The Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise | Wendy Suzuki | TED · TED
神经科学家 Wendy Suzuki 通过科学实验证明运动对大脑的积极影响，包括提升情绪、专注力和记忆力，同时预防神经退行性疾病。适合练习听力与理解。
What if I told you there was something that you can do right now that would have an immediate,
如果我告诉你，现在就有某件事你可以去做，而且这件事会立刻产生积极的影响（或者：如果我告诉你，现在就有某件事你可以立刻去做，它会带来立竿见影的好处），你会怎么想？
positive benefit for your brain including your mood and your focus?
对大脑有积极的作用，包括改善情绪和提升注意力吗？
And what if I told you that same thing could actually last a long time and protect your brain from different conditions like depression,
那么，如果我告诉你：同样的方法实际上可以持续很长时间，并且能够保护你的大脑免受抑郁症等各种疾病的影响，你会怎么想呢？
Alzheimer's disease or dementia.
阿尔茨海默病，也被称为痴呆症。
Would you do it?
你会去做这件事吗？
Yes!
是的！
I am talking about the powerful effects of physical activity.
我指的是体育活动所带来的强大益处（或：体育活动所具有的显著积极影响）。
Simply moving your body, has immediate, long-lasting and protective benefits for your brain.
仅仅通过活动身体，就能为大脑带来立竿见影、长期持续且具有保护作用的好处。
And that can last for the rest of your life.
这种情况可能会持续你的一生。
So what I want to do today is tell you a story about how I used my deep understanding of neuroscience,
那么，今天我想做的事情就是给你们讲一个故事，讲述我是如何运用自己对神经科学的深刻理解来……
as a professor of neuroscience, to essentially do an experiment on myself
作为一名神经科学教授，实际上就是在对自己进行一项实验。
in which I discovered the science underlying why exercise is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain today.
通过这项研究，我发现了科学依据：为什么运动是当今对大脑最具积极影响、最具变革性的行为。
Now, as a neuroscientist, I know that our brains, that is the thing in our head right now,
作为一名神经科学家，我知道我们的大脑——也就是我们头部中的那个器官——
that is the most complex structure known to humankind.
这是人类已知的最复杂的结构。
But it's one thing to talk about the brain, and it's another to see it.
但是，谈论大脑是一回事，亲眼看到它则是另一回事。
So here is a real preserved human brain.
这是一颗真正被保存下来的人类大脑。
And it's going to illustrate two key areas that we are going to talk about today.
这将有助于说明我们今天要讨论的两个关键领域。
The first is the prefrontal cortex, right behind your forehead, critical for things like decision-making, focus, attention and your personality.
第一个是前额叶皮层（位于额头正后方），它对决策能力、注意力集中、专注力以及个性的形成起着至关重要的作用。
The second key area is located in the temporal lobe, shown right here.
第二个关键区域位于颞叶（如图所示）。
You have two temporal lobes in your brain, the right and the left,
你的大脑中有两个颞叶，分别是右侧的颞叶和左侧的颞叶。
and deep in the temporal lobe is a key structure critical for your ability to form and retain new long-term memories for facts and events.
在颞叶的深处，有一个对形成和保留关于事实与事件的新长期记忆至关重要的关键结构。
And that structure is called the hippocampus.
而这个结构被称为海马体（hippocampus）。
So I've always been fascinated with the hippocampus.
我一直对海马体非常着迷。
How could it be that an event that lasts just a moment, say, your first kiss, or the moment your first child was born,
怎么可能会有这样的事情：某个仅仅持续了一瞬间的事件，比如你的初吻，或者你的第一个孩子出生的那一刻……
can form a memory that has changed your brain, that lasts an entire lifetime?
能否形成一种能够改变你大脑、并且会持续一生的记忆呢？
That's what I want to understand.
这正是我想弄明白的事情。
I wanted to start and record the activity of individual brain cells in the hippocampus as subjects were forming new memories.
我希望在受试者形成新记忆的过程中，开始记录海马体中单个脑细胞的活动情况。
And essentially try and decode how those brief bursts of electrical activity, which is how neurons communicate with each other,
本质上，我们试图解码那些短暂的电活动信号——神经元正是通过这些信号来相互交流的。
how those brief bursts either allowed us to form a new memory, or did not.
那些短暂的时间片段究竟是如何帮助我们形成新的记忆的，又或者根本无法起到这样的作用呢？
But a few years ago, I did something very unusual in science.
但几年前，我在科学领域做了一件非常不寻常的事情。
As a full professor of neural science, I decided to completely switch my research program.
作为一名神经科学领域的正教授，我决定彻底改变我的研究方向。
Because I encountered something that was so amazing, with the potential to change so many lives that I had to study it.
因为我遇到了一件非常了不起的事情——这件事有可能改变许多人的生活，因此我必须对其进行深入研究。
I discovered and I experienced the brain-changing effects of exercise.
我发现了运动对大脑产生的积极影响，并亲身体验到了这些变化。
And I did it in a completely inadvertent way.
而我完全是出于无心之举才做到了这件事。
I was actually at the height of all the memory work that I was doing -- data was pouring in,
实际上，我正处于所有记忆相关工作的高峰期：大量的数据不断涌入我的系统中。
I was becoming known in my field for all of this memory work.
由于我在记忆研究方面的出色表现，我在自己的领域逐渐获得了知名度。
And it should have been going great.
一切本来都应该进展得很顺利的。
It was, scientifically.
从科学的角度来看，确实如此。
But when I stuck my head out of my lab door, I noticed something.
但当我从实验室的门里探出头来时，我注意到了一些事情。
I had no social life.
我没有社交生活。