Music isn't music until your brain makes it so.
人脑处理过后音乐才成为音乐。
Sounds can be noise in one context and music in another.
一种环境下的噪音在另一种环境下就是音乐。
We can all tell when someone is speaking vs. when they're singing,
我们可以分辨得出一个人是在演讲还是在唱歌，
but as Diana Deutsch discovered if you take a spoken sentence, pull out a phrase,
但戴安娜·多伊奇研究发现，如果从某个演讲中取出一个句子，再从其中取出一个词组，
repeat that phrase over and over and over again, it will begin to sound musical.
将它重复数次，听起来它就变成了音乐。
Then, if you listen to the entire sentence again,
如果你再去听完整的演讲，
it will sound as if the person bursts into song when he or she gets to the repeated part.
当讲到重复的部分时，你就会觉得这个人好像突然开始唱起歌了。
But the sounds reaching your ear are the same in all of those cases; what's changed is your brain.
但其实到达你耳朵里的声音都是一样的，发生变化的是你的大脑。
How the brain turns sound into music remains one of the greatest mysteries of neuroscience.
大脑如何将声音变成音乐这个问题是神经科学里最大的谜团之一。
The vast majority of us love some kind of music; if you don't, you are very rare and scientists will want to study you.
我们中的大多数人都喜欢某种类型的音乐，如果有人不喜欢,那你太稀有了，科学家们会很愿意研究一下你。
We call you a person with "amusia" -- a cool new name. We don't all love the same music.
这样的人我们把他叫做音盲--很酷的新名字。并不是所有人都喜欢同一种类型的音乐。
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of smooth jazz, and you might not like opera.
我个人就不是很喜欢舒缓的爵士乐，可能你们中有人不喜欢歌剧。
This characteristic of music, the fact that it's universally loved, but highly subjective, has ensured that it continues to baffle us.
音乐的这种既被广泛喜爱又很主观的特点，一直困惑着我们。
We all need certain things to survive and reproduce: food, water, sex.
我们都需要某种特定的东西去生存和繁衍：如食物、水、性爱。
Our minds have evolved in such a way that when we don't have those things, we seek them out.
人脑进化的方式是，如果一样东西我们本身没有，我们就向外寻求。
They become enjoyable; we call them "biological reinforcers."
从而得到享受，我们把这些东西叫做生理加强器。
But music is just a bunch of sounds strung together, it doesn't provide us with the essential nutrients;
但音乐只是编排在一起的许多声音，他们不能提供给我们营养成分，
it doesn't bind to our neurons the way drugs do;
也不像毒品那样束缚我们的神经元，
it doesn't ensure that our genes live on although that might be debatable.
它也不存在于我们的基因中，尽管这点还有待商榷。
Why do we love music? It's a question I've struggled to answer,
为什么人们会喜欢音乐？这是我一直想要回答的问题，
and I can't promise you a full, complete solution today,
我今天也无法给你们一个正确的、完整的答案，
but I like to share with you some of the scientific insights that had made me a better musician,
但是我想跟你们分享一些让我成为一个更好的音乐家的科学观点，
and some of the artistic insights I hope will help neuroscientists solve this mystery.
还有一些我希望可以帮助神经科学家解答我的疑问的艺术见解。
I come from a family of physicians: two anesthesiologists, a gastroenterologist,
我出生在一个医生家庭：家里有两位麻醉师，一位肠胃科医生，
a generalist, an orthopedic surgeon, an ophthalmic surgeon, and an ER doctor.
一位全科医生，一位骨科手术医生，一位眼外科医生，还有一位急诊医生。
Thanksgiving dinner at our house is the safest place to be outside of the hospital.
出了医院，最安全的地方就是我们家感恩节的餐桌边。
So I can't guarantee it's the most fun.
但我不能保证会多有趣。
Then there is my mother; she is a conductor, much to my two-year old son's dismay,
然后是我的妈妈，她是一位作曲家（售票员），让我两岁的儿子特别失望的是，
not of the locomotive kind but very much of the music kind.
她不是在公汽上工作，而是与音乐为伴。
Growing up, I saw how difficult it is to make a living as a musician in a society where music is universally loved but hopelessly undervalued.
在成长的过程中，我见证了在这样一个音乐受到广泛热爱而其价值被低估的社会里，一位音乐家谋生有多么困难。
She works long hours, she still sacrifices every holiday,
她工作很长的时间，牺牲掉所有的假期，
and there is a part of her that never stops wondering what people thought of her last performance.
她总忍不住想人们怎样看待她的上一场表演。
If you count up all the awards, the recognitions, and distinctions,
如果数数她获得的那些奖励，那些认可和她的成就，
she's by far, the most successful member of our family, but she certainly wouldn't think so.
她一定是到目前为止我们家庭中最成功的人，但她根本不这么想。
Not that being a doctor isn't stressful -- it is
并不是做医生没有压力--医生的压力当然大
but at the end of the day, you've spent your time trying to extend or enhance a person's life, and who can argue the value of that?
而是你一整天都在努力延长病人的生命或者增强他的生命力，谁能说这是没有价值的呢？
So when it was my turn to decide what to do with my professional life, the choice seemed pretty straight forward:
所以当轮到我决定自己的职业生涯的时候，我的选择似乎很简单，
go to medical school, and in your free time, continue up your musical training.
进医学院，然后用闲暇时间来进行音乐方面的练习。
But then I watched my brother trained to become an orthopedic surgeon,
但当我看到我的哥哥在学习成为一名整容医生后，
and I realized there is no such thing as free time in med school and especially in the years that follow.
我意识到医学院根本没有所谓的闲暇时间，特别是在接下来的几年。
I didn't want to give up the most important years of my vocal training.
我不想放弃练声最重要的几年时间。
I also couldn't see how I could support myself and pay for those expensive singing lessons
但我也不知道我要怎样养活自己，还有负担那些昂贵的声乐课，
if I didn't have some other way to make money. So I turned to neuroscience.
如果没有别的渠道挣钱的话。于是我开始接触神经科学。
To me, it was the a perfect blend of science and poetry.
对我来说，它是科学和诗歌的完美结合。
Like pretty much every other neuroscientist of my generation, I devoured the writings of Oliver Sacks;
就像我这一代的很多神经科学家一样，我阅读奥利弗·沙克斯的作品，
I studied topics like autobiographical memory, analogical reasoning, creativity.
我研究自传体记忆这样的课题，对它做类比推理和创新。
So you'd think then I'd turn to science to help me become a better musician.
你可能会猜测我接下来开始用科学来帮助自己成为一个更好的音乐家。
After all, if I was using science to understand something as elusive as insight,
毕竟，如果我能通过科学理解那些难懂的定义，
wouldn't it make sense to turn there to learn the things that I loved?
那么用它来学习我热爱的事物也说得通啊。
But the truth is the more I looked at anatomical drawings of the larynx, the tongue, and the diaphragm,
而事实是，我看过的喉部、舌头和隔膜的解剖图越多，
the less I felt I understood about my instrument;
我发现自己越不懂我的发声器官；
I couldn't see how knowing what parts of the brain were active or even enhanced in musicians would make me sing better.
我弄不明白搞清楚一个音乐家的大脑的哪个部分活跃，甚至怎样增强它，会怎样帮我唱得更好。
For a while, I even tried very hard to give up singing, because, after all, there are so many great singers in the world.
甚至有段时间，我非常认真地想要放弃唱歌，因为毕竟世界上已经有了那么多伟大的歌手。
We all need to get one-on-one care from a physician,
我们都需要医生一对一的照顾，
but many hundreds of thousands of us can be moved by the same musician.
但成百上千的人可以被同一位音乐家感动。
So wouldn't I, and maybe the world, be better off if I stuck to medical research?
所以是不是我从事医学研究会让我或者世界变得更好？
The problem was that the more time I let elapse between singing engagements,
但问题是，我让唱歌的时间间隔越长，
the more I felt there was something really important missing from my life.
我越是感觉到有什么非常重要的东西从我生命中流失了。
The more I felt that I couldn't be the person I needed to be,
我就越是觉得我没办法成为那个我应该成为的人，
I became moody, irritable, a little irrational, often mean;
我变得情绪化、易怒、容易不讲道理，还很刻薄；
and I found too often I would cap off a difficult day in the lab with a martini or two and an hour of self-loathing.
我经常在实验不顺利的时候喝一两杯酒，或者花一小时时间自我厌弃。
So when I finished my neuroscience PhD, I decided to dedicate myself full time to music;
于是拿到神经科学的博士学位之后，我决定全身心地投入音乐，
I enrolled in a Master's of Music program.
我加入了一个音乐大师项目。
Classical musical training follows the apprenticeship model where you study with one or two teachers for many year
你会得到传统的音乐技巧的训练，加上跟一到两位老师的学习，
until you can produce the sounds that you hear in your imagination on your instrument.
直到你可以用乐器弹奏出自己脑海里的声音为止。
But the one thing that kept gnawing at me over and over again was how little neuroscience had trickled down into this model.
但我一直回想一件事，即神经科学对这种模式几乎毫无帮助。
After all, most of the techniques are built upon performing the same exercises over and over and over again,
毕竟大部分的技巧是是建立在一遍又一遍的练习上，
often, in the same way, everyday; until you build those skills.
通常，每天都以同样的方式练习；直到你掌握了这个技巧。
To demonstrate this, I want to introduce to you one of my favorite collaborators, Keisuke Nakagoshi.
为了证明这一点，我想给大家介绍我最喜欢的同伴之一，启介·中越。
Keisuke is going to give us an example of what a typical piano training exercise sounds like.
启介会给我们展示一般钢琴练习听起来是什么样子的例子。
Over and over and over again!
重复一次一次又一次！
But the truth is if you want to take what you're learning,
但其实如果你想要学会一样东西，
what you're developing in that skill, and apply it to any piece of music, research in motor learning suggests that
想掌握一门技巧，并把它用到任何一段音乐当中，动作学习研究表明，
you should in fact interleave and space out your trials introducing some randomness -- what we call "desirable difficulties."
你在练习的空当应该插入一些无规律的东西，我们把这个叫做必要难度。
There is even a study of pianists demonstrating this effect, but so many teachers have never heard of such a thing.
甚至还有一些钢琴家做了研究证明了它的效果，但很多老师根本没有听说过。
So then I began to wonder, "What would happen if I actually try it on myself?"
于是我忍不住想：“如果我自己试试会怎么样呢？”
as most scientists use themselves as guinea pigs, and I found that I started to improve much more rapidly.
就像很多科学家一样，我拿自己当了小白鼠，然后我发现自己开始飞快进步。
So I developed a course called Training the Musical Brain;
于是我现在开了一门课叫做训练音乐大脑，
how to use neuroscience to develop more effective practice strategies which I now teach at the Conservatory of Music here in San Francisco.
教别人怎样利用神经科学开发更高效的训练方式，就在旧金山音乐学院授课。
I started to wonder, "Are there other ways that science can make me a better musician that I couldn't see ten years ago?"
我开始想，“有没有别的我10年前没发现的、可以利用科学成为更好的音乐家的方法呢？”
When I was a child, I remember one of my evaluations at the Royal Conservatory of Music; it'll always stick with me.
我还小的时候，我记得皇家音乐学院对我的一个评价，它将永远伴随着我。
I was a kid, I sang all my pieces well, I didn't make any mistakes, the judges said my tone was very good,
我那时还小，我把唱段完成的非常好，没有犯一个错误，评委说我的声调很好，
I had good technique, but my performance was deemed "unmusical." I was devastated.
技巧也够，但是我的表现让他们觉得不够音乐。我觉得很沮丧。
How could these judges gauge my musicality?
他们怎么可以贬低我的乐感？
Couldn't they see that I feel and understand this music deeply?
难道他们看不出来我深刻的感受和理解了这段音乐吗？
But the truth is feeling the music and producing music other people feel are two different skills.
但其实感受到音乐和把你感受的音乐传递给别人是不同的两种技能。
In the rehearsal room, I can cry as much as I need to when my character is dying,
在排练室里，当我的角色快死去的时候，我能随便哭，
but when I get on stage, it's your time to cry not mine.
但是当上了台，该哭的就是你而不是我。
So what could science tell me about that?
那科学可以告诉我们什么呢？
That's when my two worlds collided;
此时我的两个世界开始有了交集，
because after all, art and science are after the same thing: the goal is to understand the human experience.
毕竟艺术和科学说白了是同一件事情：他们的目标都是为了理解人类的经历。
Science does it by extracting general principles about the world, and art uses individual experience to highlight what's universal.
科学提取世界的基本原理，而艺术用个人经历来传达普遍现象。

So here is what I learned in a nutshell:
以下是我简单学到的，
your brain is primed to search for meaning, for patterns, in a random, chaotic world.
你的大脑想要在一个无序的混乱的世界里寻找意义和模式。
We look for these things everywhere, and we've evolved in such a way that it's enjoyable when we make a new connection,
我们在到处寻找这些东西，我们进化成的样子就是当找到新的连接，
when we learn something new, when we understand something meaningful.
学到新的知识，理解了有意义的东西时。对我们来说是很享受的。
We find pleasure in it. We see things that are meaningful to us even when they are not there.
我们在这里面找到乐趣。即使那样事物不在那里，我们也能看见对我们有意义的东西。
We see faces everywhere; they are important to us.
不同的面孔随处可见；他们对我们来说很重要。
We anthropomorphize or attribute human-like traits to our pets, or cars, or digital devices.
我们给宠物、汽车或者电子设备赋予人格。
When we hear repeated sounds, and we know what they mean, we call it music.
当听到重复的声音时，我们理解其中的意思并把它叫做音乐。
Speech becomes song just by repetition.
演讲经过重复就会变成音乐。
In fact, repetition is the one quality of music that seems to be common across all cultures and genres,
实际上，重复就是音乐的一个特征，几乎在所有的文化和文体中都是这样，
even in the one genre in which it's explicitly avoided -- we call this classical contemporary music composition."
即使在某个明确表示了对这一特征的拒绝的文体中也是这样--我们把这个叫做经典的当代音乐编曲法。
Elizabeth Margulis found if you artificially insert repetition into these pieces,
伊丽莎白·马古利斯发现，即使人为地把一段重复的部分加进一个音乐片段，
people find them more enjoyable, more interesting,
人们也会觉得它变得更好听，更有趣，
more likely to be rated as having been composed by a human being rather than a computer.
它更可能被认为是由人类而不是机器做的曲。
Why? Because repetition signals intention, it frames the pattern,
为什么呢？因为重复就标志着故意，它创造了一个模式，
it shows you that there is something meaningful here to listen to.
它在告诉你这一部分很值得听。
But that's not enough to explain a human obsession.
但这还不足以解决人类的困扰。
After all, music can cause riots, topple governments, raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
毕竟，音乐可以引起动乱，推翻政府，让你汗毛直立。
What can science tell us about that?
关于这一点，科学又怎么解释呢？
It turns out that when your brain is enjoying a piece of music that might even give you the chills,
原来，当你的大脑享受一段让你起鸡皮疙瘩的音乐时，
it's awash with a neurotransmitter called dopamine.
它会分泌一种叫做多巴胺的神经递质素。
Dopamine, despite its widespread fame, has actually been undersold in many ways;
多巴胺尽管声名在外，很多时候它的作用都被低估了，
people think of it as the "pleasure chemical," but that's not all it does.
人们把它叫做令人快乐的化学因子，但它能做到的可不止这样。
A better term for it is the "salience chemical,"
其实更应该叫它突出的化学因子，
because it's awash in some parts of your brain when you're trying to hold important things in mind,
因为它就存在于你大脑的某些地方，当你想重要事情的时候，
when you're nauseated, when you want something, when there is a meaning to be found.
感觉恶心的时候，渴望某样东西的时候，想寻找某种意义的时候。
The way that dopamine's awash in the brain while you're getting the chills from music is very specific to when and where it happens.
当你感觉汗毛直立的时候，多巴胺存在得方式会根据发生的时间和地点发生变化。
There's a paper from Robert Zatorre's lab at McGill with Valorie Salimpoor,
麦吉尔大学的罗伯特·萨托雷实验室的一篇论文，
the first author that documents these changes and showed me, finally, what it means to be musical.
第一作者薇乐莉·萨林普，首次记录了这些变化并最终让我明白了什么是音乐。
Even as a master's student, I self-doubted my ability to sing musically;
即使已经有了硕士学位，我还是怀疑自己能否把音乐通过唱表达出来，
it was a bit like being cool: everyone seemed to know what it was and how to do it,
这就有点像扮酷：好像每个人都知道酷是什么，应该怎么做才叫酷，
but if you even asked the question, it showed that you weren't cool.
但如果你问出来，你就一点都不酷了。
I guess the fact I turned to science for help puts the nail in the coffin of my coolness.
我猜我向科学求助已经让我非常非常酷了。
Even though in the practice room,
即使是在练习室里，
I'd spend almost all my time perfecting my high notes, after all, that's what gets you hired.
我也会把几乎所有的时间花在练习高音上，毕竟人们只会因为这个雇你。
They come at the climax of the piece; they get the biggest reaction from the audience;
它们出现在高潮部分，它们引起观众最多的共鸣。
and if you screw them up, they are the most memorable.
如果你唱毁了，它们也是最让人印象深刻的部分。
But my singing teacher would say to me,
但我的声乐老师告诉我，
"It's all the notes that are leading up to the high note that are more important than the high note, and that's what you should practice."
“那些引导你走向高音的所有音调比高音更重要，这才是你应该练的。”
I understood that from a technical perspective but not from a musical one until I read the Salimpoor paper.
从科学的角度我明白这个道理，但是从音乐的角度我无法理解，直到我读到萨利普的文章。
In the Salimpoor paper, they show that there are two regions of the brain that mediate getting the chills from music
在萨利普的文章中，人脑中有两个区域可以控制人对音乐的战栗。
and they tracked dopamine in these regions.
而他们在这两个区域发现了多巴胺的痕迹。
They are the caudate and the nucleus accumbens.
他们是尾核和伏核。
You can think of the caudate as your parent: it tells you that your behavior has consequences,
你可以把尾核想象成你的父母：它告诉你你的行为是有相应后果的。
it tracks how the things that you see, hear, observe, and do have outcomes;
它追踪你看见、听见、观察到的、做过的事情的变化；
it sets up the expectation of a reward of pleasure
它创造你对愉悦感的期待，
and ensures, in the future, you will behave in such a way that you will seek reward
以此保证未来你会选择这样做以获得奖赏，
and avoid the things that led to punishment.
并避开那些会让你受到惩罚的事情。
The caudate is awash with dopamine when you are leading up to the special moment that will give you the chills.
当那个令你战栗的瞬间即将到达，尾核中充满了多巴胺。
But when you get to the moment that give you the chills, there is a dopamine spike in your nucleus accumbens.
当令你战栗的那个瞬间真的到达，伏核中的多巴胺量激增。
Your nucleus accumbens is your BFF, it's your best friend for life,
伏核是你的BFF，最好的朋友，
because more dopamine in the nucleus accumbens correlates with a bigger high.
大量的多巴胺集中在伏核中会让你极度兴奋。
In the 1950s, Olds and Milner stuck electrodes into the nucleus accumbens of a bunch of rats.
20世纪50年代，奥尔兹和米尔纳把电极接入一群老鼠的伏核中。
Then, they taught those rats to press the lever;
之后，他们教会这些老鼠按动控制杆，
and every time they pressed the lever, they'd get a little electric current that stimulates their nucleus accumbens.
每次他们按动控制杆，都会有一股微弱的电流刺激它们的伏核。
Those rats wanted nothing more than to press that lever.
那些老鼠非常想要按动控制杆。
One rat pressed it 7,500 times in 12 hours, suggesting that it would starve rather than stop pressing.
其中一只老鼠在12小时内按动了7500次，这说明它们宁愿忍受饥饿都不愿意放弃按动控制杆。
The nucleus accumbens likes, but the caudate wants.
伏核表示喜欢，尾核表示渴望。
The intensity of the chills that you feel from music depends on how much dopamine there is in your nucleus accumbens,
你从音乐中感受到的战栗的强度取决于你伏核中多巴胺的数量，
but the number of times you get the chills or, if you get them at all, depends on the amount of dopamine in your caudate.
而你是否能感受到这种战栗和感受频率取决于你尾核中多巴胺的数量。
That's what I learned, that's what it means to be musical.
这就是我所发现的，音乐的本质。
You need to set up the musical intention for your audience so that they will pay attention,
你需要在听众的脑海里植入对音乐的渴望，从而获得他们的注意力，
so that the caudate will know that there is a reward to be had, and we better pay attention.
于是尾核就会知道你马上要获得奖励，于是人们会更专注。
Then, as a musician, you use all kinds of tools, once you've set up the tension, to delay it, to delay the release.
其次，作为一名音乐家，一旦你建立起这种紧张，你要用各种工具来延迟它的释放。
There's all kinds of music tools you can use to increase the desire, the expectation, the motivation for the reward,
你可以用各种工具来增加这种渴望，这种期待和寻求奖励的动力，
because, after all, pleasure is the death of desire.
因为获得满足就是渴望死去的时刻。
But the more desire there is, the better the pleasure. That's what I learned.
但渴望越多，愉悦感越强。这就是我的发现。
So let me demonstrate to you this little theory in practice.
请让我用实践来证明这个理论。
One of my favorite opera is "La Traviata" by Verdi.
我最喜欢的歌剧之一是威尔第的《茶花女》。
It tells the story of a Parisian courtesan, a high class prostitute,
它讲述了一位巴黎妓女，一位高级妓女的故事，
who is dying of tuberculosis, as lots of sopranos do.
她得了结核病，濒临死亡，就像很多女高音的结局一样。
She is entertaining a lavish party because she's giving everybody pleasure.
她在一场奢华的宴会上取悦众人。
That's what she does for a living, she gives pleasure, and she gets exhausted by the party;
这就是她的谋生途径，她取悦别人，却被宴会弄得满身疲惫，
but at the party, she meets this young man who has been sitting outside her window
但在宴会上她遇见了一个年轻男人，他一直坐在她的窗外
while she was ill, unable to give pleasure when all her friends had abandoned her,
当她生病了无法再给别人带来欢乐、被所有朋友抛弃时，
and he was waiting for her because he really loved her.
他在那里等着她，因为他真的爱着她。
And now, alone in her room, she wonders, "What would it be like to feel true love?"
而现在，她一个人坐在房间里想：“真爱是什么感觉呢？”
"What is this mysterious thing, this pulse of the universe?"
“这样神秘的东西，宇宙的脉搏，到底是什么呢？”
She realizes that it's a double-edged sword, that love is both torture and delight, "croce e delizia."
她意识到爱是一把双刃剑，它带来欢乐也带来折磨。
That's the intention I want to communicate to you,
这就是我想说的意图，
musically, because, of course, the idea is much more complicated than we can say.
毕竟音乐的概念比我说出来的要复杂得多。
In order to do that, I'll first sing a repeat of what the tenor's saying earlier in the act.
所以我会向那位男高音一样在剧目的开始先唱一段重复的部分。
Clever Verdi! We like things better the second time around; repetition.
威尔第真聪明！我们会更喜欢在第二个重复部分。
Then I will set up the expectation, I'll tell you straight off, there will be a high note -- Setting that up?
然后我们来建立渴望，我就直说了，接下来是高音部分--建立起来了吗？
but I will delay that high note as long as possible to increase your motivation to get dopamine into your caudates,
但是我会把这个高音尽可能的延迟以增加你的期待，让多巴胺进入你的尾核，
so that by the time we relax that tension, there is a dopamine spike in your nucleus accumbens.
这样当我们释放这种紧张的时候，你伏核中的多巴胺含量就会陡增。