科学家发现如何使我们的记忆更快速

摘要：

Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain compresses memories of say, a trip to the grocery store or an entire episode of a TV show, into just a few seconds. This compression also works forward in time, allowing us to imagine and plan future events quickly. It would be hard to make sense of our experiences or make decisions about the future without this ability. There are also implications for diseases like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.

神经系统科学家发现大脑如何压縮记忆语言，去一趟杂货店或者电视的整个插曲，仅耗时几秒。这个压缩过程也同时在进行工作，允许我们快速的去想象和计划将来的事件。如果没有这项能力，搞清过去和做出一些关于将来的决定将非常困难。这项技能在阿尔茨海默症和精神分裂症都有应用。

When we think about past or future events, we use a special brain wave frequency that allows us to play them in fast forward, although at a lower resolution.

当我们思考未来和过去的事件时，我们使用一种特殊的脑波频率，这个脑波频率允许我们快速使用，尽管他不高效。

Credit: Illustration by Juliette Pepperell

荣誉：由朱莉特，派普瑞尔说明

Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a mechanism that may explain how the brain can recall nearly all of what happened on a recent afternoon -- or make a thorough plan for how to spend an upcoming afternoon -- in a fraction of the time it takes to live out the experience. The breakthrough in understanding a previously unknown function in the brain has implications for research into schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer's disease and other disorders where real experiences and ones that exist only in the mind can become distorted.

奥斯丁-得克萨斯州大学的科学家发现了一种机制，这种机制能够解释：大脑如何回忆几乎所有的最近的下午发生的事情，或者为将要到来的下午组一个详细的计划---在一小段时间里，他需要活出体验。这之前并不知道理解的大脑功能已经应用于研究例如：精神分裂症，孤独症光谱混乱，阿尔次海默症以及其他只有在大脑中存在的经验和事件变得混乱。

The newly discovered mechanism, which compresses information needed for memory retrieval, imagination or planning and encodes it on a brain wave frequency that's separate from the one used for recording real-time experiences, is described in a cover article in the Jan. 20 print edition of the journal Neuron.

这个新发现的机制，这个机制为记忆检索、想象力或者计划压缩需要的信息，并且给她加蜜为一种脑波频率，这种脑波频率是从记录真实体验职工分离出来的。这是1月20日神经元杂志的封面文章描述。

Brain cells share different kinds of information with one another using a variety of different brain waves, analogous to the way radio stations broadcast on different frequencies. Laura Colgin, an assistant professor of neuroscience, Chenguang Zheng, a postdoctoral researcher, and their colleagues found that one of these frequencies allows us to play back memories -- or envision future activities -- in fast forward.

脑细胞使用不同的脑波分享不同的信息，就像广播台使用不同的频率。劳拉.Colgin-神经系统学助理教授, 郑晨光-博士后研究员 以及他们的学生发现这些频率中的一种允许我们回放记忆,或者是展望未来活动--以快速前进的方式.

"The reason we're excited about it is that we think this mechanism can help explain how you can imagine a sequence of events you're about to do in a time-compressed manner," says Colgin. "You can plan out those events and think about the sequences of actions you'll do. And all of that happens on a faster time scale when you're imagining it than when you actually go and do those things."

“我们之所以兴奋的原因是:我们认为这种机制能够帮助解释你如何想象一系列你准备去做的事件(以时间压缩的方式),”Colgin说,”你可以计划那些事件并且你将作的这些事情的顺序,当你想的时候所有的事情要比你实际去做这些事情时更快.”

In the brain, fast gamma rhythms encode memories about things that are happening right now; these waves come rapidly one after another as the brain processes high-resolution information in real time. The scientists learned that slow gamma rhythms -- used to retrieve memories of the past, as well as imagine and plan for the future -- store more information on their longer waves, contributing to the fast-forward effect as the mind processes many data points with each wave.

在脑海中,快速伽玛频率加密记忆正在进行;当大脑快速处理信息时,这些波一个接一个的快速到来.科学家发现: 缓慢的伽马节奏--用于获得过去的记忆,同时想象和计划未来--以长波的形式存贮更多的信息,{当大脑处理每个波段的数据点时},帮助快速有效的完成这些工作.

Mental compression turns out to be similar to what happens in a computer when you compress a file. Just like digital compression, when you replay a mental memory or imagine an upcoming sequence of events, these thoughts will have less of the rich detail found in the source material. The finding has implications for medicine as well as for criminal justice and other areas where memory reliability can be at issue.

当你压缩一个文件时,精神压缩和计算机压缩文件十分相似.就像数据压缩,当你回放精神记忆或者想象一系列将要发生的事件时,这些想法将会从较少的原材料中发现丰富的资源.这项发现已经用于医疗以及犯人的审定以及其他记忆可靠性存在问题的领域.

Colgin notes that the research could also explain why people with schizophrenia who are experiencing disrupted gamma rhythms have a hard time distinguishing between imagined and real experiences.

Colgin指出这项研究也能解释为什么精神分裂症患者（经历混乱的伽玛节奏）很难区分现实体验和精神想象。

"Maybe they are transmitting their own imagined thoughts on the wrong frequency, the one usually reserved for things that are really happening," says Colgin. "That could have terrible consequences."

“可能他们传递他们自己的想象想法在一个错误的频率上，而这个频率正是应当传递真实发生事件的频率”寇金说，“那将产生非常严重的后果”

Next, the researchers plan to use animals with neurological disorders similar to autism spectrum disorders and Alzheimer's disease in humans to better understand what role this mechanism plays and explore ways to counteract it.

下一步，研究者们计划用神经逻辑混乱的动物（类似人类中的孤独症患者和阿兹海默征患者）去更好的理解这种机制在其中发挥什么样的作用并且探索方法去对抗这些疾病。

This research was supported by the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Office of Naval Research.

这项研究得到了阿瑟。A以及约瑟夫 克林根斯坦基金，阿尔佛来的 P斯隆基金，精神健康国家机构以及那瓦尔研究所的支持。

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.来源：

以上源于奥斯汀 得克萨斯大学提供的材料。注意：材料可能为了内容和长度被编辑过了。

Journal Reference:

杂志相关：

郑晨光，凯文 伍德比埃尔，一谢萧，劳拉李寇金。 在神经元中快速和慢速伽玛节奏的空间加密的不同。2016

1.Chenguang Zheng, Kevin Wood Bieri, Yi-Tse Hsiao, Laura Lee Colgin.Spatial Sequence Coding Differs during Slow and Fast Gamma Rhythms in the Hippocampus. Neuron, 2016; DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.005

链接：http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160113172347.htm

翻译：元宝爸