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Without this one small part of his brain, Henry had trouble forming new memories.
没有了这一小块，亨利就无法拥有新的记忆。
But that doesn’t mean memories are stored in one specific place.
但这并不代表记忆就存储在某一个特定的位置。
When you have an experience, say, performing at a recital,
当你有了某种经历，比如在独奏会上表演的经历后，
sensory information is processed in many different parts of your brain.
这一经历产生的感官信息其实是在大脑的多个部位进行处理的。
The sound of the cello, the feeling of the strings under your fingers,
大提琴的声音，手指触摸琴弦的感觉，
the face of your friend in the audience, the pang of stage fright.
观众席中你朋友的脸庞，怯场的痛苦……
And the part of the brain that pulls all these elements together, the part that Henry’s surgery badly damaged,
而将所有这些记忆碎片整合到一起的部位，也就是亨利的手术严重损坏的部位，
is the medial temporal lobe, which includes an important structure called the hippocampus.
是内侧颞叶，该部位包含一个名为“海马体”的重要组织。
When you relive that moment later, the medial temporal lobe helps combine those elements once again.
当你日后重温那一时刻时，内侧颞叶能够协助你将那些记忆碎片再次整合起来。
Your life story is all the moments like this that you can relive.
你的整个人生就是由这种能够重温的时刻组成的。
And this graph is the life story of a typical 70-year-old.
这张图是一个典型的70岁老人的往昔岁月。
There are lots of memories from the recent past, but as you move backward in time they start to fall off.
你的记忆中有很大一部分是近期的记忆，但时间越久远，这类记忆越少。
There are only a few memories from childhood - and nothing before around 3.
我们的童年记忆就很少-三岁之前几乎没有任何记忆。
But there’s this surprising bump in our teens and twenties.
到了十几二十岁的时候，我们的记忆会出现惊人的增长。
"When you're getting through high school, you're having a lot of momentous occasions in that stage of your life.
“上了高中以后，在那个人生阶段，你的人生会出现很多重大时刻。
When we think about our life stories,
就我们的人生故事而言，
those change moments are the ones that stand out as the ones that kind of define us … and define our lives going forward."
这些转折点就是塑造我们的人生，塑造我们的未来，因而显得格外突出的时刻。”
Some people have more memories than others.
有些人的记忆力比其他人的要好。
And you can improve your memory by just living a healthier and more active life.
但我们可以让我们的生活方式变得更健康，更积极向上来增强我们的记忆力。
I try to like not drink as much sleep a lot and eat well.
我在试着远离酒精，好好睡觉，好好吃饭。
The one thing that I've seen in every single study, that's like this is going to work is honestly meditation.
我发现，上述每一项研究都得出了同一个结论，那就是，冥想其实还是管用的。
Undergraduates were able to increase their score on the verbal GRE’s from 460 to 520, just by taking a mindfulness meditation class,
就算是只上一堂训练专注力的冥想课，本科生也能将GRE词汇部分的成绩从460分提高到520分，
probably because meditation improves focus, and focus improves memory.
或许是因为冥想能提高我们的专注度，专注度又反过来改善了我们的记忆力，
And when it comes to personal experiences -- there are certain features that make us remember some better than others.
就个人经历而言，有一些个人特征是能够帮助我们拥有比别人更好的记忆力的。
First, emotion.
特征之一，情感。
If you show a person a string of faces, they’ll remember the most emotional ones best.
如果你给一个人展示一连串的表情，对方记住的会是情感最饱满的那个表情。
"When we have an emotional experience, our amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, which sits right next to the hippocampus,
“当我们出现情感变化时，我们大脑中的杏仁核，也就是海马体旁边的情感中心，
actually up regulates the hippocampus, and allows it to form more detailed and stronger memory."
会对海马体进行正向调节，使其产生更详细，更强烈的记忆。”
"One of the things we want to do after 9/11 was look into the brains of individuals who were in New York that day.
“9/11事件后，我们想做的一项工作就是研究当天身处纽约的那些人的大脑。
So about half the people were on average around midtown and the other half the people were … much closer to the World Trade Center."
研究发现，约有一半的人在中城区附近，还有一半的人在……离世界贸易中心更近的地方。”
Three years after the attacks, they asked those people to remember their experiences.
袭击发生的三年后，研究人员们让他们回忆当时的经历。
The individuals who were closer to the World Trade Center that day, the 9/11 memories were more vivid,
当天离世贸中心更近的那些人对当天的记忆更为清晰，
and we saw more activity in the amygdala."
我们观察到，他们的杏仁核也更活跃。”
Memories are also connected to a sense of place.
记忆还与我们对地点的感知有关。
"One of the things we know from our study of 9/11 memories is that the thing that people were most consistent about was where they were."
通过研究大家对9·11的记忆，我们了解到，人们记得最清楚的就是当天他们所在的位置。”
"I had just gotten home." "From gym class."
“当时我刚进家门。“我刚上完健身课。”
"I was living in London at the time."
“当时我正住在伦敦。”
"In New Smyrna Beach, Florida."
“我在佛罗里达州的新士麦那海滩。”
"The Upper East Side."
“我在上东区。”
"So we think you know place has a particularly strong role in memory.
“所以，我们认为，地点在记忆中发挥的作用尤其重要。
and if you actually look in the hippocampus, there seem to be cells that are specifically responsive to time and place."
仔细观察海马体，你会发现，似乎有些细胞对时间和地点格外敏感。”
Here’s a representation of these “place cells” in the hippocampus of one particular rat.
这张图展示的是一只老鼠的海马体中的“地点细胞”。
And here’s a video of that rat moving along a simple track, his head is in this green circle, and here’s his tail.
而右边这个片段是那只老鼠在沿着一个简单的轨道走，这个绿色的圈里的是它的头，这是他的尾巴。
Each place cell is associated with a particular location along the track, and these cells have been color coded by scientists.
每个地点细胞都与轨道中的某个特定位置关联起来了，科学家还对这些细胞进行了颜色编码。
When the rat is at the start of the maze, this green place cell fires.
老鼠位于在迷宫的入口时，这个绿色的地点细胞会被点亮。
But as it moves along, a different cell is activated.
但随着它不断地往前走，另一个细胞被激活了。
And then another and another.
接着，其他地点细胞一个接一个地被激活了。
When the rat pauses, the cells fire in rapid succession as he recalls his route.
当它停下来回忆路线的时候，这些地点细胞会按照顺序迅速点亮。
London cabbies must navigate their own rat maze.
伦敦的出租车司机也需要在他们自己的类似老鼠迷宫一样的迷宫里穿行。
To get their licenses, they have to pass a century-old test called simply “The Knowledge.”
为了拿到驾驶证，他们必须通过一个已经有一百年历史的，名为“知识”的考试。
They spend years memorizing London’s 25,000 streets.
他们要花数年时间，记下伦敦的25000条道路。
Scientists scanned the brains of would-be cabbies before and after this process.
科学家们扫描过那些准出租车司机在考前和考后的大脑状态。
In the brains of people who didn’t end up getting their licenses, the size of the hippocampus didn’t really change.
那些最终没能拿到驾照的人大脑的海马体大小并未出现实质性的变化。
But those who passed? Interestingly, their hippocampi actually grew.
那那些通过了考试的人呢？有意思的是，他们的海马体竟然变大了。
