我們翻譯這篇文章的理由
——劼怡&小釗
??
乘風(fēng)破浪的智慧
作者：Anil Ananthaswamy
插圖：Matthieu Bourel
譯者：劼怡
校對：小釗
策劃：小釗 & 曉雪
Tantalizing evidence suggests that brain activity shifts to increase wisdom as we age.
有力證據(jù)表明，隨著年歲增長，人們的大腦活動出現(xiàn)變化，從而更具智慧。
At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival premiere of You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, director Woody Allen was asked about aging. He replied with his characteristic, straight-faced pessimism. “I find it a lousy deal. There is no advantage in getting older. I’m 74 now. You don’t get smarter, you don’t get wiser ... Your back hurts more, you get more indigestion ... It’s a bad business, getting old. I’d advise you not to do it if you can avoid it.”
在2010年戛納電影節(jié)《遭遇陌生人》的首映禮上，導(dǎo)演伍迪·艾倫被問及對衰老的看法。他的回答還是老樣子，一本正經(jīng)，語帶悲觀，“我覺得衰老糟透了，一點好處也沒有。我現(xiàn)在74歲，既不會變得更聰明，也沒有更聰慧……不僅如此，還會腰酸背痛，消化不良……變老真是件糟糕的事，如果可以，我勸你還是盡可能保持年輕?！?/p>
Creaking bones and bad digestion notwithstanding, is that really the only face of aging? Turns out, it’s not. At least for the fortunate few, old age may not be Woody Allenesque; instead old age is when they become compassionate and wise. Yes, wise.
盡管人老骨脆，消化不良，但這就是衰老的全貌嗎？事實并非如此。至少對于少數(shù)幸運的人來說，變老不會是伍迪艾倫式自怨自艾，反而是歲月沉淀帶來的智慧和悲憫之心。沒錯，越老越智慧。
While aging diminishes activity in certain brain regions, there’s tantalizing evidence this may be compensated by changes in brain regions associated with supportive and social behavior. This shift in brain activity may foster wisdom in some people, a way of being that moves one away from self-centeredness toward emotional equanimity and wider social consciousness. We may even be able to work toward wisdom in old age.
雖然衰老會導(dǎo)致部分大腦區(qū)域的活躍度降低，但充分的證據(jù)表明，大腦中與支持性活動和社會行為相關(guān)聯(lián)的區(qū)域可能也會出現(xiàn)相應(yīng)變化，從而代償其他部分的衰退。而這種大腦活動的變化會促進(jìn)一些人智慧的增長，變得不再那么關(guān)注自我，更注重情緒穩(wěn)定，擁有更廣泛的社會意識。我們還可以通過努力獲得這種年老的智慧。
For millennia, philosophers and theologians have been preoccupied with the notion of wisdom (the Greek word philosophia means “l(fā)ove of wisdom”). Centuries before the Greeks got into the act, the religious traditions of India and China, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, were thinking about wisdom, emphasizing the regulation of emotion—or emotional balance—as key to it.
數(shù)千年以來，哲學(xué)家和神學(xué)家們致力于詮釋智慧的意涵（希臘語philosophia（哲學(xué)）指的便是“愛智慧”）。而早在古希臘人付諸研究之前的好幾個世紀(jì)，印度和中國的傳統(tǒng)宗教，如印度教、佛教和道教，就已經(jīng)開始了對智慧的思考，并強調(diào)智慧的核心在于情緒的調(diào)節(jié)，或者說情緒的平衡。
Aristotle delineated wisdom into two types. One was the general, god-like, all-knowing wisdom, and the second (more pertinent to us mere mortals) was something called phronesis, or practical wisdom, which is the ability to be discerning about one’s actions, knowing when and why to act in a pragmatic manner. Ideally, such wise actions—whether involving emotion regulation or reasoning—would balance self-interest against the interests of others and those of society in general.
亞里士多德將智慧分成兩種類型。一種是廣泛認(rèn)知中的上帝式、全知型智慧，而第二種（這種更貼近普羅大眾）是實踐智慧，希臘語稱phronesis（一種與實際行動相關(guān)的智慧），這種智慧能幫助我們識別他人的行為，從而懂得審時度勢、因地制宜采取務(wù)實行動。在理想情況下，這種智慧驅(qū)動的行為，無論是否涉及情緒調(diào)節(jié)或理性分析，通常都能平衡個人利益和他人及社會利益的沖突。
Despite humanity’s fascination with wisdom, it wasn’t until about four decades ago that it became a topic of empirical study. Vivian Clayton, who practices geriatric neuropsychology in Orinda, California, was a graduate student in the 1970s when she began to seriously think about operationalizing, or defining and measuring, wisdom. Her study of both ancient and modern literature led her to define wisdom as judicious behavior, often involving social situations—behavior born of knowledge, imbued with thoughtfulness, reflection, and compassion.
盡管人類一直以來都十分癡迷智慧這一概念，但實證研究的歷史不過四十多年。薇薇安·克萊頓在加利福尼亞州奧林達(dá)市從事老年神經(jīng)心理學(xué)的研究，她在上世紀(jì)70年代讀研究生的時候就開始著手研究如何運用智慧，或者說界定和測量智慧。在研究過從古至今的文獻(xiàn)后，她認(rèn)為智慧通常是一種社會情境下明智審慎的行為，植根于知識，處處體現(xiàn)著思慮、省察和同理心。
Wisdom comes from a balance of activity in brain regions.
智慧源于大腦各區(qū)域活動的平衡。
By the 1980s, other psychologists got into the act. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, in the 1930s, had put forth an influential model of cognitive development, the final stage of which endowed us with the ability for abstract thought. Piaget saw this stage as the height of cognitive development, the highest form of reasoning one can achieve. But Woody Allen’s bemoaning aside, is this the pinnacle of human ability? Psychologists speculated that there was more: the “more” being wisdom that came with life experience, and was potentially associated with getting older.
在上世紀(jì)80年代以前，也有其他心理學(xué)家著手進(jìn)行這項研究。瑞士心理學(xué)家讓·皮亞杰在30年代就提出了一個很重要的認(rèn)知發(fā)展模型，在該模型的最終階段，人類擁有了抽象思考的能力。皮亞杰認(rèn)為這一階段是認(rèn)知發(fā)展的頂峰，是人類理性所能達(dá)到的最終形態(tài)。但拋開伍迪艾倫的哀怨不談，這難道就是人類能力發(fā)展的極限了嗎？而心理學(xué)家推測，認(rèn)知發(fā)展還有更廣大的空間：這部分“多出來”的空間來自于生活經(jīng)驗累積帶來的智慧，并可能與年紀(jì)增長息息相關(guān)。
Such questions led German psychologist Paul Baltes, along with psychologist Ursula Staudinger, to start the Berlin Wisdom Project in the 1980s—a pioneering effort to pin down wisdom. “It was an interest in this notion of wisdom [as] an ideal endpoint of human development,” says Staudinger, who today is the director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, at Columbia University.
帶著這些猜想，德國心理學(xué)家保羅·巴爾特斯與厄休拉·施陶丁格在80年代發(fā)起了“柏林智慧項目”，這是一次界定智慧的創(chuàng)舉。施陶丁格表示“對智慧的概念深感興趣，認(rèn)為擁有智慧是人類發(fā)展的理想終點。”她現(xiàn)在是哥倫比亞大學(xué)羅伯特·巴特勒哥倫比亞老齡化中心的主任。
Baltes and Staudinger defined wisdom as “expertise involving deep insight and sound judgment about the essence of the human condition and the ways and means of planning, managing, and understanding a good life.”
巴爾特斯和施陶丁格將智慧定義為“一種專家知識系統(tǒng)，即能夠?qū)θ祟惥硾r的本質(zhì)以及規(guī)劃、管理和理解何謂美好生活的方式方法有深刻見解和合理判斷?！?/p>
譯注：“Paul Baltes及同事是智慧研究領(lǐng)域的世界級領(lǐng)軍人物，他認(rèn)為智慧既有人格成分也有認(rèn)知成分（聯(lián)系了智力和品德的），是有關(guān)生活實際的專家知識系統(tǒng)，智慧用于理解、計劃并管理美好的人生：
（1）就人類發(fā)展、人類境況的背景因素儲存豐富的陳述性記憶；
（2）就如何運用技能或規(guī)則（人際問題或沖突解決進(jìn)行復(fù)雜決策）儲存豐富的程序性知識；
（3）情景主義，即考慮人生的很多主題和背景（如自我、家庭、同伴、學(xué)校、社區(qū)等）以及這些東西在人生全程中的變化和相互關(guān)系；
（4）認(rèn)識價值觀的相對性并能容忍不同于己的價值觀，只要不會威脅公共利益；
（5）認(rèn)可并容忍模糊性，認(rèn)識到人獲得信息是不完整的，未來是難預(yù)測的，人的信息加工能力是有限的?！?/p>
Intuitively, the ability to be wise seems as if it should grow with age, but their research showed that it’s not enough to get older to get wiser. Other processes that come with aging could hamper the emergence of wisdom. Aging diminishes what Baltes and Staudinger called the “mechanics” of the mind—which depend on the biology of the brain, such as the number of neurons, the connectivity, metabolism, and the speed at which the brain can process new information. The mechanics of the mind reach their peak around the age of 25 to 30, and then decline steadily.
人們直覺上會認(rèn)為，隨著年齡漸長，也應(yīng)該變得更具智慧，但心理學(xué)家的研究表明年齡增長并不必然意味著智慧增長。伴隨年老的一些生理過程也會妨礙智慧的成型。年齡增加會削弱巴爾特思和施陶丁格研究所稱的“機(jī)械智能”—這一智能取決于大腦的生理結(jié)構(gòu)，如神經(jīng)元的數(shù)量，連接性，新陳代謝和大腦處理新信息的速度?！皺C(jī)械智能”大概在25-30歲之間達(dá)到巔峰，隨后逐步減弱。
譯注：“mechanics” of the mind：在巴爾特思之前，另一位心理學(xué)家Cattell提出智力分為晶態(tài)智力和液態(tài)智力，“ Cattell的理論經(jīng)John Horn發(fā)展，并由德國心理學(xué)家Paul Baltes等整合，形成了畢生發(fā)展觀，并分別用智能（pragmatics，又叫晶體智力，即基于文化、經(jīng)驗等內(nèi)容豐富的知識）和機(jī)械智能（mechanics，又叫液體智力，即一般意義上生物學(xué)的、遺傳決定的、內(nèi)容單一的基本信息加工）標(biāo)識前述兩部分?！?/p>
“畢生發(fā)展觀認(rèn)為：（1）發(fā)展是畢生過程，發(fā)展不是建立在生理成熟概念基礎(chǔ)上的線性、單維度和單方向成長,而是一個多維度、多功能的動態(tài)系統(tǒng)；任何一種行為發(fā)展都既有生長也有衰退，不是功能增長的單向運動，而是獲得與喪失同時進(jìn)行的動態(tài)過程。（2）發(fā)展高度可塑，所有年齡的人都能發(fā)展某些技能以補償他正在降低的某種能力；由于個體生活條件和經(jīng)驗的變化, 發(fā)展可采取多種形式；發(fā)展由多重影響系統(tǒng)共同決定, 個體發(fā)展的任何一個過程都受年齡階段、歷史階段和個人生活經(jīng)歷的影響。（3）必須聯(lián)合有關(guān)人類發(fā)展的其他學(xué)科( 如人類學(xué)、生物學(xué)、社會學(xué)、醫(yī)學(xué)) 才能更深入地探索和理解人的心理發(fā)展?！?/p>
Many studies have shown that the aging brain gets slower. For instance, the ability to carry out mental operations definitely declines. As does our capacity for episodic memory and executive function (which is necessary for planning, multitasking, and verbal fluency, among other tasks), due to dysfunctions in the medial temporal lobe memory system and the frontostriatal networks, important for executive function.
大量研究表明，大腦會隨著增齡而變得遲緩，如執(zhí)行腦力活動的能力將必然下降。由于內(nèi)側(cè)顳葉記憶系統(tǒng)和影響執(zhí)行功能的額葉-紋狀體連接通路功能失調(diào)，我們的情景記憶能力和執(zhí)行能力也會下降。（此外，這對規(guī)劃、多任務(wù)處理及言語表達(dá)流暢度有重要影響。）
SEEKING WISDOM: Through analysis of The Bhagavad Gita, researchers found that wisdom is described in a similar way across cultures. Godong/UIG
追尋智慧：通過分析《薄伽梵歌》，研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)不同文化之間不約而同對智慧有著相似的描述。
But all’s not lost. “What doesn’t go down is reasoning and cognition that is based on knowledge and experience,” says Staudinger. This ability, which reaches its peak between the ages of 40 and 50, and then stays stable and declines only during the final years of one’s life, could contribute to wisdom, as long as we stay mentally active and engaged. Evidence from studies of rhesus monkeys supports this observation. This involves structures called dendritic spines, which protrude from one neuron’s dendrite toward another neuron’s axon. These spines have a neck and a head. Those with long necks and small heads decline with age, but the shorter, stubbier “mushroom spines,” hypothesized to be “l(fā)ocus of long-term memories,” don’t decline. That potentially explains why our ability to learn new things suffers as we age, yet abilities that depend on lifelong learning (such as playing a musical instrument) don’t.
但衰老并非意味著所有能力都在下滑。施陶丁格表示：“建立在知識和經(jīng)驗之上的理性和認(rèn)知不會滑坡的?！边@項能力會在40-50歲之間達(dá)到頂峰，隨后穩(wěn)定保持，到行將就木之時才會下降。只要我們保持思維活躍度和投入度，這種能力就會有助于智慧成型。對恒河猴的研究也證明了這一點。這涉及到名為樹突棘的神經(jīng)結(jié)構(gòu)，它是一種突起結(jié)構(gòu)，連接一個神經(jīng)元的樹突與另一個神經(jīng)元的軸突的末端。這些突起由一個棘頭和一個棘頸組成。那些棘頸細(xì)長、棘頭較小的樹突棘會隨著年齡增長而減少，而更為短粗的“蘑菇型突棘”（這類突棘被假設(shè)為“長期記憶的位點”）則不會。這可能就解釋了為何我們學(xué)習(xí)新事物的能力會隨著年齡的增長而下降，而依賴終身學(xué)習(xí)的技能（如演奏樂器）卻不會受到影響。
Following Baltes’ death in 2006, Staudinger has come to differentiate between so-called general and personal wisdom. She has found that while general wisdom—the ability to make wise decisions about others—stays more or less stable over one’s lifespan, it’s much harder to be wise about one’s own life. Personal wisdom is not easy.
2006年巴爾特斯去世后，施陶丁格進(jìn)一步區(qū)分了所謂的“普適智慧”和“個體智慧”。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，雖然一般智慧（在對待他人的事物上做出明智決定的能力）在人的一生中基本保持在同一水平，但要對自己的生活保持明智卻難得多。擁有個體智慧并不容易。
基督徒和猶太人都將以色列國王所羅門視為智慧的典范，他的故事尤其體現(xiàn)這一論斷。有兩個女人帶著一個嬰兒來找他，兩個人都聲稱自己是嬰孩的母親，所羅門建議她們把嬰孩一分為二，各取一半。隨后其中一個女人喊著饒了這個孩子，說要讓給另一個女人，所羅門便確認(rèn)了誰是孩子的母親。這里體現(xiàn)了所羅門的一般智慧?！钡c此同時，所羅門的個人生活卻是一地雞毛“。施陶丁格補充道。
And that often makes a person vulnerable. “What you find is that if you put people in a situation where their self is threatened, then people are not very good in engaging in any form of wise reasoning. They want to quickly defend their self,” says Grossmann.
格羅斯曼的跨文化研究表明，在像日本那樣，個體之間依存度更高，更倚賴與他人關(guān)系的文化中，人們較少有自我受到威脅的感受，從而更能進(jìn)行理智判斷。
But studies show that even for those of us who take offense easily, it’s possible to boost the ability to reason wisely by creating some distance between you and, well, your self. Clinical psychologists call this process decentering: You take an observer’s view of something that’s happening rather than being a participant.
但研究表明，即使是那些更容易惱怒的人，也能夠通過區(qū)分外在自我和內(nèi)在自我，從而提高理性判斷的能力。臨床心理學(xué)家將這個過程稱為去中心化：即采取旁觀者而非參與者的視角來看待眼前的事物。
Grossmann says that loosening the hold of the self can help with wise reasoning, even as we age. One way to decenter as you age is to live in an interdependent manner, surrounded by people, so that you don’t feel alone and threatened.
格羅斯曼稱，即便隨著年紀(jì)增長，我們也能通過放松對自我的控制進(jìn)行明智判斷。掌握去中心化的一個方法就是生活在相互依賴的環(huán)境里，生活在人群中，這樣就不會感到孤獨或是威脅。
“Old age is not necessarily a time when everything declines,” says Grossmann. “Many of these types of processes are flexible, and you can train them.” Via meditation, for example. “Many of the meditative practices include this type of third-person perspective, where you detach from the immediate self, you become an observer,” says Grossman.
“衰老并不必然意味著一切都在走下坡，”格羅斯曼說，“很多這類過程的發(fā)展都是可控的，你可以通過訓(xùn)練改善?！北热缵は??！昂芏嘹は刖毩?xí)都包括第三者視角的訓(xùn)練，這個過程中，你將自己從直接自我中抽離出來，成為一個觀察者?！?/p>
There’s plenty of evidence that meditation induces neurobiological changes. Sara Lazar’s lab at the Harvard Medical School in Boston has shown that even eight weeks of meditation can increase gray matter density in brain regions associated with executive function, working memory, and—importantly, from the perspective of wisdom—empathy, compassion, and self-distancing. In another study, her team showed that certain regions of the prefrontal cortex were as thick in 40- to 50-year-old meditators as they were in 20- to 30-year-old meditators and control subjects.
而且，大量證據(jù)表明冥想確實會引起神經(jīng)生物基礎(chǔ)上的改變。薩拉·拉扎爾在波士頓哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的實驗室的研究已經(jīng)表明，僅八周的冥想訓(xùn)練就能提高大腦區(qū)域的灰質(zhì)密度，灰質(zhì)密度會影響大腦的執(zhí)行功能、工作記憶以及對增長智慧至關(guān)重要的同理心、同情心和自我間距離。其團(tuán)隊的另一項研究還顯示，在40-50歲冥想者的大腦中，前額葉皮質(zhì)某些區(qū)域的厚度與20-30歲的冥想者和對照組的厚度相同。
The brain’s prefrontal cortex especially interests Dilip Jeste, a former president of the American Psychiatric Association and director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego. He speculates that it may be part of a network of brain regions responsible for wisdom.
迪利普·杰斯特對大腦的前額葉皮質(zhì)的相關(guān)研究十分感興趣，他是美國精神病學(xué)協(xié)會的前主席和加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的山姆及羅絲·斯坦恩老齡化研究所的所長。他推測前額葉皮質(zhì)可能是大腦區(qū)域中負(fù)責(zé)智慧的神經(jīng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)的一部分。
To understand wisdom and its possible neurobiological underpinnings, Jeste and his colleagues took a multipronged approach. The first was an extensive literature survey, to identify what researchers mean by wisdom. Second, they put together a panel of experts, and canvassed their opinions on a list of traits. (Jeste considers wisdom a personality trait; not everyone does.) The experts responded anonymously, tagging each trait as necessary for wisdom, intelligence, or spirituality—a trait could belong to one, two, all three, or none of them. Each expert was then sent the panel’s average response, and the process was repeated. “It was clear that the experts viewed these three as slightly overlapping, but largely independent concepts,” says Jeste. For example, “wise people are intelligent, but intelligent people are not necessarily wise.”
為了理解智慧及其可能存在的神經(jīng)生物學(xué)基礎(chǔ)，杰斯特和他的同事進(jìn)行了多方面研究。他們首先進(jìn)行了廣泛的文獻(xiàn)調(diào)查，以確認(rèn)研究者對智慧的定義，然后召集了一組專家，就一份性格特征清單征詢他們的意見。（杰斯特認(rèn)為智慧是一種個人特質(zhì)，并非人人有之。）專家們匿名作答，標(biāo)記他們認(rèn)為對智慧、智力或靈性有影響的特征，每一種特征可同時匹配多種特質(zhì)，或者不匹配任一種特質(zhì)。然后每個專家會收到小組成員的平均回答，接著再重復(fù)進(jìn)行特征匹配。“顯然專家們都認(rèn)為這三種概念盡管略有重合，但大體上各自獨立，”杰斯特說。還打了比方，“（像）智慧的人智商高，但智商高的人不一定有智慧?！?/p>
The researchers went further. They interviewed hospice care patients, who were nearing the end of their lives, about what they thought about wisdom. Finally, they addressed an issue that confounds wisdom research: cultural specificity. With help from a medical anthropologist and some special software, Jeste analyzed The Bhagavad Gita, a spiritual treatise that is considered the philosophical cornerstone of Hinduism, dating back to the last few centuries B.C. “We looked at wisdom and its synonyms, like sagacity, and antonyms, like foolishness, folly,” says Jeste. “We wanted to find out how many times those words were used and more importantly in what context in the Gita.”
研究人員還進(jìn)一步采訪了臨終關(guān)懷病人（他們都已風(fēng)燭殘年），詢問他們對于智慧的看法。最后，他們解決了一個困擾智慧研究的問題：文化特異性。在醫(yī)療人類學(xué)家和一些特殊軟件的幫助下，杰斯特分析了神學(xué)專著《薄伽梵歌》，該書可追溯至公元前幾百年，堪稱印度教的哲學(xué)根基。杰斯特表示：“我們搜索書中的“智慧”一詞及其同義詞和反義詞，如睿智和愚昧、愚蠢，希望找出這些詞在書中出現(xiàn)的次數(shù)，以及更重要的是使用語境?！?/p>
Their analysis was revealing. “What was really striking and surprising was that the components of wisdom looked at in these different ways are surprisingly similar,” Jeste says.
最后的分析極富啟發(fā)性?！罢嬲钊朔Q奇的是，即使在不同視角的審視下，智慧的內(nèi)涵仍然出奇的一致?！苯芩固匮a充道。
The team identified six components of wisdom: having pragmatic knowledge of life; emotion regulation; pro-social behavior, which would entail compassion, altruism, and empathy; knowing one’s strengths and limitations; decisiveness; and finally, acceptance of uncertainty.
他的團(tuán)隊總結(jié)了智慧的六大要點：掌握實用的生活知識；情緒管控；親社會行為，具體包括同情心，利他主義和同理心；了解自身的優(yōu)勢和不足；決斷果敢；以及，擁抱未知。
More striking was the consistency over time. “Why should the concept of wisdom not have changed from thousands of years B.C. to today?” says Jeste. “To me it suggested that it should be biologically based. If it is biologically based, then where would it be based? Obviously in the brain, but where in the brain?”
更令人震驚的是，人類對智慧的認(rèn)識的一脈相承?！盀槭裁磸墓暗饺缃襁@幾千年之內(nèi)，智慧的概念都沒有改變？”杰斯特的理解是，“在我看來這就說明智慧是有生理基礎(chǔ)的。如果真的如此，那生理根基在哪里？很明顯在大腦里，但具體在大腦的哪個位置呢？”
Jeste’s team went back to the literature. They looked at studies on brain imaging, genetics, neurochemistry, and neuropathology that targeted these individual components of wisdom, and their opposites; for example, the opposite of emotion regulation is impulsivity, and the opposite of pro-social behavior can be found in the actions of anti-social personalities.
杰斯特團(tuán)隊重新開始研究文獻(xiàn)。他們查找了關(guān)于腦成像、遺傳學(xué)、神經(jīng)化學(xué)和神經(jīng)病理學(xué)的研究，這些研究主要分析了智慧的各個組成部分及其對立面；如，情緒管控的反面是沖動性，親社會行為則可對應(yīng)反社會人格的行為。
Case reports of patients with brain damage, either due to injury or strokes, were enlightening. Jeste recalls reading the published case of an intelligent young soldier in his 20s, competent, well-adjusted, and happily married. One day the Jeep he was riding in went over a landmine. The resulting brain injury transformed his personality. He would divorce and remarry—three times. He barely managed to hold down a job as a newspaper delivery man. The damage to his brain was localized to the prefrontal cortex.
由于受傷或中風(fēng)導(dǎo)致腦損傷的病例研究也頗有啟發(fā)。杰斯特回憶起曾讀過的一則案例，一位二十多歲的年輕士兵，能干，理智，婚姻幸福。一天他乘坐的吉普車碾過一顆地雷，這次意外導(dǎo)致他大腦受到損傷，自此性情大變。他離婚又再婚，足足三次；只能勉強維持著一份送報員的工作。他大腦損傷的地方位于前額葉皮質(zhì)。
Further clues emerged from a form of neurodegenerative disease called behavioral frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), in which the damage is again restricted more or less to the prefrontal cortex. People suffering from bvFTD often start making bad decisions, show lack of insight, become impulsive, passionate, and sometimes anti-social. “If you look at the symptoms, they are the exact antithesis of wisdom,” says Jeste.
一種名為行為變異型額顳葉癡呆（簡稱bvFTD）的神經(jīng)退行性疾病給杰斯特團(tuán)隊提供了更多信息。這種病受傷的部位同樣大致位于前額葉皮質(zhì)。那些得了bvFTD的人大多變得莽撞誤事，缺乏思考，沖動，偏激甚至反社會。杰斯特說：“這些癥狀恰是智慧的對立面?！?/p>
In a recent retrospective study of 2,397 patients seen at the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, researchers found that those diagnosed with bvFTD were far more likely to engage in criminal behavior compared with those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). “Common manifestations of criminal behavior in the bvFTD group included theft, traffic violations, sexual advances, trespassing, and public urination in contrast with those in the AD group, who commonly committed traffic violations, often related to cognitive impairment,” the researchers wrote.
加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的記憶和老齡化中心最近針對2397名病人進(jìn)行了回溯性調(diào)查。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，相比于患阿茲海默癥的病人， bvFTD病人更容易出現(xiàn)違法行為。研究人員寫道：“bvFTD群體中常見的違法行為有盜竊、違反交規(guī)、性騷擾、非法入侵和隨地大小便，而阿茲海默癥群體通常只是違反交規(guī)，而這還是由于他們認(rèn)知存在缺陷?！?/p>
For Jeste and colleagues, the evidence was enticing. “Based on all of those, we suggested there is a neuro-circuitry of wisdom,” says Jeste. This circuit involved the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (responsible for rationality, discipline, and self-preservation), the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (associated with “kind, supportive, social, and emotional behavior needed for survival of species”), the anterior cingulate (which mediates conflicts between parts of the prefrontal cortex), and the striatum with amygdala (part of the reward circuitry).
杰斯特和他的同事都很認(rèn)可這個證據(jù)?！盎谶@些研究，我們認(rèn)為智慧的確存在神經(jīng)回路，”杰斯特說?！斑@個回路涉及背外側(cè)前額葉（負(fù)責(zé)理性、自律和自我克制）、腹內(nèi)側(cè)前額葉皮層（與”對物種生存所需的善良、支持性、社會和情感行為息息相關(guān)）、前扣帶皮質(zhì)（調(diào)節(jié)前額葉皮質(zhì)各部分的沖突），和杏仁核紋狀體（是報償回路的一部分）。
When we are young we like our jokes to be bizarre.
年輕的時候都喜歡與眾不同的笑話。
According to Jeste, wisdom comes from a balance of activity in these brain regions. “In some way, wisdom is balance. If you are very pro-social, you give everything to other people, you won’t survive. But of course, if you don’t give anything to others, the species won’t survive. You have to have balance.”
杰斯特認(rèn)為，智慧來源于大腦各區(qū)域的平衡?！澳撤N程度上，智慧就是平衡。如果你過于親社會，你會把一切奉獻(xiàn)給他人，自己就無法生存。當(dāng)然，如果你一毛不拔，群體就無法延續(xù)。因此，你需要學(xué)會平衡?！?/p>
Despite such evidence, Jeste is cautious. “It’d be unwise of us to say that this is the neuro-circuitry of wisdom,” he says. “We don’t know that. It is a hypothesis. Empirical research may show that it is totally wrong and something else is right. That’s fine.”
盡管有了這些證據(jù)，杰斯特依然保持謹(jǐn)慎?！奥暦Q這就是智慧的神經(jīng)回路還是過于輕率，”他表示?！拔覀?nèi)晕磸氐琢私馑?。這只是一個假設(shè)。實證研究可能會徹底顛覆這些猜想，而正確的另有其說。但這也沒關(guān)系。”
And what does this have to do with aging? Jeste points out that aging is associated with a shift in brain activity. For instance, there’s something called Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD)—a phenomenon in which the half of the prefrontal cortex that is less active in youth (which half depends on the individual) shows increased activation during old age, increasing overall activity in the prefrontal cortex. There’s also a shift in activity during old age from the occipital lobes, which is associated with sensory processing, to the prefrontal cortex (the so-called posterior-anterior shift with aging).
而這些和衰老又有什么關(guān)系呢？杰斯特指出衰老與大腦活動的轉(zhuǎn)變有關(guān)。比如，有一種名為老年人大腦半球非對稱性減弱（簡稱HAROLD）的現(xiàn)象，表現(xiàn)為年輕時較為不活躍一側(cè)的前額葉皮質(zhì)（具體哪一側(cè)視個人情況而定）隨著年老而越來越活躍，并增強了前額葉皮質(zhì)的總體活動。同時，在老年時期，與感覺處理相關(guān)的枕葉和前額葉皮質(zhì)也有活動轉(zhuǎn)換（即所謂老化中由后向前轉(zhuǎn)移模型）。
None of this is to suggest that older people are wiser by default. “Wisdom and aging are not synonymous,” says Jeste. “You see young people who are very wise for their age and you see old people who are very unwise. Having said that, it’s more likely that with aging you can become wiser.”
這些都表明并不是年紀(jì)大了就一定會更有智慧?！爸腔酆湍昀喜⒎峭耆珜Φ?，”杰斯特說，“有人年紀(jì)輕輕就睿智聰慧，也有人垂暮之年仍愚昧不化。話雖如此，隨著年齡的增長，人確實更有可能變得更加明智。”
But why? Jeste has often asked himself the same question. As we get older, we develop infirmities, diseases, and disabilities. “If we are supposed to live long with disabilities without contributing to the species, it doesn’t make sense, unless something improves with aging to compensate,” says Jeste. “The idea is that this is wisdom.”
但是因由何在？杰斯特也常常捫心自問。年歲越長，我們會越發(fā)體弱多病，甚至殘疾?！叭绻f我們年老體弱，毫無價值，卻期待壽命綿長，還是蠻說不通的，除非有些東西可以隨著年歲增長而增加，從而補償缺失的部分，”杰斯特說，“我想到的就是智慧?！?/p>
Another association of old age with wisdom comes from studies of humor. Turns out that when we are young we like our jokes to be bizarre, incongruous. As we get older, we find jokes funnier if they don’t merely have incongruous punchlines but also have an overall coherence. “You could make a loose connection between that and perhaps wisdom, where if you think of wisdom as being more interested in how things fit together, and less interested in what is bizarre or different,” says neuropsychologist Hiram Brownell of Boston College.
衰老與智慧的另一項關(guān)系來源于對幽默的研究。我們年輕的時候更喜歡那些怪誕的笑話。而隨著年歲的增長，我們會更偏好那些既能把包袱抖得出其不意又邏輯通順的笑話。波士頓大學(xué)神經(jīng)心理學(xué)家海拉姆·布朗內(nèi)爾表示：“你可以把這一點與智慧大致聯(lián)系起來，如果你認(rèn)為智慧就是更關(guān)注事物之間的相互適應(yīng)，而不是事物本身有多驚世駭俗或與眾不同?！?/p>
Staudinger worries that we risk diluting the essence of wisdom by taking too broad a view. Sure, there are things we do better as we age, but she thinks that’s more to do with leading an adjusted, well-balanced life. It’s well known that older adults are better able to focus on positive emotions and avoid negative emotions—something that can be seen as wise. But according to Staudinger, that tells us that we are becoming more socially competent and well-adjusted as we age—but not necessarily wise.
但施陶丁格擔(dān)心對智慧的理解過于寬泛時，我們會簡單化智慧的本質(zhì)。隨著年歲增長，我們的確會更擅長某些事，但她認(rèn)為要過一種有序、平衡的生活，我們還需要做到更多。眾所周知老年人更能專注于積極情緒，避免消極情緒，這也可以視作智慧的一種。但據(jù)施陶丁格的觀點，隨著年老，我們在社會里會愈發(fā)游魚得水，適應(yīng)自如，但不一定就擁有了智慧。
Wisdom, says Staudinger, includes being able to handle negative emotions and “actually stick to the negative emotionality just long enough to learn from it, and not do away with it or avoid it altogether.” Often, she adds, “we really have to be exposing ourselves to very unpleasant states,” if we are to grow rather than adjust.
她表示，智慧包括處理負(fù)面情緒的能力，即“陷在負(fù)面情緒的時間剛好足夠我們從中吸取教訓(xùn)，而不是完全摒棄或者逃避它。”而通常來說，如果想要成長而不僅是適應(yīng)，她補充道：“我們必須主動面對非常消極的狀態(tài)?！?/p>
Staudinger and her colleagues have carried out over 1,200 “wisdom interviews” since the 1980s, of people ranging in age from 12 to 95. She thinks less than 1 percent of those interviewed displayed levels of insight and judgment necessary for wisdom according to her team’s definition—a capacity to tolerate negative emotions and learn from them, a penchant for thinking about the next generation and the common good over one’s immediate needs. “Very few people develop the ability to transcend their body, transcend their own self,” says Staudinger.
自上世紀(jì)八十年代以來，施陶丁格和她的同事已經(jīng)針對12-95歲的人群進(jìn)行了1200多場“智慧訪談”。根據(jù)其團(tuán)隊對智慧的定義，智慧包括忍受負(fù)面情緒并從中汲取經(jīng)驗的能力以及超越眼前利益并為后代和公共利益考慮的傾向；她認(rèn)為只有不到1%的人表現(xiàn)出了智慧所需的洞察力和判斷力。她表示：“只有極少數(shù)的人可以跳出個體的困囿，放眼眾生?！?/p>
While it’s clear that our definition of wisdom makes it more or less likely that we’ll achieve that exalted state as we age, it’s also clear that those who do live wise lives benefit not just themselves but humanity itself.
很顯然，我們對智慧的定義表明，我們或多或少會隨著年歲的增長達(dá)到一定的生命高度，而選擇過一種良好生活的人不僅會造福自己，更會造福于整個人類社會。
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本文原載于 NAUTILUS
原文鏈接：http://aging.nautil.us/feature/174/the-wisdom-of-the-aging-brain
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