迷幻药、音乐、怀旧情绪背后的神经科学
日期:2020-12-10 18:23

(单词翻译:单击)

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At various points over the past 20 years, I've studied two fundamental human experiences
在过去的20年中,我断断续续地研究了两种基本人类经验,
that have taught me an awful lot about emotion and that may hold the keys to a revolution in psychiatry.
因此学到了许多与情绪有关的事,其中或许包含了启动精神病学革新的关键。
The first is how we experience music.
第一个研究是人类如何体验音乐。
The second is how we experience psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms,
第二个则是对迷幻药的体验,像是LSD和迷幻蘑菇之类,
or psilocybin, which is the active component in magic mushrooms.
或裸盖菇碱,迷幻蘑菇的活性成分。
You may be wondering what these two things have in common outside of Woodstock.
你或许好奇:在伍德斯托克音乐节之后,音乐跟毒品还有什么交集?
After all, music is not a physical substance.
毕竟音乐不是实体物质。
It can be described as a limited set of vibrations in the air that can be detected by your ear.
顶多是耳朵所能觉察到的相当有限的空气的振动。
And music may seem to have more to do with aesthetics than with biology or chemistry.
音乐似乎与美学更加有关联,而非生物学或化学。
Psychedelic drugs, on the other hand, are physical substances.
另一方面,迷幻药则是实体物质。
They are chemical compounds that you can ingest that directly interact with brain chemistry and change your experience of the world.
它们是能被摄取的化合物,能直接对大脑产生化学作用,改变你体验世界的方式。
This change is temporary, but the effects of this change can alter the course of your life.
这样的改变是暂时的,但所带来的效果却可能改变你的一生。
But let's face it: psychedelics have the potential to trigger unexpected and potentially dangerous effects.
我们得承认:迷幻药有其风险,能引起想不到的潜在危险副作用。
So what could these two very different things possibly have in common?
到底这两件本质迥异的东西有什么共通点呢?
I've found that music and psychedelics can impact our well-being in powerful and complementary ways.
我发现音乐跟迷幻药能对我们的身心健康产生既强效且互补的影响。
Music can have a direct impact on our emotions, with measurable impacts in the brain;
音乐可以直接影响情绪,在脑部造成显著的影响;
psychedelic drugs, under the right circumstances, may have therapeutic effects.
迷幻药如果使用得当,也有治疗的效果。
These effects can be manifest in patterns that we can study and document with brain scans.
它们对脑部的影响能通过脑部扫描去研究及记录。
And together, and leveraged in a purposeful fashion, music and psychedelics may have an even greater healing impact on patients.
有了明确的目标,两者搭配并借力使力,音乐跟迷幻药可能为病人带来更强大的疗效。
What's more, these effects can be manifest in healthier and happier lives and more integrated personalities.
更好的是,疗效带给人更健康、更快乐的生活,以及更平衡完整的人格。
I began my journey into the mental health benefits of music long before I ever intended to make such a journey.
我很早就开始感受到音乐对身心健康的正面影响,远在我开始做相关研究之前。
For roughly half of my life, I've been a musician,
我的人生有大半辈子花在音乐上,
having played in community orchestras, community theaters, wedding bands, a salsa-merengue band.
参与小区管弦乐团、小区剧团的演出,也参加婚礼乐队、莎莎-美梅伦格乐队。
I was a member of a string band in Philadelphia for many years.
多年来我一直是费城某弦乐团的成员。
And for the better part of my formative years, I was the drummer in a Weezer-Nirvana cover band that morphed into a hardcore punk band.
绝大部分的人格形塑期间,我担任某乐团的鼓手,演出威瑟、超脱乐团的音乐,那乐团最终演变成死硬派的硬蕊庞克乐团。
That's right. Drummer in a punk band. But it wasn't until I really began my career in psychology and neuroscience
没错。我曾经是庞克乐团的鼓手。但直到我投入心理学与神经科学的工作,
that I began to also appreciate how widely and how deeply we as a species, both implicitly and explicitly,
我才开始领会到人类在有意无意间是如何既广泛且深远地
use music as a tool to try to regulate our emotions and to heal.
尝试运用音乐调配情绪,或是治疗。
And for some of us, music keeps us going. For others, music isn't quite enough.
音乐让一部份人有持续前进的动力。但对其他人来说,光有音乐还不够。
For me, this led to some fascinating questions.
这就引发我深入探讨的兴趣。
I began to use music as a tool to study emotion and memory in the brain.
我开始将音乐运用在对脑部的情绪及记忆研究上。
My first scientific study was focused on music-evoked nostalgia.
我的第一个科学研究的主题是借由音乐激发怀旧情绪。
Nostalgia's a rich and bittersweet emotion that is intimately tied up with our autobiographical memories.
怀旧是一个强烈、苦乐参半的情绪,并且与自身的自传式记忆紧密链接。
We can often encounter nostalgia in unexpected places.
我们常在意外的情境下产生怀旧情绪。
You may have had the experience of driving down the highway, turning on the radio or firing up your favorite music recommendation service,
你可能有过这样的经验:在高速公路上开着车,打开收音机,还是任何你喜爱的音乐播放服务,
and you hear a song you haven't heard in ages, and you get immediately transported back in time and dumped into this immersive memor
然后你听到一首久违的老歌,一下子彷佛穿越时光隧道沉浸在一段身历其境的回忆里,
something you haven't thought about in ages but was very meaningful to you
某些多年不曾想起的往事,对你来说却意义非凡的,
maybe wedding day or senior prom or the birth of your first child or the death of a loved one.
像是结婚那一天、毕业舞会、第一个孩子的诞生、挚爱的人的离世。
Music can serve as a powerful context cue for deeply meaningful and intensely vivid nostalgic memories such as these.
音乐是强而有力的情境提示,能激起前面所说的那些意义重大、栩栩如生的怀旧回忆。
Nostalgia, in a sense, is deeply woven into our sense of self. Who are we at our most authentic selves?
怀旧情绪在某种意义上早已深深融入我们的自我意识。我们最真实的自我是什么模样?
By connecting us with our emotional histories, nostalgia can help us to stave off sadness, loneliness, existential threat
通过与自我的情感史相连,怀旧情绪能帮我们抵抗哀伤、寂寞、生存威胁、
and even the imminence of death and the approaching horizon of our lives as we age.
甚至面临年岁渐长,生命尽头迫近的死亡。
To try to get a better understanding of how music may tap into nostalgia and what that may be doing in the brain,
为了更清楚音乐如何唤醒怀旧情绪,以及当下脑部的运作,
I began to work with computational models of music cognition.
我开始将音乐认知的计算模型。
I applied these models to interrogate brain activity
我将该模型运用于检视脑部活动,
that was recorded while people were listening to nostalgia-evoking and nonnostalgia-evoking music.
纪录下人们聆听音乐时的脑部反应,包括可引发怀旧情绪的音乐及其他类的音乐。
And importantly, at least to a brain geek like me,
重要的一点发现是,至少对我这种大脑迷而言,
I found that nostalgia was able to recruit a wide network of brain regions involved in multiple levels of different cognitive processes.
我发现怀旧情绪能唤醒脑部许多区域,跨越不同层次的认知处理过程。
Whereas nonnostalgic music could recruit brain regions such as Heschl's gyrus, involved in basic auditory processing, or Broca's area,
非怀旧类的音乐能唤醒的脑部区域,包括处理基本听力的颞横回、
which is involved in processing grammar and syntax not only in language but also in music,
负责处理语言和音乐中的文法和句法的布洛卡皮质区,
nostalgia was able to recruit these brain regions and more.
而怀旧类音乐唤起的脑部区域远多过这两个。
Brain regions such as the substantia nigra involved in reward processing or the anterior insula involved in the visceral experience of emotion
例如处理回馈机制的黑质、处理情绪感受的前脑岛、
or brain regions in the inferior frontal gyrus that are involved in autobiographical memories.
以及负责自传式记忆的额下回。
Nostalgia was also able to recruit a wide network of brain regions in prefrontal, frontal, cingulate, insular, parietal,
怀旧情绪也能唤起及结合脑部不同区域:前额叶、额叶、扣带脑回、脑岛、顶叶、
occipital and subcortical brain regions that span nearly all of our cognitive faculties.
枕叶和皮质下核区,几乎囊括了所有的认知能力。
This may explain why nostalgia can have such an outsized impact on us.
这或许就解释了怀旧情绪对人的影响之巨。
But as powerful as it is in the moment, the salve of music-evoked nostalgia eventually fades.
但尽管作用如此强大,由音乐引发怀旧情绪所带来的安慰终究会消逝。
Nostalgia may be more of a Band-Aid, less of an antibiotic and typically far from a surgical intervention for our emotional health.
怀旧情绪比较像是创可贴,而非抗生素,更别提像手术那样,一劳永逸,常保心理健康。
Music can draw out nostalgia and music and nostalgia can move our feelings, but how do we make these feelings stick?
音乐能唤起怀旧情绪,两者都能改善我们的情绪,但如何才让那情绪持续?
After studying the nostalgic brain, I joined a team at Johns Hopkins University that was studying the effects of psychedelic drugs,
研究过大脑的怀旧功能后,我加入约翰·霍普金斯大学的团队研究迷幻药的效应,
and I quickly began to learn how deeply a piece of music could impact a person during a psychedelic experience.
我很快发现音乐对使用迷幻药的人发生的影响有多强烈。
I was previously vexed by the difficulty in predicting precisely what musical stimulus would evoke precisely what response within a given individual.
在这之前,我很苦恼于无法准确预测什么人对哪种音乐会起哪种反应。
A song that evokes nostalgia in one person could just as easily evoke disinterest or disgust in another person.
一首能勾起某人怀旧情绪的歌,也可能让另一人觉得无趣或厌恶。
I began to learn how deeply most music seemed to impact most people during psychedelic experiences.
我开始知道大多数的人在迷幻药的作用下受到音乐的影响有多深。
Since at least the late '50s, the value of using music to help people to navigate psychedelic experiences was clear.
至少从50年代晚期起,在运用迷幻药的治疗过程中早已证明用音乐去辅助患者的价值。
We continue this tradition in our modern research, asking volunteers to listen to music during the course of a psychedelic therapy session,
我们在现代的研究中延续这项传统,邀请志愿受测者在迷幻药的疗程中聆听音乐;
and despite most people being mostly naive to the music that we play before they get into the sessions,
尽管实验前,多数人对我们播放的音乐所知不多,
after these sessions, our volunteers practically beg us for the playlists.
实验结束后,他们几乎是请求我们提供歌曲清单。
And some of them report returning to the songs that were most impactful to them
其中一些人报告说,他们反复聆听那些在迷幻药实验中对他们冲击最大的曲子,
during their psychedelic experience weeks, months and even many years after the experience.
即使实验结束已经数周、数月,甚至数年之久。
Somehow, these songs can turn into touchstones
不知怎的,这些歌曲就像打火石般,
that can rekindle the most powerful and impactful and insightful experiences that people encountered during their psychedelic sessions.
能重新点燃他们在迷幻药实验中所经历到的那最强烈深远的体验。
Of course, I had to know what was going on here.
我当然好奇这到底是怎么一回事。
I began to deploy my batteries of questionnaires and my carefully crafted experiments and my big, fancy MRI machines
于是开始用一连串的问卷、缜密设计的实验、加上一台大型先进的核磁共振机器,
to try to determine just what could be happening during these experiences that could explain the depth of impact that people were encountering.
试着去发现实验过程中究竟是什么带给人们那么深刻且影响深远的体验。


At a basic psychological level, my colleagues and I determined that, for instance,
我和我的同事发现,在基础的心理层面上,
LSD can increase positive emotions that are uniquely encountered during music listening.
LSD有增进正面情绪的功能,而那只有在聆听音乐时发生。
This may have relevance just by itself for healthy individuals as well as people suffering from mood and substance-use disorders.
这效果不仅止于身心健康的人上,对情绪失调患者及毒品使用者也有效。
But what was happening in the brain? Earlier we learned that the entire brain listens to nostalgic music.
但脑部的作用究竟是怎么一回事?先前我们已知怀旧音乐的影响遍及脑部所有区域。
When applying computational models of music cognition to interrogate brain activity that was recorded during music listening under the effects of LSD,
当我们将音乐认知的计算机模型用来分析在使用迷幻药的情况下聆听音乐时的脑部活动,
we found that the entire brain was listening to music and psychedelics were turning up the gain.
我们发现整个脑部都对音乐有所反应,而迷幻药则有加强的效应。
Where nostalgia could recruit brain regions involved in language, memory and emotion,
怀旧情绪唤醒脑中处理语言、记忆、情绪的区域,
psychedelics were recruiting these brain regions at least twice as strongly.
迷幻药则将这些区域的作用加倍。
Brain regions such as the thalamus, that's involved in basic sensory processing
包括了处理基本感官信息的视丘,
or the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior singular cortex, which can be involved in memory and emotion and mental imagery.
牵涉记忆、情绪和心理图像的内侧前额叶皮质及后扣带回。
These brain regions were recruited up to four times as strongly during the effects of LSD than without LSD.
当搭配LSD药效时,怀旧情绪在这些区域的作用能达四倍之强。
Psychedelics turn the knob up to 11.
迷幻药能将感官推到极致。
Sensory information is more richly experienced in the brain;
脑部接收到的感官信息更强烈;
emotions, memories and mental imagery are supercharged,
情绪、回忆和心理图像则被放大,
and it may be the wholesale and strong recruitment of a wide range of brain regions during these experiences
或许正因这些实验对脑部产生作用的范围太广、太强,
that is the necessary key to unlocking change that sets these drugs and these experiences apart from others.
可能成为改革的必要关键,将这类药物及治疗方式与其他类划分开来。
And the effects can be long-lasting.
这影响可能是很长远的。
In a study of healthy individuals, I demonstrated that a single high dose of psilocybin
在一项对健康受试者的研究中,我实验证明了一份高剂量的赛洛西宾
could reduce negative affect in volunteers for at least a week after psilocybin,
能有效减少受试者的负面情绪,效果长达至少一周,
and increase positive affect for at least a month after a single high dose of psilocybin.
同时加强正向情绪长达至少一个月,只要使用一次高剂量的赛洛西宾就可。
The reduction in negative affect that we observed after psilocybin administration was accompanied by a reduction, one week after psilocybin,
我们观察到,在使用赛洛西宾一周后,除了负面情绪的减少,
in the response of a primitive brain region called the amygdala to emotional stimuli.
位于原脑皮层的杏仁核对情绪刺激的反应也降低了,
In a separate study in patients with major depressive disorder,
在另一个重度忧郁症患者的实验中,
not only did we observe a substantial decrease in depression severity in most of our patients after two doses of psilocybin,
我们观察到多数的患者在使用两剂赛洛西宾后,不仅忧郁程度明显降低,
but we also observed a reduction in the amygdala response to negative affective stimuli, specifically, one week after psilocybin.
我们还观察到杏仁核对负面情绪刺激的反应变小,在使用赛洛西宾一周后尤其明显。
This reduction in amygdala response was associated with an enduring reduction in depression severity
这种降低杏仁核对抑郁症反应严重程度的相关性,
for at least three months after psilocybin administration, but frankly, we're still counting.
在施用赛洛西宾后至少持续三个月,当然,我们仍在持续观察中。
So what does this all mean? It means that music and psychedelics may be able to alter the entire brain for a period of time,
那么,这代表什么呢?这意味着音乐跟迷幻药或许能在有限时间内改变脑部运作,
and that may lead to a change in neural circuitry that may be stuck in patterns of negative emotional bias.
改变卡在负面情绪偏差的模式,重写脑神经回路。
This may be able to give people a period of relief from the grip and the claws of negative emotion.
这或许能提供一个短暂的解脱,让人逃离负面情绪的爪牙。
And that may be just enough to give someone access to new perspectives on their selves and their lives
而那解脱或许正足够让人有机会重新审视自我及生命,
and begin on the road to healing from years of depression.
摆脱缠绕多年的忧郁症,展开治疗的旅程。
These drugs are early in stages of research, but they're now being researched for a wide range of medical indications.
虽然这些药还在研究测试的初期,但已在许多医疗症状上广泛实验中。
There's evidence growing that psychedelics may be effective in helping to treat mood disorders
越来越多证据显示,迷幻药或许有助于治疗情绪失调,
such as major depressive disorder, treatment-resistant depression and the depression and anxiety that accompany a late-stage cancer diagnosis.
像是重度忧郁症、顽固型忧郁症、以及伴随末期癌症诊断的癌后创伤压力症候群。
There's also evidence accumulating that psychedelics may be effective in helping to treat a wide range of substance-use disorders,
也有越来越多证据显示,迷幻药或许能用来帮助禁药滥用的治疗,
including smoking, drinking and cocaine use.
包括烟瘾、酗酒、吸食古柯碱等。
Additional studies are either being planned or are already underway
还有其他相关研究在规划或执行中,
to determine whether psychedelics may be effective in treating an even wider range of intractable disorders
去研究迷幻药是否能有效治疗更广泛且棘手的疑难杂症,
such as OCD, PTSD, opioid-use disorder and anorexia.
像是强迫症、创伤后压力症候群、鸦片类药物失调与厌食症。
At this point it might be reasonable to take a step back and say, "Are psychedelics being sold as a panacea?"
讲到这里,或许值得退一步思考:“听起来迷幻药根本就是万能药了?”
And if so, we should be rightfully skeptical.
若是如此,我们就有怀疑的正当性。
Why should we expect such a small family of compounds to be so effective in treating such a wide range of disparate disorders?
何以这么小类的化合物,能如此有效地治疗广泛多种却迥异的症状?
Here's a perspective we might consider. Some of these disorders share a common thread.
其中一个我们可以考虑的观点是,上述的有些病症来自同样的根源。
At some level, mood disorders and substance-use disorders involve negative affect and a disconnection from our most authentic selves.
某种程度来说,情绪失调、毒品滥用与负向情绪、失去自我有关。
Psychedelics may break that mold. Psychedelics and music may represent a one-two punch
迷幻药或许能打破现状。迷幻药跟音乐就像拳击的左右开弓,
that can operate on psychological neural processes such as negative affect that cut across and contribute to multiple disorders.
能从心理、神经系统处理层面对症处理造成许多病症的负面情绪。
It may be that targeting such transdiagnostic processes is what's necessary
或许这样的跨诊断疗程有其必要,
to really help people to develop the resources that they need to begin to recover from years of depression and substance use.
能有助发展出所需的资源,摆脱长期的忧郁症或毒品滥用之苦。
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and that may be true for psychedelic drugs.
人们说第一印象很难扭转,这句话也可用在迷幻药上。
After all, no matter how much data come out for the potential of therapeutic effects of these drugs,
毕竟不论有多少数据显示这些药物的疗效跟潜能,
there are still some who are stuck on the stigma from the '60s and '70s:
许多人对这类药物还停留在六、七十年代的错误印象:
myths of the wildly addictive properties of these drugs or myths of genetic abnormalities
一碰就上瘾的特质、导致基因病变的迷思、
or birth defects after being exposed to these drugs, or fears that people are going to lose their minds and go insane
接触此类药物后生出有缺陷的婴儿,甚至包括失去心智、发疯等等,
or maybe even most pervasive is the sense that these effects are necessarily real
最普遍的认知是,这些后果是千真万确的,
and that they're a necessary outcome of having been exposed to these compounds.
也是接触这些化合物后的必然下场。
It may be time to change our thinking on that point.
现在或许该是扭转想法的时候了。
No one should expect psychedelic drugs to work for everyone. No one should expect psychedelic drugs to work for everything.
我们不能期待迷幻药对所有人都有效。也不该期待它能解决所有的问题。
They're powerful compounds that need to be administered under carefully controlled circumstances.
这些强效的化合物必须是在谨慎管理的情况下使用。
And there are almost certainly people in this world for whom psychedelics are incredibly dangerous.
而且,世界上绝对有一部分人是迷幻药的高危险族群。
But... antibiotics administered to the wrong person under the wrong conditions can be incredibly dangerous, if not worse.
但是...抗生素若在不对的情况下用在不对的人身上,也是同样危险,甚至更糟。
But administered to the right person under the right conditions, antibiotics save lives.
但只要正确地使用在对的人身上,抗生素可以拯救生命。
Administered to the right people under the right conditions, psychedelic drugs may save lives.
正确地使用在对的人身上,迷幻药也能拯救生命。
It can often feel like it's impossible to heal our hearts and our minds and to grow,
我们时常有心神创伤无从愈合之感,遑论继续成长,
but I truly believe that we all have the resources within ourselves to do just that.
但我深信我们本身就有足够的能量与资源。
The challenge is often identifying and connecting with those resources,
真正的挑战在于发现并连结内在资源,
and it may be that psychedelics and music can help people to do just that.
而那或许正是能借助迷幻药跟音乐的地方。
Together, psychedelics and music may be able to open our minds to change and direct that change,
迷幻药与音乐两者结合,或许能让我们去拥抱改变并引导这样的改变,
reconnect us with our most authentic selves and allow us access to the things that really allow us to make meaning in this world
让我们与真实的自我重新相连,给我们一个机会去发现生命存在的意义,
and reconnect with our most authentic selves. Thank you.
并与内在真实的自我重新连结。谢谢。

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