that can record my memories,

能記錄我的記憶、

my dreams, my ideas,

我的夢想、我的想法，

and transmit them to your brain.

並且傳到你的大腦。

That would be a game-changing technology, right?

那將是改變世界的新科技，對吧?

But in fact, we already possess this device,

但事實上，我們已擁有這樣的設備，

and it's called human communication system

它被稱為「人類溝通系統」

and effective storytelling.

和「有效率的說故事方式」。

To understand how this device works,

為瞭解這系統如何運作，

we have to look into our brains.

我們得先瞭解大腦，

And we have to formulate the question in a slightly different manner.

並且稍稍改變提問的方向。

Now we have to ask

我們改問：

how these neuron patterns in my brain

我大腦中跟記憶、 想法相關的神經元圖像，

that are associated with my memories and ideas

是如何被傳輸到你的腦裡呢？

are transmitted into your brains.

我們認為人能溝通須有兩大因素。

And we think there are two factors that enable us to communicate.

首先，你的大腦必須在物理上 和我正在對你講話的聲波耦合。

First, your brain is now physically coupled to the sound wave

其次，我們有共通的神經通訊協定

that I'm transmitting to your brain.

使我們能夠溝通。

And second, we developed a common neural protocol

我們何以得知的呢?

that enabled us to communicate.

在普林斯頓的研究室裡

So how do we know that?

我們對受測者進行 功能性核磁共振儀掃描，

In my lab in Princeton,

就在他們講述或聆聽真實故事時， 掃描他們的大腦。

we bring people to the fMRI scanner and we scan their brains

為讓各位了解我們使用的刺激物，

while they are either telling or listening to real-life stories.

我從一段故事中 截取了20秒來播放，

And to give you a sense of the stimulus we are using,

由非常有才華的說故事人 吉姆·奧格雷迪來向我們講故事。

let me play 20 seconds from a story that we used,

(吉姆·奧格雷迪的聲音) 我要 大聲地說出我的故事，我知道很好笑

told by a very talented storyteller,

為了讓故事......更生動

Jim O'Grady.

（笑聲）

(Audio) Jim O'Grady: So I'm banging out my story and I know it's good,

我會加點油、添點醋，

and then I start to make it better --

記者們稱之為「瞎掰」。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

by adding an element of embellishment.

他們建議不要逾越那條線，

Reporters call this "making shit up."

但我剛看見糕點飛過那條線， 砸在院長大人的臉上。

(Laughter)

我還挺開心的。

And they recommend against crossing that line.

(烏里·哈森：) 好，我們接下來看看

But I had just seen the line crossed between a high-powered dean

當大腦聽到這類故事， 會怎樣反應。

and assault with a pastry.

先從簡單的開始，一位聆聽者

And I kinda liked it."

和他大腦的一塊區域：也就是 處理耳朵接收聲音的聽覺皮層區塊。

Uri Hasson: OK, so now let's look into your brain

如你所見，這特定區域的腦波 會隨著故事的進展而上下波動。

and see what's happening when you listen to these kinds of stories.

接下來，我們拿此波形

And let's start simple -- let's start with one listener and one brain area:

與其他受測者同區的腦波做比較。

the auditory cortex that processes the sounds that come from the ear.

我們會問：

And as you can see, in this particular brain area,

所有受測聽眾的反應有多相似呢？

the responses are going up and down as the story is unfolding.

各位可以看到這五位受測者的腦波。

Now we can take these responses

故事開講前，我們已經 開始掃描他們的大腦，

and compare them to the responses in other listeners

當時他們正坐在黑暗中， 等待故事開講。

in the same brain area.

如你所見，

And we can ask:

此時五人的腦波上上下下，

How similar are the responses across all listeners?

各不相同，毫不同步。

So here you can see five listeners.

然而，就在故事開始後，

And we start to scan their brains before the story starts,

奇妙的事情就發生了。

when they're simply lying in the dark and waiting for the story to begin.

(吉姆·奧格雷迪的聲音) 我 大聲說出我的故事，我知道很好笑，

As you can see,

為了讓故事......

the brain area is going up and down in each one of them,

(烏里·哈森) 突然間，所有人的腦波回應

but the responses are very different,

都隨著故事的進展而上上下下，

and not in sync.

波型都很類似。

However, immediately as the story is starting,

事實上，各位聽我講話的時候

something amazing is happening.

這種現象也正在你的大腦裏發生；

(Audio) JO: So I'm banging out my story and I know it's good,

我們把這種現象稱為 「神經震盪同步化」效應。

and then I start to make it --

為了要解釋什麼是 神經震盪同步化，

UH: Suddenly, you can see that the responses in all of the subjects

讓我先解釋什麼是 「物理震盪同步化」。

lock to the story,

我們來看看這五個節拍器，

and now they are going up and down in a very similar way

把這五個節拍器想像成五個大腦。

across all listeners.

如同故事開始前的五位聽者一樣，

And in fact, this is exactly what is happening now in your brains

這五個節拍器會開始打拍子，

when you listen to my sound speaking.

但並不同步。

We call this effect "neural entrainment."

（滴答聲）

And to explain to you what is neural entrainment,

現在來看一下，

let me first explain what is physical entrainment.

當我把它們放在這兩個圓筒上， 會發生甚麼事，

So, we'll look and see five metronomes.

（滴答聲）

Think of these five metronomes as five brains.

兩個圓筒開始滾動了。

And similar to the listeners before the story starts,

圓筒滾動的振動，透過木板，

these metronomes are going to click,

把所有節拍器同步在一起，

but they're going to click out of phase.

聽聽看現在的滴答聲。

(Clicking)

（同步的滴答聲）

Now see what will happen when I connect them together

這就是物理震盪同步化。

by placing them on these two cylinders.

現在讓我們回到大腦，問一個問題：

(Clicking)

是什麽在驅動神經震盪同步化呢？

Now these two cylinders start to rotate.

是講者發出的聲音？

This rotation vibration is going through the wood

還是所說的字彙？

and is going to couple all the metronomes together.

還是講者想要表達的意思呢？

And now listen to the click.

我們用以下的實驗來測試。

(Synchronized clicking)

我們先將故事倒過來播放，

This is what you call physical entrainment.

這保留了很多原有的聽覺特徵，

Now let's go back to the brain and ask:

但是故事不再具有意義。

What's driving this neural entrainment?

聽起來像這樣：

Is it simply the sounds that the speaker is producing?

（吉姆·奧格雷迪不知所云的聲音）

Or maybe it's the words.

在兩個大腦裡，我們用閃現的顏色

Or maybe it's the meaning that the speaker is trying to convey.

來顯示相似腦區塊的回應。

So to test it, we did the following experiment.

如你所見，進入耳朵的聲音，

First, we took the story and played it backwards.

誘使所有受測者大腦內 處理聲音的聽覺皮層，全都同步了；

And that preserved many of the original auditory features,

但同步的現象並未深入大腦。

but removed the meaning.

然後我們把字彙加到聲音上。

And it sounds something like that.

若拼湊重組吉姆·奧格雷迪的用字，

(Audio) JO: (Unintelligible)

我們會得到一長串詞彙。

And we flashed colors in the two brains

（吉姆·奧格雷迪的聲音） ...動物...事實上...

to indicate brain areas that respond very similarly across people.

就在......餡餅人... 可能......我的故事

And as you can see,

(烏里·哈森：) 大家看到這些字開始對準了，

this incoming sound induced entrainment or alignment in all of the brains

但只發生在前期的語言區， 別的區沒對準。

in auditory cortices that process the sounds,

我們把這些字彙排成句子。

but it didn't spread deeper into the brain.

（吉姆·雷迪的聲音） 他們建議不要逾越那條線。

Now we can take these sounds and build words out of it.

他說，「親愛的吉姆， 好故事。很詳細。」

So if we take Jim O'Grady and scramble the words,

「你不知道她是經由我 才認識他的嗎？」

we'll get a list of words.

（烏里·哈森）：如同你們看到的

(Audio) JO: ... an animal ... assorted facts ...

所有的人、 所有接收語言處理區 的回應都一致，或者很相似。

and right on ... pie man ... potentially ... my stories

然而，只有當我們使用完整、 引人入勝、連貫的故事時，

UH: And you can see that these words start to induce alignment

反應才會進入大腦的深層區域，

in early language areas, but not more than that.

包括額葉皮層和部分頂葉皮層，

Now we can take the words and start to build sentences out of them.

從而令所有人 都出現非常相似的反應。

(Audio) JO: And they recommend against crossing that line.

我們認為，聽眾這些相似的 大腦高層次區塊反應

He says: "Dear Jim, Good story. Nice details.

是由講者的語意所觸發，

Didn't she only know about him through me?"

並非文字或聲音本身。

UH: Now you can see that the responses in all the language areas

倘若推論正確， 那麼我們相當有把握，

that process the incoming language

若以兩種截然不同的語言 講述同樣的想法，

become aligned or similar across all listeners.

大腦的反應仍然會近似。

However, only when we use the full, engaging, coherent story

為了測試，我們在實驗室裏 做了以下實驗。

do the responses spread deeper into the brain

我們把這個英語故事 翻譯成俄語。

into higher-order areas,

現在有了兩組不同的聲音 和語言系統

which include the frontal cortex and the parietal cortex,

傳達完全相同的意思。

and make all of them respond very similarly.

讓英語聽眾聽英語故事，

And we believe that these responses in higher-order areas are induced

俄語聽眾聽俄語的，

or become similar across listeners

比較兩組人的反應。

because of the meaning conveyed by the speaker,

當這樣做的時候，我們並沒有在 語言的聽覺皮層看到相似的反應，

and not by words or sound.

因為語言和聲音迥異。

And if we are right, there's a strong prediction over here

但是，兩組的高階區域 的反應仍然相似。

if I tell you the exact same ideas

我們認為，這是因為他們都以 相當類似的方式來明瞭故事內容。

using two very different sets of words,

故事結束後的測驗 證實了這一推論。

your brain responses will still be similar.

我們認為有效溝通 必須有這樣的較準。

And to test it, we did the following experiment in my lab.

舉個例子，你們都聽得出來

We took the English story

英語並不是我的母語。

and translated it to Russian.

我在另一種語言環境中長大，

Now you have two different sounds and linguistic systems

你們當中很多人可能也是如此。

that convey the exact same meaning.

儘管如此，我們依然可以溝通，

And you play the English story to the English listeners

為什麼呢？

and the Russian story to the Russian listeners,

我們認為，能溝通是因為 我們有表達語意的共通代碼。

and we can compare their responses across the groups.

到目前為止，我只談到 聽者大腦裡發生的情況，

And when we did that, we didn't see responses that are similar

以及你聆聽時大腦內的情況。

in auditory cortices in language,

但，講者腦內的情況，

because the language and sound are very different.

在我對你們說話時， 我的腦內是什麼情況呢？

However, you can see that the responses in high-order areas

為了觀察講者的大腦，

were still similar across these two groups.

我們請求講者 進入儀器接受掃描，

We believe this is because they understood the story in a very similar way,

然後比較他的大腦 和聽者聽故事時的大腦反應。

as we confirmed, using a test after the story ended.

要記得，發言和理解話語 的過程是大不相同的。

And we think that this alignment is necessary for communication.

我們可能會問：它們有多相似呢？

For example, as you can tell,

令我們驚訝的是，

I am not a native English speaker.

我們看到，聽者之間的 所有這些複雜波形，

I grew up with another language,

實際上都源自演講者的大腦。

and the same might be for many of you in the audience.

所以，講話和理解 倚賴非常類似的過程。

And still, we can communicate.

我們也發現

How come?

聽者和講者的大腦越是近似，

We think we can communicate because we have this common code

他們的溝通就越順暢。

that presents meaning.

所以我知道，如果你們 現在完全聽不懂我的話，

So far, I've only talked about what's happening in the listener's brain,

我希望不會出現這種情況，

in your brain, when you're listening to talks.

那麼，你們的大腦反應 就會與我的非常不同。

But what's happening in the speaker's brain, in my brain,

但我也知道，若你此刻 真正理解我所說的，

when I'm speaking to you?

那麼，你的腦、你的腦、和你的腦，

To look in the speaker's brain,

就會與我的非常相似。

we asked the speaker to go into the scanner,

現在，綜合以上所有資訊 我們要問一個問題：

we scan his brain

我們該如何利用它， 把我大腦中的記憶

and then compare his brain responses to the brain responses of the listeners

傳送到你們的大腦中呢？

listening to the story.

我們做了下列實驗。

You have to remember that producing speech and comprehending speech

我們在受測者首次觀看 英國國家廣播公司的

are very different processes.

「新世紀福爾摩斯」電視節目時， 掃描他們的腦部。

Here we're asking: How similar are they?

然後我們讓他們回到掃描儀前

To our surprise,

把故事講給另一個 從沒看過這部電影的人聽。

we saw that all these complex patterns within the listeners

具體來說，

actually came from the speaker brain.

想象一下這個場景：

So production and comprehension rely on very similar processes.

福爾摩斯坐進了 倫敦的一輛計程車，

And we also found

而司機正是他尋找的兇手。

the stronger the similarity between the listener's brain

對我而言，做為一個觀眾，

and the speaker's brain,

當我觀看時，腦中有種特定的圖像。

the better the communication.

現在，透過講述下列幾個詞語， 我的腦中再度激發出同樣的圖像：

So I know that if you are completely confused now,

福爾摩斯、倫敦、兇手。

and I do hope that this is not the case,

當我把這些字彙傳至你的大腦時，

your brain responses are very different than mine.

你必須在你的大腦裡重建圖像。

But I also know that if you really understand me now,

事實上，我們看到那些圖像 正在你腦中湧現。

then your brain ... and your brain ... and your brain

我們當時相當驚訝，

are really similar to mine.

在我描述的時候，你的腦波

Now, let's take all this information together and ask:

跟我幾個月前看那部片子時 被掃描機掃到的腦波非常相似。

How can we use it to transmit a memory that I have

這正是我們說故事 和傳遞資訊時的機制。

from my brain to your brains?

因為，舉個例子來說，

So we did the following experiment.

此刻，你們聽得很辛苦， 嘗試想要理解我所說的話，

We let people watch, for the first time in their life,

我知道，那並不容易。

a TV episode from the BBC series "Sherlock," while we scanned their brains.

但我希望在某個頓悟點， 我們同步了，你理解我所說的話了。

And then we asked them to go back to the scanner

我認為，過幾個小時、 幾天，或幾個月後，

and tell the story to another person that never watched the movie.

你在派對中遇見某人，

So let's be specific.

跟他說起這個演講，

Think about this exact scene,

突然間，你會覺得，彷彿就像 他和我們一起站在這裏一樣。

when Sherlock is entering the cab in London

現在你明白了， 我們如何用這個機制

driven by the murderer he is looking for.

來傳達人與人之間的記憶、知識，

With me, as a viewer,

很棒，對吧？

there is a specific brain pattern in my brain when I watch it.

但我們之間的溝通 仰賴於我們之間的共通點。

Now, the exact same pattern, I can reactivate in my brain again

因為，舉例來說，

by telling the world: Sherlock, London, murderer.

如果我用英國的同義詞

And when I'm transmitting these words to your brains now,

「出租馬車」取代「計程車」，

you have to reconstruct it in your mind.

大部分的聽眾就會無法與我同步， 矇了、茫然了。

In fact, we see that pattern emerging now in your brains.

溝通的同步不僅取決於 我們對基本概念的理解能力，

And we were really surprised to see

也倚賴我們有建立 共通點和理解的能力，

that the pattern you have now in your brains

及相同的信仰體系。

when I'm describing to you these scenes

因為我們知道，在許多情況下，

would be very similar to the pattern I had when I watched this movie

人們以非常不同的方式， 來解讀完全同樣的故事。

a few months ago in the scanner.

因此，我們在實驗室裡 做下列的測試。

This starts to tell you about the mechanism

我們採用法學博士塞林格 的一個故事，

by which we can tell stories and transmit information.

故事中，一個丈夫 在派對中與妻子失聯，

Because, for example,

他打電話給最要好的朋友，問： 「你見到我太太了嗎？」

now you're listening really hard and trying to understand what I'm saying.

半數的受測者被告知：

And I know that it's not easy.

那個人的妻子與好友有染；

But I hope that at one point in the talk we clicked, and you got me.

而另外一半則被告知：

And I think that in a few hours, a few days, a few months,

妻子很忠誠， 是丈夫的忌妒心太重。

you're going to meet someone at a party,

故事開始前的一句話 就足以決定大腦的反應，

and you're going to tell him about this lecture,

所有相信妻子不忠的人， 大腦高階區的反應非常相似，

and suddenly it will be as if he is standing now here with us.

但與另一組人不同。

Now you can see how we can take this mechanism

如果一個句子足以讓你的大腦 與持相同看法的人相似

and try to transmit memories and knowledge across people,

與持不同看法的人相異，

which is wonderful, right?

那麼想想看，在現實生活中 這種效應會被放大到甚麼樣的程度？

But our ability to communicate relies on our ability

當我們日復一日聽著由不同媒體 所報導的相同新聞，

to have common ground.

例如《福斯新聞》或《紐約時報》，

Because, for example,

造成我們對事實的觀點 有截然不同的看法。

if I'm going to use the British synonym

因此，讓我總結一下。

"hackney carriage" instead of "cab,"

如果今晚一切按計劃進行，

I know that I'm going to be misaligned with most of you in the audience.

我可以用我的聲音 與你的大腦產生共鳴。

This alignment depends not only on our ability

然後利用這種共鳴，

to understand the basic concept;

把我大腦裡的記憶、想法圖像 傳至你的大腦。

it also depends on our ability to develop common ground and understanding

在此，我向各位揭露了 我們神經溝通機制的秘密，

and shared belief systems.

我們知道它可以改善 我們的溝通方式。

Because we know that in many cases,

這些研究也表明，溝通依賴共同點，

people understand the exact same story in very different ways.

身為社會一分子的我們必須得擔心，

So to test it in the lab, we did the following experiment.

我們是否已失去了這種共同點， 是否失去了與他人溝通的能力，

We took a story by J.D. Salinger,

因為我們放任少數的強勢媒體 控制了麥克風，

in which a husband lost track of his wife in the middle of a party,

操縱了我們的想法。

and he's calling his best friend, asking, "Did you see my wife?"