经颅电刺激术 有助于人们学习数学概念

That led to his next inquiry: If current could turn off regions of the brain making people temporarily math-challenged, could a different type of stimulation improve math performance?
于是他继续发问：如果说电流可以关掉大脑的某些区域、让人暂时出现运算困难，那么另外某种刺激是否可以提高数学成绩？

Cognitive training helps to some extent in some individuals with math difficulties. Dr. Cohen Kadosh wondered if such learning could be improved if the brain was stimulated at the same time.
对于某些数学不行的人来讲，认知训练在一定程度上是有用的。科恩・卡多什博士猜想，如果在认知训练的同时刺激大脑，其效果有没有可能提高？

But transcranial magnetic stimulation wasn't the right tool because the current induced was too strong. Dr. Cohen Kadosh puzzled over what type of stimulation would be appropriate until a colleague who had worked with researchers in Germany returned and told him about tES, at the time a new technique. Dr. Cohen Kadosh decided tES was the way to go.
但经颅磁刺激术不是合适的工具，因为它所导入的电流太强。科恩・卡多什博士苦寻合适的刺激种类，直到一位曾经与德国研究人员合作的同事回来跟他说起了经颅电刺激术。在当时，这还是一项新技术。科恩・卡多什博士决定采用经颅电刺激术。

His group has since conducted a series of studies suggesting that tES appears helpful improving learning speed on various math tasks in adults who don't have trouble in math. Now they've found preliminary evidence for those who struggle in math, too.
从那时起，他的小组开展了一系列的研究，发现在不存在数学困难的成年人身上，经颅电刺激似乎有助于提高他们执行多种数学任务的学习速度。现在他们在存在数学困难的人身上也看到了初步证据。

Participants typically come for 30-minute stimulation-and-training sessions daily for a week. His team is now starting to study children between 8 and 10 who receive twice-weekly training and stimulation for a month. Studies of tES, including the ones conducted by Dr. Cohen Kadosh, tend to have a dozen or more participants, so replication of the findings by other researchers is important.
参与者通常是一星期内每天前来参加为时30分钟的刺激与训练课程。科恩・卡多什博士的团队已经开始研究八岁到10岁的儿童，他们在一个月内每星期接受两次训练与刺激。包括科恩・卡多什博士的研究在内，经颅电刺激术研究的参与者往往都是十几个，所以其他研究人员对研究结果的重复是很重要的。

In a small, toasty room, participants, often Oxford students, sit in front of a computer screen and complete hundreds of trials in which they learn to associate numerical values with abstract, nonnumerical symbols, figuring out which symbols are 'greater' than others, in the way that people learn to know that three is greater than two.
在一间暖和舒适的小房间里，参与者（常常是牛津的学生）坐在一块电脑屏幕前，完成数百次测试。在这些测试中，他们学会将数值同抽象的非数字符号挂钩，猜想哪些符号“大于”其他符号，就像人们学会三大于二的过程一样。

When neurons fire, they transfer information, which could facilitate learning. The tES technique appears to work by lowering the threshold neurons need to reach before they fire, studies have shown. In addition, the stimulation appears to cause changes in neurochemicals involved in learning and memory.
神经元在触发时传递信息，这能够促成学习的过程。研究已经表明，经颅电刺激似乎是通过降低神经元触发阈值来发挥作用的。除此以外，这种刺激似乎还会引起学习、记忆所涉神经化学物质发生变化。

However, the results so far in the field appear to differ significantly by individual. Stimulating the wrong brain region or at too high or long a current has been known to show an inhibiting effect on learning. The young and elderly, for instance, respond exactly the opposite way to the same current in the same location, Dr. Cohen Kadosh says.
但目前为止的实验结果在不同的人身上似乎存在着显著差异。科学家已经知道，刺激大脑的区域不对或电流过高、过久，都会对学习过程产生抑制效应。科恩・卡多什博士举例说，年轻人和老年人对同一区域相同电流的反应刚好是相反的。

He and a colleague published a paper in January in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, in which they found that one individual with developmental dyscalculia improved her performance significantly while the other study subject didn't.
他和一位同事在1月份的《人类神经科学前沿》(Frontiers in Human Neuroscience)杂志发表了一篇论文。在论文中，他们指出一名发展性计算障碍患者成绩大有长进，而另一名研究对象却没有。

What is clear is that anyone trying the treatment would need to train as well as to stimulate the brain. Otherwise 'it's like taking steroids but sitting on a couch,' says Dr. Cohen Kadosh.
已经明确的是，任何人要尝试这种疗法，不仅需要刺激大脑，同时也需要训练大脑。科恩・卡多什博士说，要不然“就像坐在沙发上吃增肌粉”。

Dr. Cohen Kadosh and Beatrix Krause, a graduate student in the lab, have been examining individual differences in response. Whether a room is dark or well-lighted, if a person smokes and even where women are in their menstrual cycle can affect the brain's response to electrical stimulation, studies have found.
科恩・卡多什博士和实验室研究生贝娅特丽克丝・克劳斯(Beatrix Krause)一直在测量个体的反应差异。研究已经发现，房间昏暗还是明亮，实验对象抽不抽烟，甚至女性是否处于月经期间，都有可能影响大脑对电刺激的反应。

Results from his lab and others have shown that even if stimulation is stopped, those who benefited are going to maintain a higher performance level than those who weren't stimulated, up to a year afterward. If there isn't any follow-up training, everyone's performance declines over time, but the stimulated group still performs better than the non-stimulated group. It remains to be seen whether reintroducing stimulation would then improve learning again, Dr. Cohen Kadosh says.
科恩・卡多什博士实验室和其他实验室的研究结果已经表明，即使刺激停止，那些从中受益的人仍将维持高于未受刺激者的成绩水平，最久维持到一年之后。如果后来没有训练，那么所有人的成绩都会随着时间的推移而下降，但受刺激组的成绩依然好于未受刺激组。科恩・卡多什博士说，至于重新实施刺激是否会再次改善学习，则仍然有待研究。