【译】Focused and Diffuse Modes（专注与发散模式）

Focused and Diffuse Modes

---文章来源：coursera

面对一个问题，当无论如何都想不出办法时，你会怎么做呢？对于僵尸们来说，只需简单地不断用脑袋撞墙即可。然而活生生的大脑可就复杂得多。事实证明，了解自己的大脑如何运作，利于学习，少走弯路。

What do you do when you just can't figure something out? For zombies, it's pretty simple. They can just keep bashing their brains against the wall. But living brains are a lot more complex. It turns out, though, that if you understand just a little bit of some of the basics about how your brain works, you can learn more easily and be less frustrated.

研究者们发现，我们有两种完全不同的思考模式，在这里，我把它们称作专注模式和发散模式。

Researchers have found that we have two fundamentally different modes of thinking. Here, I'll call them the Focused and the Diffuse modes.

我们都很熟悉"专注"，当你一心一意地专注于某些东西并试着去学习或者理解它们的时候，就是“专注”。但是我们还不太熟悉发散模式的思维方式，我们发现，与这种更加放松的思考模式互相关联的一系列神经皆处于静息状态。

We're familiar with focusing. It's when you concentrate intently on something you're trying to learn or to understand. But we're not so familiar with diffuse thinking. Turns out that this more relaxed thinking style is related to a set of neural resting states.

我们将会用一个类似弹珠的游戏来帮助我们理解这两种思维模式，顺带一提，当我们学习新的东西的时候，比喻和类比都是很有用的方法。

We're going to use an analogy of the game of pinball to help us understand these two thinking modes. Incidentally, both metaphor and analogy are really helpful when you're trying to learn something new.

你若记得，弹珠游戏的玩法是：你先按下按钮，然后松手，一颗弹珠就会弹出来，在橡胶缓冲器之间弹跳，然后你就可以得分。这是你大脑的示意图，耳朵在这里，眼睛向上看，我们可以放进来一个弹珠机，游戏开始，这个类似于专注模式。蓝色的缓冲器放得很密集，一个挨着一个，看到上方的橙色区域了么？它代表着已熟知的思维模式，可能包括一些简单的，类似数字相加，或者更复杂的想法，类似文学评论或是电磁流量的计算。当你想到一个点子，它就会像弹珠一样"嘭"的一声发射出来然后平缓的向前移动，随着它在缓冲器之间弹跳，你可以找到解决问题的思路，明白你试图理解的观念。这些都是与你之前较熟悉的事物有联系的。

If you remember, a pinball game works by, you pull back on the plunger, release it, and a ball goes boinking out, bouncing around on the rubber bumpers, and that's how you get points. So, here's your brain, with the ears right here, and the eyes looking upwards. And we can lay that pinball machine right down inside it. So, there you go. There's the analogy for the focused mode. The blue bumper bumpers here are placed very close to one another. See this orange pattern here towards the top? It represents a familiar thought pattern. Maybe involving something simple like adding some numbers, or more advanced ideas like literary criticism or calculating electromagnetic flows. You think a thought, boom, it takes off, moves smoothly along. And then, as it's bouncing around on the bumpers, you're able to figure out the problem you're trying to solve, or. The concept you're trying to understand that's related to something you're rather familiar with.

所以在模糊的橙色神经通路部分，你可以看到你的思路相当顺畅。从某种意义上说，这就像是在一个你熟悉的平坦大道上行走一样。但是如果你正在思考的问题需要新的点子或解决办法该怎么办？需要一些你从未想到过的概念该怎么办？那就像是这个神经模型的这一部分，在接近弹珠机器底部的这一区域。但是如果你之前没有想过这个想法，你甚至不知道这个模式是怎么样的，又或是它究竟在哪里。那么，你到底要怎么开始构建这个新想法呢？你不仅不知道这个模式在哪里或是看起来怎么样，而且看到这些缓冲器了么，他们都是拦路虎，不论你选择向哪边移动，阻碍都存在。

So look at how that thought moves smoothly around on the fuzzy underlying orange neural pathway. In some sense it's as if it's traveling along a familiar, nicely paved road. But what if the problem you're working on needs new ideas or approaches? Concepts you haven't thought of before. That's symbolized here by this neural pattern towards the bottom of the pinball machine area. But if you haven't thought that thought before, you don't even know how that pattern feels or where it is. So how are you going to develop that new thought in the first place? Not only do you not know where the pattern is or what the pattern looks like, but see all the rubber bumpers that are blocking your access whatever direction you do decide to move in?

要开启一个新的思维模式，你需要一个不同的思路。就像这里示意的一样，你需要发散模式。你看，这些橡胶缓冲器之间有非常大的空间，想法蹦出来以后，可以看到它运动区域很大，跳来跳去，在被缓冲器撞到而停止之前，它可以弹跳很长一段距离。在这个发散的思维模式下，你可以更概括地看事物，这是一种完全不同的全景视角，你可以更概括地看事物。随着这个想法在新通道间穿梭，你便可以建立起新的神经连接，你不能像以前那样专注于落实某个问题的解决方法或者理解某个概念中最细微的方面，但是你至少可以找到一个解决问题的出发点。

To get to this new thought pattern, you need a different way of thinking. And that's represented here, by the diffuse mode. Look at how widely spaced the rubber bumpers are. Thought takes off, look at how it moves widely, bounces around. It could travel a long way before being interrupted by hitting a bumper. In this diffuse mode of thinking, you can look at things broadly from a very different, big-picture perspective. You can make new neural connections traveling along new pathways. You can't focus in as tightly as you often need to, to finalize any kind of problem solving. Or understand the finest aspects of a concept. But you can at least get to the initial place you need to be in to home in on a solution.

就目前神经学家所知，专注模式与发散模式只能单独存在。看起来，你不能同时使用两种模式，这有点像一枚硬币，我们一次只能看到它的其中一面，但是却不能同时看到两面。在一个模式中思考，看上去限制了你转换另外一个思维模式的通道。

Now as far as neuroscientists know right now, you're either in the focused mode or the diffuse mode of thinking. It seems you can't be in both thinking modes at the same time. It's kind of like a coin. We can see either one side, or the other side of the coin. But not both sides at the same time. Being in one mode seems to limit your access to the other mode's way of thinking.

下节介绍：一些杰出人物是怎样通过发散思维来成就杰作的?