正念冥想有助于治疗注意力缺陷

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。”