位動致衡

Balancing Act

By Madeline Fisher PhD’98
Photos by Jeff Miller

Shaken by the realities of the business world and the untimely death of it creator, a fledgling UW Madison company spin off in finding balance

鑒於創造者英年早逝並受憾於現實的商業世界，新興的威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校公司藉尋找平衡以脫胎換骨。

感官與可塑性 : 保羅 巴哈-y-瑞塔

Plasticity and The Senses: Paul Bach-y-Rita

January 10, 20082008年1月10日

Added May, 2008: In December 2007 the PBS Wired Science show included a piece about Bach-y-Rita’s research.

Scientists Rewire the Brain through the Tongue is the written text, or you can view the video of the television segment Mixed Feelings.

2008 年5月新增： 2007年12月在(美國)公共廣播公司(PBS)科學線上節目展示了部份 巴哈- Y瑞塔的研究。

文本中說明科學家們藉由舌感重組大腦，或也可以查看電視: “交織的覺感” 影集片段。

The first time I heard of Paul Bach-y-Rita was on a public television broadcast of a special show about the brain. The story of Paul Bach-y-Rita fills the first chapter of Norman Doidge’s book, The Brain That Changes Itself.

我第一次聽到 保羅 巴哈- Y – 瑞塔是在公共電視台播出的一個關於大腦的特別節目。

保羅 巴哈- Y –瑞塔的故事也成為諾曼多奇的著作 ”改變是大腦的天性” 的第一章。(此書在台灣已付梓)

The stories of Bach-y-Rita – how his father recovered from a stroke and the impact this had on Bach-y-Rita’s career, the people with severe balancing issues who were essentially cured by his discoveries and innovations, and the people who had no vision who were able to begin to see – are compelling in and of themselves. They are very human stories, derived from the work of a man who was altruistically motivated.

巴哈- Y – 瑞塔的故事集 –包含他的父親中風後如何康復以及對巴哈- Y – 瑞塔的事業生涯有何影響，藉由他的發現和創新治好有嚴重失衡問題的人，甚而眼盲者也能夠重新看見 - 是那麼的引人入勝。那些非常人性化的故事，源於一個人其無私努力的動機。

A major contribution of Paul Bach-y-Rita’s to neuroscience was in thinking of the brain as “polysensory”, meaning that the sensory areas of the brain, rather than only processing information from just the senses that normally report to those areas, are actually able to process information from any of the senses. The stories referenced above, relating to balance and vision, rely heavily on the polysensory ability of the brain to take input from the tongue and route it to the areas of the brain dealing with balance or vision.

保羅 巴哈- Y – 瑞塔對神經科學的重大貢獻是，大腦的思想具“polysensory” 多種感能的，意思是大腦的感覺區，不僅是只處理一般研究報告中認為大腦在各區域所應反應的訊息 ( 請參閱 )， 實際上而是更能夠處理來自任何感官的訊息。上面所引用，關於平衡和視覺的故事，很大程度上是依賴於大腦的多感覺能力使其接收來自舌頭的感應藉以連線至大腦使其處理平衡或視力。

Amazing? Absolutely! His work is a reminder of how adaptable our brains are, and makes me wonder how many more hidden secrets are waiting to be revealed. You can read more about the science behind Bach-y-Rita’s efforts in these articles:

On Wisconsin Magazine: Balancing Act (Spring 2007)

Discover Magazine: Can You See With Your Tongue? (June 2003)

Discover Magazine: Artifical Sight (August 2001)

College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Tongue seen as portal to the brain (2001)

神奇嗎? 當然了！他的工作提醒著，我們的大腦有其適應能力，使我驚異不知還有多少隱藏的秘密正在等待被發現。

你可以閱讀以下更多有關巴哈- Y – 瑞塔的研究成果：

Wisconsin Magazine：平衡的行動（2007年春）
探索雜誌：藉著舌頭看見什？ （2003年6月）

探索雜誌：人工視域（2001年8月）

威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校工程學院：將舌頭視為大腦門戶（2001）

本文出自 Neurons Firing (校稿中)

橫行肆虐的郵件

The tyranny of e-mailCan users of modern technology just say no, or are they slaves to the machine?
現今高科技的使用者會拒絕或是成為機器的奴役呢?

 By Elizabeth Day THE GUARDIAN , LONDON  倫敦衛報

Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009, Page 9

2009年11 月4 日 (Taipei Time刊登)

 

 It was when John Freeman started receiving more than 200 e-mails a day that he thought things needed to change. As one of the US’ pre-eminent literary critics, Freeman’s daily routine used to consist of going to a coffee shop in the morning to read and then returning home to write his reviews in the afternoon. But in his absence his inbox had swollen to unmanageable proportions.

當John Freeman 在一天之中收到超過兩百封電子郵件時，他開始思考改變的必要性。

鮮活記憶

Softcover: UK: In living memory

As the good times roll in Hugo Hamilton’s tale of life in a prosperous Ireland, the past is brushed under the carpet

隨著雨果密爾頓的故事集湧現出繁榮的世代，愛爾蘭的過往彷若幽隱晦僻。

By Ann Enright THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Sunday, Apr 18, 2010, Page 14

Hugo Hamilton grew up in a Dublin household where the English language was forbidden, and he has delighted in its illicit and innocent pleasures ever since. In his memoir A Speckled People he wrote about speaking German to his mother and Irish to his nationalist father, while, beyond their front door, children played, mothers shopped, and rock bands sang in the former oppressors’ tongue.

雨果漢密爾頓生長在都柏林，被禁止說英語的家庭中茁壯，自時他也很享受這非法和無邪的樂趣迄今。

隨風曾經

   廣電班的同學 : 執鈞 -去當兵好一陣子了!
在上課後期 我才跟他接觸起學著做詞.
可惜還未熟稔 他便暫失音訊. 有些遺憾
但是 我因著他做的曲試著嚐試的回憶卻是難忘!
希望他回來能有更棒的創作~~
也希望有緣的朋友 能欣賞他的歌!!

**100/07/12: 執鈞回來了 除了創作 網頁設計已學成呢!
未來他的發展更多元啦~

隨風曾經

執鈞的部落閣
作曲: 殷執鈞 (人氣王的寂寞 原曲)

作詞: 葉泯均

天幕隱晦 我留著你給的疲憊

獨自承擔 曲終人散紊亂思維
這一抹黑淵 烙印痛徹心扉 
我怎能 讓你含懟

※ 無意消退 在我心理唯一地位
荏苒時光 慢慢濃郁 繾綣滋味
撫過的髮尾 你的雙唇 眼淚 

從來就 如影相隨


轉過的身影

迴旋迴旋盪漾 獨自思量
黯淡的冰涼

堆積堆積的感傷 也惆悵


指尖劃過的傷 映在胸膛更顯狂張(揚)

圜轉的言語啊 不能出口只能躲藏 
汲汲追尋的晴光 是否不再 不再惝佯
遺留下的徬徨 穿梭耳際仍然沸揚

熾熱般的願望 停留在哪才不迷惘

怎能繼續流浪港灣 繼續漂泊般

太多繼續只是 繼續難安※

如果相遇的這段 選擇遺忘不成羈絆
編織成串芳香 隨風到遠方 
陪著你 一起飛翔(不再流浪)

掃描探測藉以測定大腦想像力激活區域

Brain scans to probe  how books fire imagination

By Paul Harris and Alison Flood THE GUARDIAN, LONDON Tuesday, Apr 13, 2010

‘Neuro lit crit’ is the study of how great writing affects the synapses of the human mind. But can science ever decode /'di'kod/ the artistic impulse?

神經文學評論是一種關於優異寫作如何影響人類心智的神經元突觸之研究，但是科學家真能破解藝術家的神來一筆嗎?

在英國 , 歌唱幫助有特殊需求的未成年學生

 Singing helps special needs pupils in UK

By Sarah Jewell
THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Saturday, Mar 06, 2010, Page 9

Singing helps children outside mainstream education to develop, become more confident and integrate with their peers, says a new study from the national singing program for England and Wales called Sing Up. The report, “Beyond the Mainstream,” is a comprehensive assessment of the success of their 14 pilot programs across the two countries that were designed to reach more than 800 children with different needs who are schooled outside of mainstream primaries.

一項來自英格蘭和威爾士稱為”開懷高歌”的國際歌唱計畫最新的研究顯示 ， 唱歌能幫助兒童發展主流以外的教育， 使其更加自信地融入他們的同儕團體。 “超越主流” 的報告，他們的14個領航計劃是一個橫跨兩個國家成功的綜合性評估,被設計的目的是觸及超過 800多名受過主流之外的基礎教育訓練之不同需求的兒童。

青年人期望能增加儲蓄

Young adults expected to boost savings

ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY: Almost 90 percent of survey respondents in the 18 to 30 age bracket were concerned about saving money, the highest of any age group

經濟的不確定性 : 18 至30歲年齡組別的受訪者中有百分之九十幾乎都很關注儲蓄，是受訪年齡組群最高的

爵士樂 Jazz

原文

Jazz has been called America's classical music, and for good reason.

Along with the blues, its forefather, it is one of the first truly indigenous musics to develop in America, yet its unpredictable, risky ventures into improvisation gave it critical cache with scholars that the blues lacked. At the outset, jazz was dance music, performed by swinging big bands. Soon, the dance elements faded into the background and improvisation became the key element of the music. As the genre evolved, the music split into a number of different styles, from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of be-bop and the laid-back, mellow harmonies of cool jazz to the jittery, atonal forays of free jazz and the earthy grooves of soul jazz. What tied it all together was a foundation in the blues, a reliance on group interplay and unpredictable improvisation. Throughout the years, and in all the different styles, those are the qualities that defined jazz.

爵士樂有其適當的理由被稱為美國的古典音樂。與它的前身藍調一樣，它是第一個真正的在美國發展的本土音樂形式之一，但其調性莫測，大膽不假思索的即興創作正是藍調樂手們所缺乏的樂風速寫。爵士樂發展初始，是由搖擺大樂隊演奏的跳舞音樂。不久，舞蹈元素蛻變為幕後襯景，即興演繹成為樂曲關鍵的音素。隨著流派演變，音樂分成多個不同風格，從快感，重打擊樂節奏的咆踍爵士及輕鬆悠閒柔美和聲的酷(冷)爵士 到以顫抖、無調的打擊樂嘗試為主的自由爵士和樸實意味濃烈的靈魂爵士，它是以藍調為基底。一組相互影響演奏團體和無法預測的即興表演組合而成。行之多年後，融合所有迥異風格，確立了爵士樂的特質。 (Charlene Yeh)