TED演講：嬰兒的天才語(yǔ)言能力

　　I want you to take a look at this baby. What you're drawn to are her eyes and the skin you love to touch.

　　我想讓大家看看這個(gè)嬰兒。 吸引大家關(guān)注的是她的眼睛 以及讓人忍不住摸摸的皮膚。

　　But today I'm going to talk to you about something you can't see -- what's going on up in that little brain of hers. The modern tools of neuroscience are demonstrating to us that what's going on up there is nothing short of rocket science. And what we're learning is going to shed some light on what the romantic writers and poets described as the "celestial openness" of the child's mind.

　　但今天我要講些你看不到的東西， 在她的小腦袋瓜里的東西。 當(dāng)代神經(jīng)科學(xué)的研究工具 展示出我們對(duì)嬰兒腦袋里的東西 知之甚少。 我們要知道的 是讓浪漫作家和詩(shī)人 產(chǎn)生靈感 并稱(chēng)之為孩子心智的 “非凡的通慧”

　　What we see here is a mother in India, and she's speaking Koro, which is a newly discovered language. And she's talking to her baby. What this mother -- and the 800 people who speak Koro in the world -- understands [is] that, to preserve this language, they need to speak it to the babies.

　　大家這兒看到的 是印度的一位母親， 她講克羅語(yǔ)， 這是一種新發(fā)現(xiàn)的語(yǔ)言。 她對(duì)她的孩子說(shuō)這種語(yǔ)言。 這位母親 和世界上說(shuō)克羅語(yǔ)的800人 明白要保留這種語(yǔ)言， 他們必須對(duì)嬰兒說(shuō)這種語(yǔ)言。

　　And therein lies a critical puzzle. Why is it that you can't preserve a language by speaking to you and I, to the adults? Well, it's got to do with your brain. What we see here is that language has a critical period for learning. The way to read this slide is to look at your age on the horizontal axis.

　　在這里有個(gè)關(guān)鍵的問(wèn)題。 為什么要是對(duì)你和我，成年人說(shuō)一種新語(yǔ)言 卻不能保留它? 這是和你的大腦有關(guān)。 這兒我們看到 有個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言的關(guān)鍵期。 讀懂這幅圖的方法是看你在橫軸上的年齡。

　　(Laughter) And you'll see on the vertical your skill at acquiring a second language. Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there's a systematic decline. After puberty, we fall off the map. No scientists dispute this curve, but laboratories all over the world are trying to figure out why it works this way

　　(笑聲) 你再對(duì)應(yīng)看縱軸上 你悉得第二外語(yǔ)的能力。 嬰兒和孩子是語(yǔ)言天才 直到7歲 然后語(yǔ)言系統(tǒng)會(huì)呈下降趨勢(shì)。 青春期后，如圖我們語(yǔ)言能力衰退。 科學(xué)家們確信這曲線(xiàn)圖的情況， 但是全世界的實(shí)驗(yàn)室 都試圖查明這到底是怎么回事.

　　Work in my lab is focused on the first critical period in development -- and that is the period in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language. We think, by studying how the sounds are learned, we'll have a model for the rest of language, and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development.

　　在我實(shí)驗(yàn)室的工作主要是 研究第一個(gè)關(guān)鍵期 這個(gè)時(shí)期是關(guān)于 嬰兒試著掌握他們語(yǔ)言中的聲音。 我們認(rèn)為通過(guò)研究這些被嬰兒學(xué)會(huì)的聲音， 我們會(huì)給學(xué)習(xí)其他語(yǔ)言一個(gè)模式， 或許關(guān)鍵期也出現(xiàn)在孩童期 也為了研究社會(huì)，情感 和認(rèn)知發(fā)展。

　　So we've been studying the babies using a technique that we're using all over the world and the sounds of all languages. The baby sits on a parent's lap, and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes -- like from "ah" to "ee." If they do so at the appropriate time, the black box lights up and a panda bear pounds a drum. A six-monther adores the task.

　　我們一直研究嬰兒 使用的技巧，也是全世界使用的語(yǔ)言技巧 和所有語(yǔ)言的聲音技巧。 嬰兒坐在父母的膝上， 我們訓(xùn)練他們，當(dāng)聽(tīng)到一個(gè)聲音 從“ah”到 “ee” 他們就轉(zhuǎn)頭。 如果他們一聽(tīng)到就轉(zhuǎn)頭， 黑盒子就會(huì)亮 會(huì)出現(xiàn)一只敲鼓的熊貓。 六個(gè)月大的嬰兒喜歡這個(gè)測(cè)試。

　　What have we learned? Well, babies all over the world are what I like to describe as "citizens of the world." They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using, and that's remarkable because you and I can't do that.

　　我們從中了解到什么呢? 全世界的嬰兒 就如我所述的 是世界公民; 他們能區(qū)分所有語(yǔ)言的所有聲音 不管測(cè)試在哪一國(guó)，用哪種語(yǔ)言。 令人驚訝的是你我卻做不到這點(diǎn)。

　　We're culture-bound listeners. We can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages. So the question arises: when do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are?

　　我們是受制于文化局限的聽(tīng)眾。 我們只能區(qū)分我們自己語(yǔ)言的聲音， 但分不清外語(yǔ)的那些聲音。 所以問(wèn)題隨之產(chǎn)生， 這些小小世界公民在什么時(shí)候 變成受制于文化局限的聽(tīng)眾?

　　And the answer: before their first birthdays. What you see here is performance on that head-turn task for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States, here in Seattle, as they listened to "ra" and "la" -- sounds important to English, but not to Japanese. So at six to eight months the babies are totally equivalent. Two months later something incredible occurs. The babies in the United States are getting a lot better, babies in Japan are getting a lot worse, but both of those groups of babies are preparing for exactly the language that they are going to learn.

　　答案是：一歲之前 這里看到的是扭轉(zhuǎn)頭測(cè)試效果 用來(lái)測(cè)試日本東京 和美國(guó)西雅圖的嬰兒， 讓他們聽(tīng)ra和la的發(fā)音 這兩個(gè)發(fā)音在英文里很重要，在日語(yǔ)里卻沒(méi)有 對(duì)于6到8個(gè)月的嬰兒，他們的測(cè)試結(jié)果完全相似 2個(gè)月之后便產(chǎn)生明顯變化 在美國(guó)的嬰兒掌握這些發(fā)音比較好， 在日本的嬰兒卻差很多 但是這兩組的嬰兒 均蓄勢(shì)待發(fā)地要學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言。

　　So the question is: what's happening during this critical two-month period? This is the critical period for sound development, but what's going on up there? So there are two things going on. The first is that the babies are listening intently to us, and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk -- they're taking statistics. So listen to two mothers speaking motherese -- the universal language we use when we talk to kids -- first in English and then in Japanese.

　　問(wèn)題在于，在這個(gè)2個(gè)月的關(guān)鍵期 發(fā)生了什么? 在聲音開(kāi)發(fā)的這關(guān)鍵期 到底發(fā)生什么了? 主要是兩件事。 第一嬰兒不斷地專(zhuān)心聽(tīng)我們說(shuō)話(huà)， 并且做統(tǒng)計(jì) 他們統(tǒng)計(jì)這些聲音。 聽(tīng)聽(tīng)2位母親說(shuō)的親情用語(yǔ) 這是我們對(duì)孩子說(shuō)的通用語(yǔ)言媽媽語(yǔ) 首先是英語(yǔ)，然后是日語(yǔ)。

　　(Video) English Mother: Ah, I love your big blue eyes -- so pretty and nice.

　　(視頻)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)的媽媽?zhuān)喊?，我多?ài)你大大的藍(lán)眼睛 這么漂亮，這么好看。

　　Japanese Mother: [Japanese]

　　說(shuō)日語(yǔ)的媽媽?zhuān)篬日語(yǔ)]

　　Patricia Kuhl: During the production of speech, when babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics on the language that they hear. And those distributions grow. And what we've learned is that babies are sensitive to the statistics, and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different. English has a lot of Rs and Ls. The distribution shows. And the distribution of Japanese is totally different, where we see a group of intermediate sounds, which is known as the Japanese "R." So babies absorb the statistics of the language and it changes their brains; it changes them from the citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners that we are. But we as adults are no longer absorbing those statistics. We're governed by the representations in memory that were formed early in development.

　　帕特里夏·庫(kù)爾：在語(yǔ)言生成的期間， 當(dāng)嬰兒聆聽(tīng)時(shí)， 他們同時(shí)也在統(tǒng)計(jì) 他們聽(tīng)到的語(yǔ)言。 區(qū)分這些聲音的能力在變強(qiáng)。 我們了解到的 是嬰兒對(duì)統(tǒng)計(jì)很敏感， 日語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)的聲音統(tǒng)計(jì)是非常，非常不同的。 英語(yǔ)有很多R和L音 如分布圖所示 日語(yǔ)的分布圖則是完全不同的 我們?cè)谶@兒看到一組中間音， 它們是日語(yǔ)的R音。 嬰兒吸收 語(yǔ)言的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù) 這改變了他們的大腦; 這就是把他們從世界公民 變成像我們一樣受文化局限的聽(tīng)眾。 但我們成年人 不再吸收這些統(tǒng)計(jì)。 我們受我們?cè)缙谛纬傻?記憶性語(yǔ)言的影響。

　　So what we're seeing here is changing our models of what the critical period is about. We're arguing from a mathematical standpoint that the learning of language material may slow down when our distributions stabilize. It's raising lots of questions about bilingual people. Bilinguals must keep two sets of statistics in mind at once and flip between them, one after the other, depending on who they're speaking to.

　　所以我們?cè)谶@兒看到的 關(guān)鍵期是如何改變我們的語(yǔ)言模式。 我們從數(shù)學(xué)角度爭(zhēng)論 學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言材料的能力會(huì)放慢下來(lái) 當(dāng)我們語(yǔ)言分布的能力趨于穩(wěn)定時(shí)。 這也引出很多關(guān)于雙語(yǔ)者的問(wèn)題。 雙語(yǔ)者在腦中同時(shí)必須記住2組統(tǒng)計(jì) 并能任意切換 決定于他們與誰(shuí)交流

　　So we asked ourselves, can the babies take statistics on a brand new language? And we tested this by exposing American babies who'd never heard a second language to Mandarin for the first time during the critical period. We knew that, when monolinguals were tested in Taipei and Seattle on the Mandarin sounds, they showed the same pattern. Six to eight months, they're totally equivalent. Two months later, something incredible happens. But the Taiwanese babies are getting better, not the American babies. What we did was expose American babies during this period to Mandarin. It was like having Mandarin relatives come and visit for a month and move into your house and talk to the babies for 12 sessions. Here's what it looked like in the laboratory.

　　那么我們自問(wèn)， 嬰兒能不能統(tǒng)計(jì)一種全新的語(yǔ)言? 我們測(cè)試了這個(gè)，通過(guò)給美國(guó)嬰兒 聽(tīng)他們從沒(méi)聽(tīng)過(guò)的第二種語(yǔ)言 這是在關(guān)鍵期時(shí)他們第一次聽(tīng)到普通話(huà)。 我們得知，當(dāng)我們讓臺(tái)北和西雅圖的單語(yǔ)者 接觸普通話(huà)聲音， 他們顯示同樣的模式。 在6到8個(gè)月大時(shí)他們辨音能力幾乎相同 2個(gè)月之后，一些不可思議的事情發(fā)生了。 但這次臺(tái)灣嬰兒表現(xiàn)好，而不是美國(guó)的嬰兒。 我們所做的是在這關(guān)鍵期讓美國(guó)的嬰兒 多接觸普通話(huà)。 這就好像說(shuō)普通話(huà)的親戚來(lái)拜訪(fǎng)了一個(gè)月 住到你家 和嬰兒上了12節(jié)普通話(huà)課。 在實(shí)驗(yàn)室它看起來(lái)就像這樣。

　　(Video) Mandarin Speaker: [Mandarin]

　　(視頻)普通話(huà)說(shuō)者：[普通話(huà)]

　　PK: So what have we done to their little brains? (Laughter) We had to run a control group to make sure that just coming into the laboratory didn't improve your Mandarin skills. So a group of babies came in and listened to English. And we can see from the graph that exposure to English didn't improve their Mandarin. But look at what happened to the babies exposed to Mandarin for 12 sessions. They were as good as the babies in Taiwan who'd been listening for 10-and-a-half months. What it demonstrated is that babies take statistics on a new language. Whatever you put in front of them, they'll take statistics on.

　　所以我們對(duì)他們的小腦袋瓜都做了什么? (笑聲) 我們還得有一個(gè)對(duì)照組 確保來(lái)到實(shí)驗(yàn)室 并不能提高普通話(huà)的水平。 所以這組嬰兒來(lái)這兒只聽(tīng)英語(yǔ)。 我們從這圖表看出 在英語(yǔ)條件下的嬰兒沒(méi)有提高他們的漢語(yǔ)。 但看看上過(guò)12次普通話(huà)課的嬰兒的身上 都發(fā)生了什么。 他們和那些曾聽(tīng)普通話(huà)有 10個(gè)半月大的臺(tái)灣嬰兒一樣棒。 這說(shuō)明了 嬰兒對(duì)一種新語(yǔ)言也能做統(tǒng)計(jì)。 不管你在他們面前說(shuō)了什么，他們就會(huì)統(tǒng)計(jì)這語(yǔ)言。

　　But we wondered what role the human being played in this learning exercise. So we ran another group of babies in which the kids got the same dosage, the same 12 sessions, but over a television set and another group of babies who had just audio exposure and looked at a teddy bear on the screen. What did we do to their brains? What you see here is the audio result -- no learning whatsoever -- and the video result -- no learning whatsoever. It takes a human being for babies to take their statistics. The social brain is controlling when the babies are taking their statistics.

　　我們也好奇 在這一學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程中 人起了什么樣的作用。 所以我們?cè)O(shè)置了另一組嬰兒 讓他們?nèi)绶ㄅ谥频厣?2節(jié)課， 但是在電視機(jī)前上課 和另一組嬰兒只是通過(guò)音頻上課 看電視屏幕上的玩具熊。 我們又對(duì)他們的腦袋瓜做什么了? 我們這兒看到的是音頻結(jié)果 沒(méi)有任何學(xué)習(xí)效果 視頻結(jié)果 也是沒(méi)有任何學(xué)習(xí)效果。 只有人才能 幫助嬰兒統(tǒng)計(jì)他們的聲音數(shù)據(jù)。 當(dāng)嬰兒在統(tǒng)計(jì)時(shí) 社會(huì)大腦在控制著。

　　We want to get inside the brain and see this thing happening as babies are in front of televisions, as opposed to in front of human beings. Thankfully, we have a new machine, magnetoencephalography, that allows us to do this. It looks like a hair dryer from Mars. But it's completely safe, completely non-invasive and silent. We're looking at millimeter accuracy with regard to spatial and millisecond accuracy using 306 SQUIDs -- these are Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices -- to pick up the magnetic fields that change as we do our thinking. We're the first in the world to record babies in an MEG machine while they are learning.

　　我們想了解大腦內(nèi)部 觀察各種變化 探究電視前的嬰兒 和與人在一起的嬰兒有何不同 多虧我們有了這臺(tái)新機(jī)器， 腦磁圖顯示機(jī)， 它可以讓我們做到這個(gè)。 它看上去就像來(lái)自火星的吹風(fēng)機(jī)。 但它是完全安全的， 完全對(duì)人無(wú)害，而且是靜音的。 我們的要求是 在空間上精確到毫米 時(shí)間上精確到毫秒 使用306 SQUIDs 即是超導(dǎo) 量子干涉磁量?jī)x 用來(lái)檢測(cè) 我們大腦變化的磁場(chǎng)。 我們是世界上第一個(gè) 記錄嬰兒 在腦磁圖顯示機(jī)下的 學(xué)習(xí)的腦圖。

　　So this is little Emma. She's a six-monther. And she's listening to various languages in the earphones that are in her ears. You can see, she can move around. We're tracking her head with little pellets in a cap, so she's free to move completely unconstrained.

　　所以這是小愛(ài)瑪 她有6個(gè)月大。 她正通過(guò)耳機(jī) 聆聽(tīng)多種語(yǔ)言 大家可以看到，她可以移動(dòng)。 我們用她帽子上的小球 來(lái)記錄她的腦圖 所以她完全不受束縛地自由地移動(dòng)。

　　It's a technical tour de force. What are we seeing? We're seeing the baby brain. As the baby hears a word in her language the auditory areas light up, and then subsequently areas surrounding it that we think are related to coherence, getting the brain coordinated with its different areas, and causality, one brain area causing another to activate.

　　這是一個(gè)技術(shù)上的杰作。 我看到什么了? 我們看到嬰兒的大腦。 當(dāng)嬰兒聽(tīng)到語(yǔ)言中的一個(gè)詞 大腦中聽(tīng)覺(jué)區(qū)域亮起來(lái)， 然后在它周?chē)钠渌鼌^(qū)域也亮起來(lái) 我們認(rèn)為這是有關(guān)聯(lián)貫性的 讓大腦和其他不同腦區(qū)域相協(xié)調(diào)， 一前一后， 一片腦區(qū)域激活另一片腦區(qū)域。

　　We are embarking on a grand and golden age of knowledge about child's brain development. We're going to be able to see a child's brain as they experience an emotion, as they learn to speak and read, as they solve a math problem, as they have an idea. And we're going to be able to invent brain-based interventions for children who have difficulty learning.

　　我們開(kāi)啟了 一個(gè)開(kāi)發(fā)兒童大腦知識(shí)的 宏偉的黃金年代。 我們能夠觀察他們的大腦 當(dāng)兒童體驗(yàn)到感情， 學(xué)著說(shuō)和讀， 解決一個(gè)數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題， 或當(dāng)他們有個(gè)想法的時(shí)候 我們也能為學(xué)習(xí)有障礙的孩童 發(fā)明基于腦的治療方法。

　　Just as the poets and writers described, we're going to be able to see, I think, that wondrous openness, utter and complete openness, of the mind of a child. In investigating the child's brain, we're going to uncover deep truths about what it means to be human, and in the process, we may be able to help keep our own minds open to learning for our entire lives.

　　正如詩(shī)人和作家所描述的， 我想我們能夠看到 一種奇妙的融通開(kāi)放， 一個(gè)孩子心智的 完全開(kāi)放 在對(duì)兒童大腦的研究中， 我們會(huì)深刻揭示 這對(duì)人類(lèi)來(lái)說(shuō)意味著什么的事實(shí)， 在這一過(guò)程中， 我們或許能幫助我們自身開(kāi)放心智 在我們一生中不斷地學(xué)習(xí)。

　　Thank you.

　　謝謝。