The Science of Lifespan — and the Impact of Your Five Senses | Christi Gendron | TED

譯者: C Leung 審譯者: 麗玲 辛

I'm here to tell you that what we sense,

我來這裡是想告訴你們， 我們所感受到的，

meaning what we see, smell, hear, taste and touch,

也就是我們所看到、聞到、 聽到、嚐到和觸摸到的東西

can impact how long we live.

都會影響我們的壽命。

Now this may seem extraordinary, but it really isn't.

這聽來似乎匪夷所思， 但實際上並非如此。

Let's say that you wake up one morning

假設你有天早上醒來，

and are trying to decide whether to go to an amusement park.

正在考慮是否要去遊樂園，

One of the very first things you might do is to step outside and check the weather.

你可能做的第一件事 就是出去查看天氣。

When you do, you see that the sky is blue, that the sun is out.

當你這樣做，你看到 天空是藍的，太陽出來了，

You hear that the birds are chirping.

你聽到鳥兒在嘰嘰喳喳地叫。

You feel how warm it is on your skin.

你感覺到皮膚上有多溫暖。

Based on all of this information,

根據所有這些信息，

you decide it is a perfect day for going to the park.

你認為今天是去遊樂園的最佳日子。

You have used your senses to impact your decision.

你已經用你的感官來影響你的決定。

Now gathering this information does more than simply impact your behavior.

收集這些資訊不僅會影響你的行為，

It also can affect your emotions

它還會影響你的情緒，

as well as how your body physically responds.

以及你身體生理的反應。

To demonstrate, let's say you've arrived at that amusement park,

為了說明我的論點， 假設你已經到達遊樂園，

and one of the very first things that you see

你第一個看到的東西

is a roller coaster.

就是雲霄飛車。

You see the speed with which it moves.

你可以看到它移動的速度。

You see the twists and turns it takes.

你可以看到它左穿右插。

You see the terrified look on the riders' faces.

你可以看到乘客臉上驚恐的表情。

You hear their screams. Even right here, right now,

你聽得到他們的尖叫聲。

即使在此時此刻，

this sensory event may be causing you to feel anxious

這種感官事件也可能會讓你感到焦慮，

or even excited,

甚至興奮。

feelings that are associated with butterflies in your stomach,

這種感覺常常會讓人聯想到七上八下、

a racing heartbeat, even sweating palms.

心跳加速、甚至手心出汗。

Your senses have caused your body to change.

你的感官導致身體反應的變化。

This is an example

這是一個例子，

of how a very short sensory perceptive event can impact you.

說明短暫的感官感知事件如何影響你。

What do you imagine

你會想像

a much longer sensory event might do to you?

一個更久的感官事件 會對你產生什麼樣的影響？

This is the question that I am interested in addressing.

這是我很感興趣、想解答的問題。

And what scientists like me have discovered

像我這樣的科學家發現，

is that prolonged sensory events

長時間的感官事件

can impact the lifespan of an animal.

會影響動物的壽命。

This has been shown with worms, flies, mice.

這已經在蠕蟲、蒼蠅、老鼠中證實了。

When you expose them to pheromones, it impacts how long they live.

當你將它們暴露在費洛蒙中， 這會影響它們的壽命。

Now at this point, you might be asking yourself,

這刻，你可能會心想，

um, what does a worm, a fly or a mouse have to do with me?

嗯，蠕蟲、蒼蠅或老鼠 與我有什麼關係？

I would argue more than you realize.

我會說，比你意識到的還要多。

The genes or genetic material that you find within a worm

無論是在蠕蟲或蒼蠅體內，

你會發現牠們的基因或遺傳物質

or within a fly,

that is approximately 60 to 75 percent similar to our own.

與我們的約有 60% 至 75% 相似。

This increases to 85 percent if we compare ourselves to a mouse.

如果我們將自己與老鼠進行比較， 這個比例就會增加到 85%。

Furthermore, the fact that three very different animals

此外，事實上，三種截然不同的動物

all respond in terms of changing their lifespan

當暴露於特定的環境因素裡，

when exposed to a specific environmental cue,

都會有壽命改變的反應，

this suggests that those underlying biological processes

這表明驅動這些變化的潛在生物過程

that drive those changes are similar.

是相似的。

Therefore, there is every reason to believe

因此，我們有充分的理由相信，

that environmental cues impact our own very human aging process.

環境因素會影響我們人類的老化過程。

In order to study environmental cues and how they impact lifespan,

為了研究環境因素及其對壽命的影響，

our lab has decided to focus on the nervous system.

我們的實驗室決定 將重點放在神經系統上。

Now why the nervous system?

為什麼是神經系統呢？

Well, we can think of the nervous system as a communication hub.

我們可以將神經系統視為溝通樞紐，

It's responsible for gathering that sensory information,

它負責收集感官信息，

for processing it and then for causing those bodily changes that occur.

對其進行處理，然後引起身體變化。

Furthermore, to do this research,

此外，為了進行這項研究，

we need to control the environment

我們需要控制環境，

that an animal is in for its entire life.

就是動物一生所處的環境。

如果用人類來做這實驗， 往好了說是相當困難的，

This is something that would be pretty difficult at best,

and unethical at worst to do using humans.

往壞了說就是不道德的。

I therefore use this little guy,

因此，我使用這個小傢伙，

Drosophila melanogaster,

黑腹果蠅，

also known as the fruit fly

也被稱為果蠅，

or the pest that came home on your bananas from the grocery store,

或從雜貨店隨著香蕉帶回家的害蟲，

in order to understand the things that we share in common

來了解我們共有的事物

that impact lifespan.

怎樣影響壽命。

Now fruit flies are amazing for this type of research.

果蠅對於這類研究來說非常出色。

They live a short amount of time.

它們的壽命很短，

They only live two or three months.

它們只能活兩三個月。

They have a brain and a central nervous system.

它們有大腦和中樞神經系統。

And we can easily activate or inhibit specific neuron cells

而且我們很容易就可以 激活或抑制特定的神經元細胞，

or even the activities of specific molecules

甚至特定分子的活動，

in order to see how these changes impact how long the animal lives.

以了解這些變化如何影響動物的壽命。

Now I am the first to admit

首先我要坦承，

that my belief of how great it is to work with fruit flies is biased.

我之所以認為 跟果蠅合作很棒，是偏袒的。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But that's because I'm a fly girl.

純粹只是因為我喜歡蒼蠅。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So our lab has studied how very many different environmental cues

因此，我們的實驗室研究了 有多少不同的環境因素

have impacted the lifespan of this animal.

會影響這種動物的壽命。

I'm going to highlight one in particular,

我要特別強調一個，

and that is death perception.

那就是死亡感知。

Yes, I said death.

是的，我說的是死亡。

So why are we interested

為什麼我們會特別關注

in whether a fly can recognize other dead flies?

蒼蠅能否辨識其他同伴死去呢？

We're interested in this so that we can develop therapies

我們關注這點，以便開發治療方法，

for people who find themselves developing negative health consequences

幫助那些因死亡帶來的壓力

as a result of stressful situations surrounding death.

而對健康產生負面影響的人。

If you think about this,

如果你想到這一點，

this could impact soldiers and first responders.

這研究可能幫助士兵和急救人員。

You're thinking, "What? A fly can actually recognize another dead fly?"

你在想，「什麼？蒼蠅真的 會知道另一隻蒼蠅死掉了？」

The answer is yes.

答案是肯定的。

If I take a vial of flies and I put dead in there,

如果我把一隻死掉的蒼蠅 放進一個蒼蠅玻璃瓶裏，

they send out a signal to other flies

它們會發出信號給其他蒼蠅，

to stay away.

要它們遠離。

We can measure this.

我們可以測量出這點。

You know those flies in the vial with the dead?

你知道嗎？和已死同伴 一起裝在瓶子裡的那些蒼蠅，

They lose weight and they die sooner.

它們會體重減輕，並且更快死去。

Now that we know that there's all these effects,

我們知道會有這些影響，

we wanted to make sure this was real.

我們想確保這是真實的。

So, you know, the first thing that you might imagine

首先，你可能猜想，

is that, well, those flies with the dead, they're getting an infection.

那些和已死同伴一起的蒼蠅 可能被感染，生病了，

They're getting sick, and that's what's causing them to die.

這才是導致它們死亡的原因。

But we know this isn't the case,

但我們知道情況並非如此，

because if I do the experiment

因為就算我進行實驗的條件

under sterile or infection-free conditions,

是在無菌或無感染的狀況下，

the live flies, they still die when they're with the dead.

當放進死去的蒼蠅， 活的蒼蠅仍然會死亡。

But if you take that vial of flies

但如果把那瓶蒼蠅

and you put them in complete darkness

放在完全黑暗的環境中，

for 24 hours, all the time,

全日 24 小時，

they never see the light,

它們始終不會看到光線，

those flies live just as long

那些蒼蠅的壽命

as flies that never had dead in their vial to begin with.

就會跟和瓶子裡沒有死蒼蠅一樣長。

This indicates that it is the sight of the dead

這表明，看到死者

that is causing all those biological changes,

引發了所有的生物變化，

which impacts their lifespan.

從而影響它們的壽命。

So now that we know that flies can sense other dead,

現在我們知道蒼蠅可以感知其他死者，

we turned our attention toward trying to understand

我們將注意力轉向

嘗試更加了解這些生物過程的進行。

a little bit more about those biological processes

that are happening.

有哪些變化？

What are the changes?

And what we discovered was that molecules found in our own bodies,

我們發現，我們體內的分子，

including serotonin and insulin, had a role.

包括血清素和胰島素， 都有自己的作用。

Furthermore, we discovered parts of the fly brain

此外，

我們還發現果蠅大腦中有一些部位

在接觸到死亡時， 對壽命起著重要作用，

that played a role in how long they live when exposed to dead

that have similarities with regions of our own brains.

這與我們大腦某些區域有相似之處。

This is what we know about just one type of environmental cue.

這只是我們所知道的一種環境因素。

There are many different environmental cues

有許多不同的環境因素 會影響動物的壽命。

that impact the lifespan of animals.

These include the temperature that the animal is kept in.

其中包括動物飼養的溫度，

These include the smell of food,

食物的氣味，

the wavelength of light they are exposed to,

他們所接觸的光的波長，

even the perception of pain.

甚至還有對疼痛的感知。

In order for us to develop therapies

為了發展出促進健康老化的療法，

that promote healthy aging,

we must understand the basic biology of all of these cues,

我們必須了解所有因素的基本生物學，

because after all, we don't live in a world

因為畢竟，在我們所處的世界

where we receive one cue at a time.

我們並不是一次只接收一種環境訊息。

So what does this all mean?

那麼，這一切代表什麼意思？

I would love nothing more than to be able to tell you

我很希望我能告訴你，

that you should expose yourself to this environmental cue,

你應該讓自己暴露在這種環境因素中，

you should avoid that one

你應該避免那個，

in order to live your longest, healthiest life.

這樣你就能過上最長壽、 最健康的生活。

But I simply can't do that yet.

但我現在還做不到，

We're just not there.

我們尚未達成。

But we're pushing hard towards this type of understanding,

但我們正在努力達到這樣的理解，

and we're going to do it with these little guys.

我們將與這些小傢伙一起做到這點。

After all, six Nobel Prizes have been won

畢竟，有六位諾貝爾獎得主的研究

based on work with Drosophila

是基於對果蠅的研究，

that impacts the biology and helps us all,

這些研究影響了生物學， 並幫助了我們所有人，

including worms, flies, mice,

包括蠕蟲、蒼蠅、老鼠，

and yes, humans.

當然，還有人類。

And on that note, I'd like to leave you with a happy perceptive experience

說到這裡，我希望有給你 留下一次愉快的感知體驗。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

in the hopes that this positively impacts your life.

也希望這帶給你的生命正面的影響。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）