)論是，你的記憶是令人驚奇的。如果你提供正確類型的信息，如果你提供正確類型的工具和聯(lián)想，大腦記住事物的能力是無限的。但大腦也是非常不完美的，這只是擁有人類大腦的代價。Forgetting is a normal part of being human.遺忘是人類普遍存在的正?，F(xiàn)象。
