## 2 WEEKS TO A YOUNGER BRAIN
**兩週讓大腦更年輕**Strengthening these mental functions helps keep our brains young.
**強化這些心理功能有助於讓我們的大腦保持年輕。**
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### Essential Functions for a Young Brain
**年輕大腦的關鍵功能**
Clear Thinking
**思路清晰**
Steady Mood
**情緒穩定**
Focused Attention
**專注的注意力**
Intact Verbal Abilities
**完整的語言能力**
Strong Memory
**良好的記憶力**
Stable Visual/Spatial Skills
**穩定的視覺／空間能力**
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### A Window into the Brain
**通往大腦的一扇窗**
My first job in high school was assisting a radiologist at a local community hospital.
**我在高中時的第一份工作，是在當地的社區醫院協助放射科醫師。**
I helped develop X-rays in the darkroom and escorted patients by wheelchair from their rooms to the radiology department and back.
**我在暗房裡幫忙洗 X 光片，也推著輪椅把病人從病房送到放射科，再送回去。**
The high-tech equipment that let doctors peer inside the body and the brain fascinated me—up until then I thought only superheroes had X-ray vision.
**這些讓醫師能看透人體與大腦內部的高科技設備深深吸引了我——在那之前，我一直以為只有超級英雄才有 X 光視力。**
But we really weren’t seeing much of the brain with those early X-rays.
**但在早期的 X 光檢查中，其實我們看不到大腦的太多細節。**
Instead, we saw pictures of bony structures like the skull that surrounds and protects the delicate brain tissue.
**我們看到的主要是像頭骨這類的骨骼結構，它們包覆並保護著脆弱的大腦組織。**
Over the next few decades, remarkable technological advances in brain imaging methods began to yield exquisite ways to see the details of what’s going on in people’s heads.
**接下來的幾十年間，大腦影像技術有了長足進步，讓我們能以極高的精細度，看見人們腦中正在發生的事情。**
These developments provided newer tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron-emission tomography (PET), which now allow scientists to peek into the living brain and detect changes that are occurring in real time and observe how different brain regions communicate—a virtual window into the brain.
**這些發展帶來了新的工具，例如磁振造影（MRI）與正子造影（PET）。如今，科學家可以透視活體大腦，偵測即時發生的變化，並觀察不同腦區如何彼此溝通——就像為大腦打開了一扇虛擬的觀景窗。**
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### DISCOVERY #4
**發現四**
Memory training can erase senior moments from your brain scan.
**記憶訓練可以讓「老人健忘時刻」在你的腦部掃描中消失。**
MRI scans are commonly used in clinical settings to view the brain’s structure; they allow for detection of tumors, strokes (dead brain cells), or atrophy (brain shrinkage).
**MRI 掃描在臨床上常用來觀察大腦結構，可用來偵測腫瘤、中風（死亡的腦細胞），或腦部萎縮。**
Functional MRI can show brain activity from moment to moment.
**功能性 MRI 則能逐刻呈現大腦的活動情形。**
This powerful scanning method allows neuroscientists to observe and measure neural circuits that are working harder to compensate for age-associated memory decline—we can actually see our senior moments.
**這種強大的掃描方法讓神經科學家得以觀察並測量那些為了彌補年齡相關記憶衰退而更加賣力運作的神經迴路——我們甚至可以「看見」自己的老人健忘時刻。**
After practicing simple memory exercises for a brief period, our brains become more proficient.
**在短時間內持續練習一些簡單的記憶訓練後，我們的大腦就會變得更為熟練有效率。**
A repeat MRI scan will document improved brain efficiency, and those previously observed senior moments no longer appear in the scan.
**再次進行 MRI 掃描時，會顯示大腦效率有所提升，而先前看到的那些老人健忘痕跡也不再出現在影像中。**
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### Einstein’s Brain
**愛因斯坦的大腦**
When Albert Einstein died in 1955, his heirs donated his brain to science, and researchers have been studying it ever since.
**1955 年，阿爾伯特・愛因斯坦過世後，他的家屬將他的腦捐給科學研究，從那時起研究人員便持續對其進行研究。**
A recent analysis measured the size of different areas of his brain.
**最近的一項分析測量了他大腦各個區域的大小。**
As you might have guessed, some of Professor Einstein’s important brain regions were much larger compared to those of an average person.
**如同你可能早已猜到的，愛因斯坦教授某些重要的大腦區域，明顯比一般人要大得多。**
A thick band of nerve fibers separating the left and right sides of his brain (known as the corpus callosum) was particularly hefty.
**分隔他大腦左右兩半的一條粗大神經纖維束（稱為「胼胝體」）尤其發達。**
These fibers transmit information between the brain’s left and right hemispheres, and this thicker corpus callosum could explain Einstein’s superior intellectual capacity.
**這些纖維負責在左右腦半球之間傳遞訊息，而較粗大的胼胝體，可能是愛因斯坦擁有卓越智力的部分原因。**
Also, his frontal lobe was larger than normal.
**此外，他的額葉也比一般人更大。**
There is good news for those of us who are not Einsteins: mental and physical exercise not only increase brain mass, they boost memory and cognitive abilities too.
**對於我們這些並非愛因斯坦的人來說，有一個好消息：心理與身體的鍛鍊不僅能增加大腦體積，也能提升記憶力與認知能力。**
