Name: 【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran:塑造文明的神經元 (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran) (【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran))
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:26:04.000Z
Duration: 10 min 16 s

I'd like to talk to you today about the human brain,

which is what we do research on at the University of California.

今天，我想和大家一探 大腦的奧秘，

Just think about this problem for a second.

Here is a lump of flesh, about three pounds,

which you can hold in the palm of your hand.

這裏有一堆肉， 大概重三磅左右，

But it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space.

It can contemplate the meaning of infinity,

但它卻可以探 究浩瀚的星際空間；

ask questions about the meaning of its own existence,

And this is truly the most amazing thing in the world.

It's the greatest mystery confronting human beings:

這是人類面臨 的最大難題之一。

Well, the brain, as you know, is made up of neurons.

正如你們所 知，腦組織是由神經元所組成的。

There are 100 billion neurons in the adult human brain.

And each neuron makes something like 1,000 to 10,000 contacts

成人腦組織裏 含有一千億個神經元。

And based on this, people have calculated

that the number of permutations and combinations of brain activity

基於此，人們 對之進行了計算，

exceeds the number of elementary particles in the universe.

並得出各種大 腦活動的組合總量

So, how do you go about studying the brain?

超過了宇宙中 基本粒子的數量。

One approach is to look at patients who had lesions

所以，我們應 該如何研究大腦？

in different part of the brain, and study changes in their behavior.

一種方法是觀 察那些有受過腦部 損傷的人，

This is what I spoke about in the last TED.

Today I'll talk about a different approach,

這是我於上次 TED大會上所講的內容。

which is to put electrodes in different parts of the brain,

and actually record the activity of individual nerve cells in the brain.

這種方法是將 電極線置放於大腦的不同部位，

Sort of eavesdrop on the activity of nerve cells in the brain.

以記錄單個神 經細胞的活動性。

Now, one recent discovery that has been made

頗類似於竊聽 神經細胞在大腦內的活動。

by Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues,

is a group of neurons called mirror neurons,

which are on the front of the brain in the frontal lobes.

在大腦前額葉 發現了一組神 經元，

這組神經元被 他們稱作鏡像神經元。

which are called ordinary motor command neurons in the front of the brain,

此外，大腦裏 面還有一組神經元，

稱作運動神經 元，也位於大腦的前半部分，

These neurons will fire when a person performs a specific action.

For example, if I do that, and reach and grab an apple,

當我們要做某 種運動時，這組神經元就會發射資訊至相關器官。

a motor command neuron in the front of my brain will fire.

例如，假若我 這樣做，我向前屈伸，然後抓住一隻蘋果，

If I reach out and pull an object, another neuron will fire,

一個運動神經 元則會[向我的手]發射一組資訊。

假如我向前 屈伸，並回拉一件物品，另外一個神經元則會 發射另一組 資訊

These are called motor command neurons that have been known for a long time.

很早以前， 這些運動神經元就被發現了。

maybe about 20 percent of them, will also fire

這組神經元 中包含著另外一組神經元，

when I'm looking at somebody else performing the same action.

So, here is a neuron that fires when I reach and grab something,

這些神經元是會當我觀看他人 行動時，

but it also fires when I watch Joe reaching and grabbing something.

所以，當我 向前抓住某物件時，有個神經元會發出相關資訊，

可是若我觀 看喬做相同的動作時，另一個神經元也會發出相關資訊。

Because it's as though this neuron is adopting

It's almost as though it's performing a virtual reality simulation

Now, what is the significance of these mirror neurons?

For one thing they must be involved in things like imitation and emulation.

那麼，這些 鏡像神經元有何存在意義呢？

這裏我必須 引入模仿和仿真的概念。

requires my brain to adopt the other person's point of view.

假使我們要 模仿一種複雜的行為，

So, this is important for imitation and emulation.

那麼我們的 大腦則需要採納他人的行為觀點。

因此模仿和 仿真是非常重要的。

Well, let's take a look at the next slide.

So, how do you do imitation? Why is imitation important?

你怎樣進行 模仿？模仿為什麼重要？

Now, let's look at culture, the phenomenon of human culture.

If you go back in time about [75,000] to 100,000 years ago,

現在，讓我 們從人類文化方面入手。

let's look at human evolution, it turns out

讓我們回到 七萬五千年至十萬年前時，

that something very important happened around 75,000 years ago.

我們來觀測 下人類進化的過程，結果發現

And that is, there is a sudden emergence and rapid spread

于七萬五千 年前左右，一件重大事件影響了人類的發展。

of a number of skills that are unique to human beings

那就是，各 種獨特的“人類”技巧

突然出現以 及迅速傳播。這些技巧包括

the use of fire, the use of shelters, and, of course, language,

and the ability to read somebody else's mind

火的使用、 房屋的出現和語言交流，

Even though the human brain had achieved its present size

almost three or four hundred thousand years ago,

原始人類的 大腦形狀大約于四至五十萬年前

100,000 years ago all of this happened very, very quickly.

不過這些事 件則是十萬年前才快速地發生。

the sudden emergence of a sophisticated mirror neuron system,

which allowed you to emulate and imitate other people's actions.

源于先進的 鏡像神經元系統的突然浮現，

So that when there was a sudden accidental discovery

這些神經元 將允許你模仿他人的行為

by one member of the group, say the use of fire,

or a particular type of tool, instead of dying out,

this spread rapidly, horizontally across the population,

or was transmitted vertically, down the generations.

這種方法將會橫向傳播於氏族中，

So, this made evolution suddenly Lamarckian,

所以，這是 一種拉馬克式進化，

Darwinian evolution is slow; it takes hundreds of thousands of years.

達爾文式進 化是異乎緩慢的，它大概需要幾千年的時間來產生效用。

will take thousands of generations, maybe 100,000 years.

若要使一隻 北極熊進化出一件外衣，

A human being, a child, can just watch its parent

則需要他們 經過數千代的傳承，或許需要十萬年方能得出外衣。

一個人類小 孩，則僅需觀看他的父母

and skin it and put the skin on its body, fur on the body,

and learn it in one step. What the polar bear

將其剝皮拆 骨，用來製造外衣。

小孩因此可 以快速掌握這一技能。

it can learn in five minutes, maybe 10 minutes.

北極熊需要 十萬年才得以進化出外衣，

And then once it's learned this it spreads

人類小孩僅 僅要五分鐘或者十分鐘就學會了。

in geometric proportion across a population.

當他們學會 之後，這項技能將以

This is the basis. The imitation of complex skills

燎原之勢散 播於他們的氏族當中。

is what we call culture and is the basis of civilization.

Now there is another kind of mirror neuron,

複雜的行為 活動，而文明則產於此。

【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran:塑造文明的神經元 (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran) (【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran))

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【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran:塑造文明的神經元 (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran) (【TED】Vilayanur Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization (The neurons that shaped civilization | VS Ramachandran))

literally

approach

imitate

grab