我們能記錄自己的夢境嗎？：英語精讀講義

Dreams are an amazing phenomenon and considering you spend roughly six years of your life dreaming, 文法

夢是一種神奇的現象；想想看，你一生中大約有六年都在作夢，

it's quite curious that we often brush them aside to be quickly forgotten. 片語動詞

我們卻常常把夢拋到腦後，任其迅速被遺忘，實在令人好奇。

Night after night our brains go to work and bring us some of the most incredible, 片語搭配

一夜又一夜，我們的大腦開始運作，為我們帶來一些最不可思議、

bizarre,

最古怪，

and often seemingly random imagery and story lines.

而且往往看似毫無章法的畫面與情節。

But what are dreams?

但夢究竟是什麼？

And like the many science fiction stories or movies,

就像許多科幻故事或電影中描繪的那樣，

could we ever record and figure out what we're seeing while we're dreaming? 片語動詞

我們有可能記錄並弄清楚自己作夢時看見了什麼嗎？

You may have heard people referring to brain waves before,

你也許聽人提過腦波，

but have you ever stopped to think, 文法

但你是否曾停下來想過：

are these actual waves and do they carry information?

它們真的是波嗎？又是否帶有資訊？

Are brain waves similar to, say, radio waves? 表達脈絡

腦波和無線電波之類的波相似嗎？

The answer is yes.

答案是肯定的。

Both brain and radio waves are forms of electromagnetic radiation,

腦波和無線電波都是電磁輻射的一種形式，

waves that travel at the speed of light.

都是以光速傳播的波。

Every time you think,

每當你思考時，

thousands of neurons fire at the same frequency and generate a wave. 用詞

數千個神經元會以相同頻率放電，並產生一道波。

These waves oscillate at around 10 to 100 cycles per second.

這些波每秒大約振盪10到100次。

Radio waves, on the other hand, 表達脈絡

相較之下，無線電波

oscillate at around 50 million to 1 billion times per second.

每秒大約振盪五千萬到十億次。

Scientists have long used this phenomenon to measure brain activity and interface the brain to electronic devices. 用詞

長久以來，科學家一直利用這種現象測量大腦活動，並讓大腦與電子裝置連接。

It allows us to see which parts of the brain are active for different activities,

它讓我們看見，從事不同活動時大腦的哪些區域會活躍，

and similarly, which parts of the brain are active during dreaming.

同樣也能看見，作夢時大腦的哪些區域會活躍。

Strange as it may seem, 文法

雖然聽起來很不可思議，

we still barely understand why we sleep,

但我們至今幾乎不明白人為什麼要睡覺，

let alone why we dream. 片語搭配

更別說為什麼會作夢了。

Michael from Vsauce does a fantastic job explaining the main theories for why we dream, 片語搭配

Vsauce的Michael精采地解說了人為什麼作夢的幾個主要理論，

but there are so many theories because we can't really measure or know what people are dreaming about

但之所以有這麼多理論，是因為我們無法真正測量或知道人們夢見了什麼，

without waking them up and asking them. 文法

除非把他們叫醒再詢問。

Of course, this is subject to forgetting or other errors. 片語搭配

當然，這種方法可能受到遺忘或其他誤差影響。

Unfortunately,

遺憾的是，

there is no device that exists that allows us to peer into the mind of a dreamer. 慣用語

目前並沒有任何裝置能讓我們窺探作夢者的內心。

Or is there? 表達脈絡

真的是這樣嗎？

Crazy as it sounds,

雖然聽起來很瘋狂，

scientists have created a technique to do just that. 片語搭配

但科學家已經創造出一種恰好能做到這件事的技術。

This mind-reading technology began with a functional MRI scanner, 文化背景

這種「讀心」技術最初使用的是功能性磁振造影（fMRI）掃描儀，

inside which subjects were shown simple pictures made up of black and white pixels. 講解

受試者躺在其中，觀看由黑白畫素組成的簡單圖片。

The software then finds patterns in the brain activity

接著，軟體會在大腦活動中找出

that correspond to the specific images. 片語搭配

與特定影像相對應的模式。

For example, if the letter T was shown,

例如，如果畫面上顯示字母T，

the software would record exactly how the brain reacted.

軟體就會精確記錄大腦的反應。

After sufficient data,

蒐集到足夠的資料後，

the subjects were shown completely different images,

研究人員會向受試者展示完全不同的影像，

and the software would predict and recreate what it thought the subjects were seeing. 文法

軟體則會預測並重現它認為受試者看到的內容。

After being shown the word neuron, 文法

在受試者看過「neuron」這個單字後，

these were the images the software generated.

軟體生成了這些影像。

But it doesn't stop there. 表達脈絡

但事情並未就此打住。

Further studies began to use more complex visuals

後續研究開始採用更複雜的視覺素材，

and started monitoring the subjects in their sleep.

並開始監測睡眠中的受試者。

In this case,

在這項研究中，

they first had the subjects fall asleep while in an fMRI 文法

研究人員先讓受試者在fMRI掃描儀中入睡，

and would wake them up in the middle of dreaming, 片語動詞

接著在他們作夢時將其叫醒，

quickly asking them what they were dreaming about.

並立刻詢問他們剛才夢見了什麼。

They then used thousands of images from the internet to get the best approximation

然後，研究人員使用網路上的數千張圖片，盡可能逼近

of what the subject was seeing

受試者當時看到的內容，

based on brain scans.

判斷依據則是腦部掃描結果。

After doing this nearly 200 times with each person

對每個人重複這個過程將近200次後，

and plugging the information into a learning algorithm,

再把這些資訊輸入學習演算法，

software was used to predict and generate their next dreams.

軟體便被用來預測並生成他們接下來會作的夢。

Though by no means perfect, 片語搭配

儘管結果遠非完美，

it was clear that the machine's predictions were better than chance, 用詞

但很明顯，機器的預測準確度高於隨機猜測，

matching up with the dreamer's description. 片語動詞

而且與作夢者的描述相符。

Perhaps even more shocking is a study that used actual video footage. 文法

或許更令人震驚的是一項採用真實影片片段的研究。

After showing subjects 2 hours of movie footage and analyzing their brain activity,

研究人員讓受試者觀看兩小時的電影片段並分析其大腦活動後，

they then used a library of 18 million 1-second YouTube clips to match the brain activity.

再使用一個收錄1,800萬段、每段一秒的YouTube短片素材庫，來比對這些大腦活動。

Here are the results.

以下就是結果。

On the left are new unrelated clips that the subjects were later shown, 文法

左邊是後來給受試者觀看的全新、不相關片段，

and on the right is what the software guessed they were seeing

右邊則是軟體猜測他們看到的內容，

using a mashed-up combination of the YouTube clips as an approximation. 用詞

它把多段YouTube短片混合拼接，作為近似畫面。

All of this based on their brain waves. 表達脈絡

這一切都只根據他們的腦波。

As these software programs become more and more complex, 文法

隨著這些軟體程式變得越來越複雜，

we come that much closer to accurately visualizing and recording our thoughts and dreams, 片語搭配

我們距離準確呈現並記錄自己的思想和夢境也越來越近，

at which point perhaps we'll find a few more clues into why we dream in the first place. 講解

到那時，或許我們會找到更多線索，弄清楚人究竟為什麼會作夢。

And if you'd like to find out about some other amazing and unanswered scientific phenomenon,

如果你還想了解其他一些神奇但尚無答案的科學現象，

head over to Alltime10s channel,

不妨前往Alltime10s頻道，

where 10 fantastic science YouTubers have come together in an attempt to answer some burning questions. 慣用語

十位出色的科學YouTuber在那裡齊聚一堂，試圖解答一些大家迫切想知道的問題。

It's a super collaboration of science.

這是一場科學界的超級合作。

And if you're new to AsapSCIENCE,

如果你剛認識AsapSCIENCE，

be sure to subscribe for more weekly science videos.

記得訂閱，每週收看更多科學影片。

We've made a playlist of some of our favorite and most popular videos for your viewing pleasure.

我們也把一些最喜歡、最熱門的影片做成播放清單，讓你一次看個過癮。

Enjoy.

請慢慢欣賞。