How sound can hack your memory while you sleep | DIY Neuroscience, a TED series

Translator: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz

翻译人员: Yen Doran 校对人员: Jiasi Hao

Greg Gage: Who wouldn't love acing a geography exam,

格雷格 · 盖奇（Greg Gage）： 谁不会想要在地理考试的时候

remembering all the locations of the countries on a map

准确记下地图上所有国家的位置，

or avoiding embarrassing situations of suddenly forgetting the person's name

或是避免忽然忘记眼前人名字

standing right in front of you.

It turns out that memory, like other muscles in the body,

事实表明，原来我们的记忆 就像身体其他肌肉，

can be strengthened and enhanced.

可以被加强和提升。

But instead of practicing with flash cards,

但除了用记忆闪卡练习之外，

可能还有一个有趣的方法，

there may be an interesting way

that we can hack our memory while we sleep.

可以让我们在睡觉时， 破解我们的记忆。

【DIY神经科学】

(Music)

（音乐）

Why do we sleep?

我们为什么要睡觉？

This has been a question asked since the early days of civilization.

这是一个自文明初期以来 一直被提出的问题。

And while we may not know the exact answer,

虽然我们可能 并不知道其确切的答案，

there are a number of really good theories about why we need it.

但却有一大堆关于为何 我们需要睡眠的极佳理论。

Sleep is when the brain transfers short-term memories

睡眠是大脑把一天里经历的短时记忆

experienced throughout the day

变成长期记忆储存的时间。

into long-term memories.

这过程称为记忆巩固，

This process is called memory consolidation,

and it's the memory consolidation theory that has scientists wondering

基于此记忆巩固理论， 很多科学家都很好奇，

if we can enhance certain memories over others.

我们是否能选择性地提升某些记忆。

最近在《科学》杂志上有一篇 由肯 · 帕勒（Ken Paller）

There was a paper recently in the journal "Science"

by Ken Paller and his colleagues at Northwestern

和他在西北大学的 同事们一起研究发表的文章，

that seemed to show that this may be true,

文章似乎表明这可能是真的，

and that piqued our curiosity.

于是这激起了我们的好奇心。

乔德（Joud）一直专研着 该研究话题的 DIY 版本

Joud has been working on a DIY version of this task

to see if we can improve memories through the use of sound in sleep.

来调查我们是否能在睡觉时 利用声音的帮助来提升记忆。

So Joud, how do you test if we can improve our memories with sleep?

所以，乔德，您怎样测试我们 是否能通过睡眠来提升记忆呢？

Joud Mar’i: We need a human subject.

乔德 · 马里（Joud Mar’i）： 我们需要一个人作为实验对象。

[Step 1: Play a game]

【步骤 1：玩游戏】

We have a memory game that we have on an iPad,

我们在 iPad 上，有一个记忆游戏，

and then we make our subject play this game

然后我们让测试对象玩这个游戏，

and remember the images and where they appear on the screen.

要他们记下图片 以及图片在屏幕上显示的位置。

GG: So this is like a memory game you used to play as a child,

GG：所以这像是 你小时候玩的记忆游戏，

which picture was where.

哪张图片在哪里。

And we tie each picture with a sound that represents it.

我们把每张图片都配上 一个具有代表性的声音。

JM: So, if you can see a picture of a car, for example,

JM：所以， 如果你看见一辆车子的图片，

and you would hear the car engine.

您就会听到车子引擎的声音。

(Car engine starting)

（汽车引擎发动声）

GG: Just before you go to sleep we're going to test you.

GG：就在你睡觉前， 我们将测试你。

We're going to see how well you remember where the pictures are.

我们要看看 你把图片的位子记得多好。

每一次你看见图片， 就会听到其对应的声音。

Every time you see the picture, you're going to hear the sound.

And now comes the experiment.

现在我们开始进行实验。

你马上要小睡一会儿。

You're going to go take a nap.

[Step 2: Take a nap]

【步骤 2：小睡】

当你在睡觉时， 我们将会记录你的脑电图（EEG）。

And while you're sleeping, we're going to be recording your EEG.

JM: And then we wait for them to go into what's called the slow-wave sleep,

JM：然后我们等待它们 进入所谓的慢波睡眠，

这是你睡眠最深的阶段， 此时你真的很难醒来。

which is the deepest phase of your sleep where it's really hard for you to wake up.

GG：好，暂停。

GG: OK, pause.

所以，这是在你睡觉时 所收集的一些信息。

So, here's some information on sleep.

有四个阶段： 我们有较浅的睡眠和快速眼动阶段，

There are four stages: we have lighter stages of sleep and REM,

但是，我们感兴趣的 是所谓的慢波睡眠阶段。

but what we're interested in is called slow-wave sleep.

And it gets its name from the electrical signals

它得名于我们从大脑记录下来的

called Delta waves that we record from the brain.

称之三角洲波的浪电信号。

这是科学家们相信

This is the part of sleep where scientists believe

记忆巩固能发生的睡眠阶段。

that memory consolidation can happen.

在此深度睡眠阶段，

In this deep period of sleep,

we're going to do something that you don't know we're going to do.

我们将做些你不知道的事情。

【步骤 3：播放声音】

JM：这就是棘手的地方， 然后我们开始播放提示。

JM: Here's where the tricky part comes, and we start playing our cues.

（汽车引擎发动声）

(Car engine starting)

GG: Do you play all the cues?

GG：你会播放所有的提示音吗？

JM: No. We only want to play half of them to see if there's a difference.

JM：不会。我们只是想要 播放其中的一半来看看是否有差别。

GG: So your hypothesis is

GG：所以你的假设是

the one that they were listening to while they're sleeping

他们睡觉的时候也在听这些声音，

they're going to do better at.

他们游戏结果因此也会更好。

JM: Yes, exactly.

JM：是的，正是如此。

GG: When you wake back up and play the game again,

【步骤 4：再次玩游戏】

GG：当你醒过来再玩那个游戏，

do you do better or worse than before a nap?

结果比小睡前更好还是更差？

What we found is that if we played you a cue during your sleep,

我们发现如果我们 在你睡觉时播放提示音，

for example, a car --

比如，一辆车子——

You would remember the position of that car

当你醒来再次玩游戏的时候，

when you woke back up again.

你会记得那辆车的位子。

但是如果在你睡觉时 我们没有播放提示音，

But if we didn't play you the cue during the sleep,

for example, a guitar,

比如，一把吉他——

当你醒来时， 还记得那把吉他的可能性变小。

you'd be less likely to remember that guitar when you woke up.

The memories that were cued they remembered better

相较于那些没有被提示的，

那些被提示的能更好地被记住，

than the ones they weren't,

even though they don't remember hearing those sounds?

即使他们不记得听过那些声音？

JM：是的，我们问过他们。

JM: Yes, we ask them.

GG: We know they're sleeping, they can't hear it, they wake up,

GG：我们知道他们在睡觉， 他们听不见提示，他们醒来，

他们配对到的 比那些你没播放的来得好。

they do better on those than the ones you didn't play.

GG：太惊人了。 JM：就像变魔术。

GG: That's amazing. JM: It's like magic.

GG: Joud ran this experiment on 12 people and the results were significant.

GG：乔德在 12 个人身上重复实验， 实验结果非常显著。

这不是因为你能记得更好， 而是因为你忘得更少。

It's not that you remember things better; it's that you forget them less.

I was a huge skeptic when I first heard that you could do better at a memory test

当我第一次听到：在睡觉时播声音 可以让人获得更好的记忆测试结果，

我对此是挺质疑的。

just by playing sounds during sleep.

但是，我们复制了这些实验。

But we replicated these experiments.

我们一天下来，大脑中所收集的 事实和记忆是很脆弱的，

The facts and memories we collect throughout the day are very fragile,

and they are easily lost and forgotten.

它们容易消失、被忘记。

But by reactivating them during sleep, even without us being aware,

但通过在睡觉时重新激活它们， 甚至在我们不知道的情况下，

it seems like we could make them more stable and less prone to forgetting.

我们似乎可以让那些记忆 变得更稳定、更不容易忘记。

这挺不可思议的。

That's pretty incredible.

Our brains are still active even when we're not.

我们不活跃时， 我们的大脑依旧是活跃的。

So if you're like me and a bit forgetful,

所以，如果你和我一样有点健忘，

perhaps a solution is a pair of headphones and a soft couch.

也许解决方案就是 一对耳机和一个柔软的沙发。