书店简介怎么写:神经元保持沉默，行动力得以改善

神经元保持沉默，行动力得以改善

Article Date: 07 Nov 2011 - 0:00 PST

发表于2011年11月7日

To be able to focus on the world, we need to turn a part of ourselves off for a short while, and this is precisely what our brain does. 

我们为了聚焦这个世界，需要身体暂时停止某些部位的活动，而这正是大脑的所作所为。

They demonstrate more specifically that when we need to concentrate, this network disrupts the activation of other specialized neurones when it is not deactivated enough. The results have just been published in the Journal of Neuroscience. 

这一结论刚刚发表在《神经系统科学杂志》上，文章说当我们需要集中注意力时，如果某些神经元不够安静的话，大脑网络就会干扰特定神经元的活性。

When we focus on the things around us, certain parts of the brain are activated: this network, well known to neurobiologists, is called the attention network. Other parts of the brain, however, cease their activity at the same time, as if they generally prevented our attention from being focused on the outside world. These parts of the brain form a network that is extensively studied in neurobiology, and commonly known as the "default-mode network", because, for a long time, it was believed that it activated itself when the brain had nothing in particular to do. This interpretation was refined through ten years of neuroimaging research that concluded by associating this mysterious network ("the brain's dark energy" as it was called by one of its discoverers, Marcus Raichle) with a host of intimate and private phenomena of our mental life: self-perception, recollections, imagination, thoughts... 

当我们将注意力集中于身边某事时，大脑中特定区域将被激活：这个特殊区域呈网状，正是为神经生物学家们所熟知的“注意力网状结构”。而大脑的其他部分则同时停止了活动，就好像它们一起在阻止我们的注意力不被外部世界所吸引。大脑的这些部分形成了一个网络，通常它被称为“静息状态网络”——正被神经生物学家们进行着广泛的研究。原因是，长期以来，人们认为当大脑无事可做时这个结构会进行自我激活。

这种说法在过去的10年间通过神经成像技术不停地被加以精炼，成像学将这个神秘网络和许多私密的精神现象联系在一起，而得出了这一结论。比如人的自我认知、回忆、想像、思想等……它们与静息状态网络进行着联结（这个也被称做“大脑暗物质”，这是说法是发现者之一的马库斯最先叫起来的）。

A study carried out by a team at the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (led by Tomas Ossandon and managed by Jean-Philippe Lachaux, Research Director at Inserm and Karim Jerbi, Research Leader at Inserm) has just revealed how this network interferes with our ability to pay attention, by assessing the activity of the human brain's default-mode network neurones on a millisecond scale for the first time ever, in collaboration with Philippe Kahane's epilepsy department in Grenoble. 

法国国家健康科学研究院的一个科研小组联合在格勒诺布尔（法国南部城市）的菲利普癫痫病研究所首次在毫秒水平上，对大脑中这个网络是如何影响我们的行为进行了研究：比如如何集中注意力，如何评估大脑静息状态网络联结的神经元活动。

The results unambiguously illustrate that whenever we look for an object in the area around us, the neurones of this default-mode network stop their activity. Yet, this interruption only lasts for the amount of time required to find the object: in less than a tenth of a second, after the object has been found, the default-mode network resumes its activity as before. And if our default-mode network is not sufficiently deactivated, then we will need more time to find the object. These results show that there is fierce competition for our attentional resources inside our brain which, when they are not used to actively analyse our sensorial environment, are instantaneously redirected towards more internal mental processes. The brain hates emptiness and never stays idle, even for a tenth of a second.

结论明白地揭示出：无论何时，只要我们在周围寻找一个目标时，大脑中静息状态网络的神经元就会停止活动。当然这个中断只会持续到我们找到目标时为止，而这个时长还不到十分之一秒。当目标被找到，静息状态网络将立即恢复其之前的活动。如果我们的静息状态网络不能充分地去活，那么我们就需要更多的时间来寻找目标。

这些结论显示：在大脑中，为注意力源存在着相当激烈的竞争活动，如果神经元不是被活跃地用来分析感知周围环境，则会立即转向更为内化的精神活动。我们的大脑憎恨空虚，而且从不吃闲饭，就算只有不到十分之一秒。