来源：《今日心理学》
日期：2021年1月15日
It was 10 years ago this week that U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at close range at a meet-and-greet with constituents in Arizona. The bullet entered near her left eye, passed through the left side of her brain, and exited at the back of her skull. The injury was devastating, and Ms. Giffords’ life was forever changed.
10年前的这个星期，美国众议员加布里埃尔·吉福兹在亚利桑那州与选民见面时被近距离击中头部。子弹从她左眼附近射入，穿过左脑，从脑后射出。这次受伤是毁灭性的，吉福兹的生活从此改变了。
But a decade later she is going strong, and the story of her amazing comeback includes a music therapist who helped her find her voice again. It provides a valuable lesson in the brain’s ability to heal even after unspeakable injury.
但十年后，她身体情况正在变好，她惊人的复出传奇中包括一个音乐治疗师帮助她能重新开口说话。这给我们上了宝贵的一课，说明大脑即使在遭受难以言喻的创伤后仍有能力痊愈。
A bullet passing through the brain does almost incalculable damage to the structures within it. Not only does the bullet destroy tissue along its path, it also breaks vital neural connections and causes swelling as the brain reacts to the injury. (The swelling is so dangerous that neurosurgeons commonly remove a portion of a patient’s skull for a few days to allow the brain to expand until the swelling goes down.) As the brain starts to heal, however, it is capable of creating new connections. In Ms. Giffords’ case, an excellent recovery program helped retrain her brain and make those new connections.
一颗穿过大脑的子弹会对大脑内部结构造成几乎无法估量的伤害。子弹不仅会破坏沿途的组织，还会破坏重要的神经连接，并在大脑对创伤做出反应时导致肿胀。(肿胀非常危险，所以神经外科医生通常会将病人的部分颅骨切除几天，让大脑扩张，直到肿胀消退。)然而，当大脑开始愈合时，它就有能力建立新的联系。在吉福兹的案例中，一个出色的康复项目帮助她重新训练了大脑，并建立了这些新的连接。
The left side of the brain, where the bullet made its way, not only controls movement on the right side of the body, it also includes two critical regions that affect speech and language: Broca’s Area, which controls our ability to produce speech, and Wernicke’s Area, which gives us the ability to comprehend language. Of course, speech also requires us to use memory (to find the vocabulary) and cognition. To say that it’s a complicated function is an understatement—in many ways, speech is what makes us human.
子弹穿过的大脑左侧，不仅控制着身体右侧的运动，它还包括两个影响说话和语言的关键区域：说话中枢，它控制着我们说话的能力；韦尼克区，它赋予我们理解语言的能力。当然，说话也需要我们使用记忆(寻找词汇)和认知。说它是一种复杂的功能是种轻描淡写的说法——在很多方面，语言是我们人类的特征。
When Ms. Giffords woke up after the incident, she was partially paralyzed and unable to speak. She understood what others said, which meant that her speech and language centers were not beyond repair. But how to retrain her brain to allow her to speak again?
当吉福兹在事故后醒来时，她已经部分瘫痪，不能说话。她能听懂别人说的话，这意味着她的语言中枢并非无法修复。但如何训练她的大脑让她重新开口说话呢?
Maegan Morrow is a music therapist at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a recovery hospital in Houston, where Giffords was transferred to be near her husband, former astronaut (now U.S. Senator) Mark Kelly. The remarkable way music is processed in the brain is what allowed Morrow to use it to help Giffords re-learn how to speak.
梅根·莫罗是休斯顿康复医院蒂尔纪念赫尔曼的音乐治疗师，吉福兹被转移到该医院，这里也距离她丈夫、前宇航员（现为美国参议员）马克·凯利更近。音乐在大脑中的独特处理方式，让莫罗得以利用它帮助吉福兹重新学习如何说话。
Unlike speech, which is concentrated in those two highly specialized areas of the brain, music is processed by a much wider range of brain structures. Music involves so many of the senses—it’s an auditory experience, of course, but it also involves emotion, memory, rhythm, and language. Importantly for Giffords, lyrics are processed with those language centers in the left hemisphere but sounds and music are interpreted in the right hemisphere. The centrally located hippocampus controls memory, including song lyrics (which is why we sometimes have trouble coming up with a common word but can remember every line of the theme song from our high school ball).
语言集中在大脑的这两个高度专一的区域，而音乐不同，它由更广泛的大脑结构来处理。音乐涉及很多感官——它当然是一种听觉体验，但它也涉及情感、记忆、节奏和语言。对吉福兹来说，重要的是：虽然歌词是由左脑的语言中心处理的，但声音和音乐是由右脑处理的。位于中心位置的海马体控制着记忆，包括歌词(这就是为什么我们有时想不起一个常见的词，却能记住高中毕业舞会主题歌的每一句歌词)。
Neuroscientists have long observed that many individuals with aphasia (meaning those who cannot speak) are remarkably able to sing songs even though they could not form those same words otherwise. Children who are speech delayed, patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and those with brain injuries like Ms. Giffords’—all have been known to sing even if they cannot speak.
神经科学家早就注意到，许多失语症患者(指那些不能说话的人)都有惊人的唱歌能力，即使他们不能形成同样的歌词。语言迟缓的儿童，阿尔茨海默氏症患者，以及像吉福兹女士这样的脑损伤患者——即使他们不会说话，他们也会唱歌。
Even as a specialist in the brain, I find it to be a source of wonder—we humans are so much more complicated, with brains so incredibly intricate and mysterious, than anyone fully comprehends. I am grateful for Ms. Giffords’ recovery, and for the skilled therapist who made it possible.
作为大脑研究专家的我，也觉得这是一个奇迹，我们人类如此复杂，大脑更是令人难以置信的复杂和神秘，没有人都完全理解。我很感谢吉福兹女士的康复，也很感激那位让一切成为可能的专业治疗师。