Which will it be — the berries or the chocolate dessert? Homework or the Xbox? Finish that memo, or roam Facebook?
你会选哪个——浆果还是巧克力甜点？做家庭作业还是玩Xbox游戏机？老老实实地完成备忘录还是随意浏览Facebook？
Such quotidian decisions test a mental ability called cognitive control, the capacity to maintain focus on an important choice while ignoring other impulses. Poor planning, wandering attention and trouble inhibiting impulses all signify lapses in cognitive control. Now a growing stream of research suggests that strengthening this mental muscle, usually with exercises in so-called mindfulness, may help children and adults cope with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and its adult equivalent, attention deficit disorder.
这类日常决策测试的是一种名为认知控制的精神能力，这种能力能让你将注意力保持在重要的选择上，而忽略其他的冲动。计划不周、走神以及难以抑制冲动均表明认知控制能力存在问题。现在，越来越多的研究表明，通过所谓的正念冥想强化“心智肌肉”可以帮助儿童和成年人应对其注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD，见于儿童）和注意力缺陷障碍（ADD，见于成年人）。
The studies come amid growing disenchantment with the first-line treatment for these conditions: drugs.
正当人们日益对治疗此类疾病的第一线治疗方法——药物——感到幻灭时，这些研究的出现恰逢其时。

In 2007, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, published a study finding that the incidence of A.D.H.D. among teenagers in Finland, along with difficulties in cognitive functioning and related emotional disorders like depression, were virtually identical to rates among teenagers in the United States. The real difference? Most adolescents with A.D.H.D. in the United States were taking medication; most in Finland were not.
2007年，加州大学洛杉矶分校(University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA)的研究人员发表了一项研究，该研究发现，芬兰青少年中ADHD以及认知功能障碍和相关情绪障碍如抑郁症等的发病率与美国青少年中的几乎完全相同。真正的区别是：在美国，大多数青少年ADHD患者都服用药物；在芬兰却并非如此。
"It raises questions about using medication as a first line of treatment," said Susan Smalley, a behavior geneticist at U.C.L.A. and the lead author.
“这引起了人们对使用药物作为第一线治疗的质疑，”该研究的主要作者，UCLA的行为遗传学家苏珊·斯莫利(Susan Smalley)表示。
In a large study published last year in The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers reported that while most young people with A.D.H.D. benefit from medications in the first year, these effects generally wane by the third year, if not sooner.
在去年发表在《美国儿童及青少年精神病学会杂志》(The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)上的一项大型研究中，研究人员报告称，虽然大部分青少年ADHD患者可从第一年的治疗中受益，但这些效果通常在第三年或更早的时候就开始逐渐减弱。
"There are no long-term, lasting benefits from taking A.D.H.D. medications," said James M. Swanson, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, and an author of the study. "But mindfulness seems to be training the same areas of the brain that have reduced activity in A.D.H.D."
“服用ADHD药物并未带来长期、持久的效益，“该研究的作者，加州大学欧文分校(University of California, Irvine)的心理学家詹姆斯·M·斯旺森(James M. Swanson)说，“然而正念冥想似乎能对可减少ADHD活动的那部分脑区加以训练。”
"That's why mindfulness might be so important," he added. "It seems to get at the causes."
“这就解释了正念冥想之所以可能如此重要的原因所在，”他补充道。“它似乎直指问题根源。”
Depending on which scientist is speaking, cognitive control may be defined as the delay of gratification, impulse management, emotional self-regulation or self-control, the suppression of irrelevant thoughts, and paying attention or learning readiness.
按照不同科学家的标准，认知控制可定义为延迟满足、冲动管理、情绪的自我调节或自我控制、抑制无关思想、集中注意力或学习准备等。
This singular mental ability, researchers have found, predicts success both in school and in work life.
研究人员发现，无论是在学校还是工作生活中，拥有这种非凡的精神能力往往就预示着成功。
Cognitive control increases from about 4 to 12 years old, then plateaus, said Betty J. Casey, director of the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Teenagers find it difficult to suppress their impulses, as any parent knows.
认知控制能力从4至12岁左右开始逐渐增强，然后就进入了平台期，威尔康奈尔医学院萨克勒发展心理生理学研究所(Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College)的所长贝蒂·J·凯茜(Betty J. Casey)说。天下的父母都有这样的共识：青少年总是很难压抑自己的冲动。
But impulsivity peaks around age 16, Dr. Casey noted, and in their 20s most people achieve adult levels of cognitive control. Among healthy adults, it begins to wane noticeably in the 70s or 80s, often manifesting as an inability to remember names or words, because of distractions that the mind once would have suppressed.
但是，凯茜博士指出，冲动水平在16岁左右会达到顶峰，大多数人在20多岁的时候对认知控制都达到了成年人的水平。在健康成年人中，认知控制能力在七八十岁时会开始明显减弱，通常体现为无法记住名字或单词，这是因为他们已经不再能抑制自己的分心了。
Bolstering this mental ability, specialists are now suggesting, might be particularly helpful in treating A.D.H.D. and A.D.D.
现在，专家们提出，强化认知控制这种精神能力可能对治疗ADHD和ADD特别有帮助。
To do so, researchers are testing mindfulness: teaching people to monitor their thoughts and feelings without judgments or other reactivity. Rather than simply being carried away from a chosen focus, they notice that their attention has wandered, and renew their concentration.
要做到这一点，研究人员对正念冥想进行了测试：他们教导人们监控自己的思想和感受，但既不加以判断也不作出任何其他反应。研究人员发现，这些练习并未将受试者的注意力从选定的目标上带走，相反，他们在出神一会儿后精力反而更加集中。
According to a recent report in Clinical Neurophysiology, adults with A.D.D. were shown to benefit from mindfulness training combined with cognitive therapy; their improvements in mental performance were comparable to those achieved by subjects taking medications.
《临床神经生理学》(Clinical Neurophysiology)上最近的一份报告显示，成年ADD患者可从正念训练加认知治疗中受益；他们在精神功能方面的改善与服用药物的受试者相当。
The training led to a decline in impulsive errors, a problem typical of A.D.D., while the cognitive therapy helped them be less self-judgmental about mistakes or distractedness.
训练降低了ADD带来的典型问题——冲动错误的发生率，而认知疗法能帮助他们减少关于错误或心不在焉的自我批判。
Mindfulness seems to flex the brain circuitry for sustaining attention, an indicator of cognitive control, according to research by Wendy Hasenkamp and Lawrence Barsalou at Emory University.
艾默理大学(Emory University)的温迪·哈森坎普(Wendy Hasenkamp)和劳伦斯·巴萨卢(Lawrence Barsalou)的研究显示，正念冥想能改变认知控制的指标之一——大脑维持注意力的神经回路。
For a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, they imaged the brains of meditators while they went through four basic mental movements: focusing on a chosen target, noticing that their minds had wandered, bringing their minds back to the target, and sustaining their focus there.
在一项发表于《人类神经科学前沿》(Frontiers in Human Neuroscience)上的研究中，他们拍摄了冥想者在进行四种基本的精神活动时的脑部影像：专注于选定的目标、注意到自己已经走神、将注意力带回到目标之上、将注意力持续集中在那里。
Those movements appeared to strengthen the neural circuitry for keeping attention on a chosen point of focus.
这些活动加强了神经回路，使注意力停留在选定的目标之上。
Meditation is a cognitive control exercise that enhances "the ability to self-regulate your internal distractions," said Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco.
冥想是一种认知控制锻炼，它可以增强“人对内部干扰进行自我调节的能力，”加州大学旧金山分校(University of California, San Francisco)的神经科学家亚当·加扎利(Adam Gazzaley)博士指出。
His research seeks to duplicate these effects with video games that "selectively target the key circuits without the kind of side effects you get with drugs."
他在研究中试图通过玩视频游戏重现这些效果，这些游戏可以“有选择性地针对关键的脑部回路发挥作用，却不会造成药物的那种副作用。”
With colleagues, he designed NeuroRacer, a game for older adults in which they respond to traffic signs that appear suddenly while driving on a winding road. The game enhanced cognitive control in subjects ranging from 60 to 85, according to a study published in Nature.
他与同事合作，为老年人设计了一款名为“神经赛车(NeuroRacer)”的游戏，该游戏要求玩家一面在虚拟的蜿蜒道路上驾驶，一面对突然出现的交通标志作出正确的反应。一项发表于《自然》杂志(Nature)上的研究显示，该游戏增强了60至85岁受试者们的认知控制能力。
Stephen Hinshaw, a specialist in developmental psychopathology at the University of California, Berkeley, said the time was ripe to explore the utility of nondrug interventions like mindfulness.
加州大学伯克利分校( University of California, Berkeley)的发展精神病理学专家史蒂芬·欣肖(Stephen Hinshaw)表示，探索正念冥想等非药物干预的效用的时机已经成熟。
Dr. Swanson agreed. "I was a skeptic until I saw the data," he said, "and the findings are promising."
斯旺森博士对此表示赞同。“在看到相关数据前，我本来抱怀疑态度，”他说，“这些研究结果很有前途。”