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Whether you're in a deep sleep, taking a test, or watching a YouTube video, your brain is abuzz with activity.
不管你是在熟睡、考试，还是在YouTube上看视频，你的大脑都在忙着活动。
There are millions of electrical pulses passing between neurons that are sending messages to each other.
数以百万计的电脉冲在神经元之间相互传递着信息。
When those signals spread, clusters of neurons start getting feedback from others,
当这些信号传递时，神经元群开始从其他神经元那里得到反馈，
and networks of cells synchronize their firing.
然后细胞网络同步激活。
It becomes a repeating cycle or rhythm:
它变成了一个重复的循环或节律：
a brainwave, or as neuroscientists call them, neural oscillations.
变成了脑电波或神经学家所说的神经振荡。
That organized electrical activity is strong enough to be detected by electrodes on the scalp
这种有组织的脑电活动足以被头皮上的电极检测到，
with a technique called electroencephalography, or EEG.
这要用到一种叫做脑电图（EEG）的技术。
And that's allowed us to study brainwaves to try to make sense of the brain.
该技术能让我们通过研究脑电波来了解大脑。
While things are still pretty mysterious, lately we've been making strides to link brainwaves to things
尽管事情仍然很神秘，但最近我们在脑电波
like consciousness, memory, and maybe even certain diseases.
与诸如意识、记忆以及某些疾病的联系方面取得了长足进步。
Now, brainwaves aren't one-size-fits-all.
脑电波不是通用的。
There are actually lots of different electrical patterns, defined by their frequency.
它们实际有很多不同的脑电模式，这由它们的频率来定义。
They're measured in cycles, or the number of times the neurons are firing, per second.
它们是以周期或者以神经元每秒钟被激活的次数来测量的。
Brainwaves also vary in amplitude, with lower amplitudes as they speed up.
脑电波的振幅也有变化，它会随速度的加快而降低。
There are 5 main types, and there's no hard-and-fast rules about their functions.
脑电波有5种主要类型，它们的功能没有硬性规定。
But generally: the higher frequency the wave, the more alert and awake you are.
但通常，脑电波的频率越高，你就越清醒警觉。
So the slowest of these 5 waves, which are of relatively high amplitude, are delta waves.
这5种脑电波中最慢、振幅相对较高的是δ波。
They're typically linked with deep sleep.
它们通常与深度睡眠有关。
Slightly faster are theta waves, which are often associated with day-dreaming or meditation.
频率稍微快一点儿的是θ波，它们通常与白日梦或冥想有关。
The next step up are alpha waves.
再快一点儿的是α波。
These are common when you're awake, but relaxed, like when you still have your eyes closed.
它们通常出现在你清醒但放松的时候，比如，你仍闭着眼睛的时候。
Beta waves are even higher frequency and lower amplitude,
β波的频率更高，振幅更小，
and seem to happen when you're awake and thinking about something.
你醒着思考问题的时候似乎会有该波。
The smallest, fastest oscillations are gamma waves.
振幅最小、振荡最快的是γ波。
They tend to be around when you're deeply focused on something.
当你全神贯注于某件事时，它们往往会出现。
Now, even though we talk about beta waves when you're in class
即使我们简单地讨论了你上课时会产生β波，
or delta waves when you're sleeping for simplicity's sake,
或者你睡觉时会产生δ波，
the reality is that your brain is abuzz with all different frequencies of waves.
但事实是你的大脑充斥着所有不同频率的脑电波。
It's just that certain ones are more dominant at any given moment,
只是在任何特定的时刻，某些脑电波更具有支配性，
depending on what you're doing and how you're feeling.
这取决于你正在做得事情以及你的感受。
If you're chilling at the pool, and sometimes closing your eyes to bask in the sun,
如果你在泳池里放松，或者有时闭上眼睛晒会儿太阳，
you probably have a lot of alpha and theta going on.
你的α波与θ波可能活跃得多些。
But there's still some beta waves in the background.
但在隐蔽的地方仍有一些β波。
It's not like your brain has the exact same wave frequencies throughout the whole thing.
这并不是说你的大脑在整个过程中的脑电波频率完全相同。
If you look at the readings from individual electrodes on an EEG,
如果你观察EEG上单个电极的读数，
you can see that different regions of the brain are more commonly linked with certain waves.
就会看到不同的大脑区域通常与特定的脑电波相联系。
Alpha waves, for instance, are usually strongest at the back of the brain in the occipital lobe, which handles vision.
以α波为例，它们通常在大脑后部负责视觉的枕叶中最强。
One of the amazing things about brainwaves is that
脑电波的一个神奇之处在于
these common frequencies are remarkably similar across different species, like cats, bats and us.
不同物种比如猫、蝙蝠和我们之间，这些常见的频率非常相似。
But at the same time, they might be very different between individuals.
但与此同时，个体之间的差异可能很大。
Some neuroscientists have even proposed that
一些神经学家甚至提出了这个观点，
a snapshot of all the waves going on in a brain could be used to identify a person, like a fingerprint.
大脑中所有脑电波的快照可以用来识别一个人，就像指纹一样。
So, in some ways, measuring brainwaves could be very powerful.
所以，在某些方面，测量脑电波可能非常有效。
Like, I can probably guess the moment you open your eyes just by looking at when your alpha waves drop off.
比如，我能猜到你睁开眼睛的那一刻，方法仅仅是观察你的α波何时下降。
Kinda freaky...And doctors have successfully used EEGs to diagnose people with epilepsy.
这有点儿可怕。而且医生已经成功地运用EEGs来诊断癫痫患者了。
Brainwaves punctuated with spikes are tell-tale signs of a seizure.
脑电波中夹杂着刺状物是癫痫发作的征兆。
But we still don't fully understand why we have these rhythms in the first place.
但我们不能完全理解为什么我们一开始就有这些节律。
One popular idea is that the synchronized firing allows neurons to better communicate with one another.
一个普遍的观点是，同步激活能够让神经元更好地彼此交流。
Recent work even suggests that the use of different brainwaves helps us learn.
最近的研究甚至表明不同脑电波的使用能够帮助我们学习。
Researchers gave monkeys a test, where they had to learn to associate pairs of images through trial and error.
研究人员对猴子进行了一项测试，在测试中，它们必须学会通过试错将成对的图像关联起来。
They found that when the animals got an answer right and received a reward,
他们发现，当动物们得到正确答案就会获得奖励时，
their brains seemed to be using beta waves to communicate to the hippocampus, the brain's memory center.
它们的大脑似乎会使用β波与大脑的记忆中心海马体交流。
When the monkeys got the answer wrong, theta waves dominated.
当猴子的答案错误时，它们的θ波会占主导地位。
So, beta waves might be a way of reinforcing neural connections to improve memory,
所以，β波可能是一种加强神经连接以提高记忆力的方式，
while theta waves are a way of saying to the brain, "hey, oops … forget that."
而θ波则是对大脑说“嘿，糟糕…算了吧。”的方式。
Gamma waves are especially interesting to neurobiologists, too,
γ波对神经生物学家来说也特别有趣，
because people with Alzheimer's don't seem to use them as much.
因为阿尔茨海默氏症患者似乎不怎么使用它们。
In fact, in experiments in mice, restoring gamma waves reduced the amount of beta-amyloid,
事实上，在老鼠实验中，储存γ波会降低β-淀粉样蛋白的数量，
the plaque protein associated with the disease.
该蛋白是与疾病相关的斑块蛋白。
The researchers genetically modified mouse neurons so they would respond to light,
研究人员对老鼠的神经元进行了基因改造，让它们对光线做出反应，
and then flashed pulses at a gamma wave frequency for an hour a day for a week.
然后在一个星期内，以γ波的频率每天一小时发出脉冲。
The animals that received this treatment had half as many plaques in their visual cortex compared to controls.
接受这种治疗的动物的视觉皮层斑块数量是对照组的一半。
The team thinks that gamma activity somehow makes immune cells in the brain better at gobbling up the plaques,
该研究小组认为，γ波的活动不知何故使大脑中的免疫细胞更善于吞噬斑块，
and also changes how the protein is processed, leading to less plaque in the first place.
同时也改变了蛋白质的加工方式，导致一开始斑块就减少了。
Scientists aren't sure why gamma waves would do this,
科学家们不确定γ波为什么会这样做，
but their work suggests brainwaves can actually change the biology of the brain.
但它们的功能表明脑电波确实能改变大脑的生物学。
And this could be huge ... if you could figure out how to trigger gamma waves in people,
这种改变可能很大，如果你能想出激发人们γ波的方式，
they could be used as a treatment.
那么它们可能用于治疗。
But we really have no idea how to do that yet in humans,
但我们还不知道如何在人类身上做到这一点，
and of course, we don't know if it'd actually work.
当然，我们也不知道它是否真得有效。
Still, even if we don't totally get why they exist or how they work, it's clear that brainwaves are pretty important.
即使我们还不能完全理解它们存在的原因或者工作方式，但很明显，脑电波非常重要。
Understanding the electrical activity is just as important as understanding the chemical processes
当我们在解大脑运作的奥秘时，
when unraveling the mysteries of how our brains tick.
理解脑电活动与理解化学过程一样重要。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀，它是由Patreon赞助播出的。
If you'd like to help us make more episodes like this, you can go to patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想帮助我们制作更多这样的节目，可以登录patreon.com/scishow。
And don't forget to subscribe!
不要忘了点击订阅哦！
