Unit 3 Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

URL:http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung.html

We live in a remarkable time, the age of genomics. Your genome is the entire sequence of your DNA. Your sequence and mine are slightly different. That's why we look different. I've got brown eyes; you might have blue or gray. But it's not just skin-deep. The headlines tell us that genes can give us scary diseases, maybe even shape our personality, or give us mental disorders. Our genes seem to have awesome power over our destinies. And yet, I would like to think that I am more than my genes. What do you, guys, think? Are you more than your genes? Sebastian Seung: What am I? I am my connectome.

Удивительный; вся; последовательность; немного; заголовки; страшные; болезни; формировать; умственные расстройства; похоже; колоссальное; судьбы.

Well, so far only one connectome is known, that of this tiny worm. Its modest nervous system consists of just 300 neurons. And in the 1970s and '80s, a team of scientists mapped all 7,000 connections between the neurons. In this diagram, every node is a neuron, and every line is a connection. This is the connectome of the worm C. elegans. Your connectome is far more complex than this because your brain contains 100 billion neurons and 10,000 times as many connections. Your connectome contains one million times more connections than your genome has letters. That's a lot of information.

Червячок; скромный; нанести на карту; нематода (червь); поместиться; содержать.

What's in that information? We don't know for sure, but there are theories. Since the 19th century, neuroscientists have speculated that maybe your memories – the information that makes you, you – maybe your memories are stored in the connections between your brain's neurons. And perhaps other aspects of your personal identity – maybe your personality and your intellect – maybe they're also encoded in the connections between your neurons. And so now you can see why I proposed this hypothesis: I am my connectome. I didn't ask you to chant it because it's true; I just want you to remember it. And in fact, we don't know if this hypothesis is correct, because we have never had technologies powerful enough to test it. Finding that worm connectome took over a dozen years of tedious labor. And to find the connectomes of brains more like our own, we need more sophisticated technologies, that are automated, that will speed up the process of finding connectomes. And in the next few minutes, I'll tell you about some of these technologies, which are currently under development in my lab and the labs of my collaborators.

Размышлять, обдумывать; хранить; закодированы; заявить, дюжина, масса; утомительный; продвинутый; в настоящее время; разработка, развитие; коллеги, единомышленники.

Now you've probably seen pictures of neurons before. You can recognize them instantly by their fantastic shapes. They extend long and delicate branches, and in short, they look like trees. But this is just a single neuron. In order to find connectomes, we have to see all the neurons at the same time. So let's meet Bobby Kasthuri, who works in the laboratory of Jeff Lichtman at Harvard University. Bobby is holding fantastically thin slices of a mouse brain. And we're zooming in by a factor of 100,000 times to obtain the resolution, so that we can see the branches of neurons all at the same time. Except, you still may not really recognize them, and that's because we have to work in three dimensions.

Возможно; узнать; тотчас; формы; тянуть; ажурный, хрупкий; ветви; держать; срезы; получить, достать, раздобыть; разрешение; кроме.

If we take many images of many slices of the brain and stack them up, we get a three-dimensional image. And still, you may not see the branches. So we start at the top, and we color in the cross-section of one branch in red, and we do that for the next slice and for the next slice. And we keep on doing that, slice after slice. If we continue through the entire stack, we can reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of a small fragment of a branch of a neuron. And we can do that for another neuron in green. And you can see that the green neuron touches the red neuron at two locations, and these are what are called synapses.

Сложить вместе; все же; сверху; поперечный срез; восстановить.

Let's zoom in on one synapse, and keep your eyes on the interior of the green neuron. You should see small circles – these are called vesicles. They contain a molecule know as a neurotransmitter. And so when the green neuron wants to communicate, it wants to send a message to the red neuron, it spits out neurotransmitter. At the synapse, the two neurons are said to be connected like two friends talking on the telephone.

Внутренняя часть; везикулы; содержать; нейромедиаторы; передать информацию; выплюнуть.

So you see how to find a synapse. How can we find an entire connectome? Well, we take this three-dimensional stack of images and treat it as a gigantic three-dimensional coloring book. We color every neuron in a different color, and then we look through all of the images, find the synapses and note the colors of the two neurons involved in each synapse. If we can do that throughout all the images, we could find a connectome.

Весь; запоминать, отмечать.

Now, at this point, you've learned the basics of neurons and synapses. And so I think we're ready to tackle one of the most important questions in neuroscience: how are the brains of men and women different? According to this self-help book, guys brains are like waffles; they keep their lives compartmentalized in boxes. Girls' brains are like spaghetti; everything in their life is connected to everything else. It doesn't matter whether you're a guy or girl, everyone's brains are like spaghetti. Just as one strand of spaghetti contacts many other strands on your plate, one neuron touches many other neurons through their entangled branches. One neuron can be connected to so many other neurons, because there can be synapses at these points of contact. By now, you might have sort of lost perspective on how large this cube of brain tissue actually is.

Браться за решение; согласно; офисный шкаф; очень тонкие спагетти; соединяться; тарелка; спутанный; ткань.

And so let's do a series of comparisons to show you. I assure you, this is very tiny. It's just six microns on a side. So, here's how it stacks up against an entire neuron. And you can tell that, really, only the smallest fragments of branches are contained inside this cube. And a neuron, well, that's smaller than brain.

Сравнения; уверять; маленький.

In the 17th century, the mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, wrote of his dread of the infinite, his feeling of insignificance at contemplating the vast reaches of outer space.

Страх; малозначительность; задумываться о чем-то; огромный; внешний.

And yet, I persist in this quixotic endeavor. And indeed, these days I harbor new hopes. Someday, a fleet of microscopes will capture every neuron and every synapse in a vast database of images. And some day, artificially intelligent supercomputers will analyze the images without human assistance to summarize them in a connectome. It will take the work of generations to succeed. At the present time, my collaborators and I, what we're aiming for is much more modest – just to find partial connectomes of tiny chunks brain. For now, let me try to convince you of the plausibility of this hypothesis, that it's actually worth taking seriously.

Все же; настаивать, донкихотское; попытка, дело, предприятие; в самом деле; затаить, вынашивать; захватить; база данных; участие; объединить; увенчать успехом; ставить цель; скромный; частичный; убедить; правдоподобие.

As you grow during childhood and age during adulthood, your personal identity changes slowly. Likewise, every connectome changes over time. What kinds of changes happen? Well, neurons, like trees, can grow new branches, and they can lose old ones. Synapses can be created, and they can be eliminated. And synapses can grow larger, and they can grow smaller. Second question: what causes these changes? To some extent, they are programmed by your genes. But that's not the whole story, because there are signals, electrical signals, that travel along the branches of neurons and chemical signals that jump across from branch to branch. These signals are called neural activity. And there's a lot of evidence that neural activity is encoding our thoughts, feelings and perceptions, our mental experiences. And there's a lot of evidence that neural activity can cause your connections to change. And if you put those two facts together, it means that your experiences can change your connectome. And that's why every connectome is unique, even those of genetically identical twins. The connectome is where nature meets nurture.

Взрослость; уничтожать; степень; свидетельство; мысли.

What's in this picture? A cool and refreshing stream of water, you say. What else is in this picture? Do not forget that groove in the Earth called the stream bed. Without it, the water would not know in which direction to flow. And with the stream, I would like to propose a metaphor for the relationship between neural activity and connectivity. Neural activity is constantly changing. It's like the water of the stream; it never sits still. The connections of the brain's neural network determines the pathways along which neural activity flows. And so the connectome is like bed of the stream; but the metaphor is richer than that, because it's true that the stream bed guides the flow of the water, but over long timescales, the water also reshapes the bed of the stream.

Освежающий; поток; канавка; направление; течь; предложить; постоянно; проводящие пути; направлять; течение (долго) периода времени; изменять форму.

So let's return from the heights of metaphor and return to science. Suppose our technologies for finding connectomes actually work. How will we go about testing the hypothesis «I am my connectome?» Well, I propose a direct test. Let us attempt to read out memories from connectomes. Consider the memory of long temporal sequences of movements, like a pianist playing a Beethoven sonata. According to a theory that dates back to the 19th century, such memories are stored as chains of synaptic connections inside your brain. Because, if the first neurons in the chain are activated, through their synapses they send messages to the second neurons, which are activated, and so on down the line, like a chain of falling dominoes.

Предположим; предлагать; прямой; предпринять попытку; считать; рассматривать; последовательность; хранить; цепочки.

So one way of trying to test the theory is to look for such chains inside connectomes. But it won't be easy, because they're not going to look like this. They're going to be scrambled up. So we'll have to use our computers to try to unscramble the chain. And if we can do that, the sequence of the neurons we recover from that unscrambling will be a prediction of the pattern of neural activity that is replayed in the brain during memory recall.

Перемешаны; восстанавливать; прогноз; образец; переигрывать.

What a mess – have you ever tried to wire up a system as complex as this? I hope not. But if you have, you know it's very easy to make a mistake. The branches of neurons are like the wires of the brain. It's a big number. I estimate, millions of miles, all packed in your skull. And if you appreciate that number, you can easily see there is huge potential for mis-wiring of the brain. And indeed, the popular press loves headlines like, «Anorexic brains are wired differently,» or «Autistic brains are wired differently.» These are plausible claims, but in truth, we can't see the brain's wiring clearly enough to tell if these are really true.

Возиться, беспорядок, путаница; провода, подключать; догадываться; длина; намек; оценка; череп; ценить, оценить; действительно; заголовки; правдоподобный; утверждения.

Sometimes the best way to test a hypothesis is to consider its most extreme implication. Philosophers know this game very well. If you believe that I am my connectome, I think you must also accept the idea that death is the destruction of your connectome. I mention this because there are prophets today who claim that technology will fundamentally alter the human condition and perhaps even transform the human species. One of their most cherished dreams is to cheat death by that practice known as cryonics. If you pay 100,000 dollars, you can arrange to have your body frozen after death and stored in liquid nitrogen in one of these tanks in an Arizona warehouse, awaiting a future civilization that is advanced to resurrect you.

Следствие; разрушение; провидцы; утверждать; лелеемая; деятельность; крионика; организовать; развитая; оживить.

Should we ridicule the modern seekers of immortality, calling them fools? I propose that we attempt to find a connectome of a frozen brain. We know that damage to the brain occurs after death and during freezing. The question is: has that damage erased the connectome? If it has, there is no way that any future civilization will be able to recover the memories of these frozen brains. Resurrection might succeed for the body, but not for the mind.

Высмеивать; бессмертие; глупцы; хихикать; могилы; предлагаю; попытаться; происходить, случаться заморозка; стереть; восстановить; воскрешение; произойти удачно.

Glossary of the Unit

remarkable	удивительный	mental disorders	умственные расстройства
entire	весь	seem	похоже
sequence	последовательность	awesome	колоссальное
slightly	немного; слегка	destinies	судьбы
headlinе	заголовок	statement	заявление; утверждение
scary	страшный	cheering	возгласы одобрения
diseases	болезни	to be willing	готовы
shape	формировать; форма	tiny worm	червячок
modest	скромный	elegans	нематода (червь)
to map	нанести на карту	fit	поместиться
contain	содержать	speculate	размышлять, обдумывать
stored	хранить	tedious	утомительный
encoded	закодированный	sophisticated	продвинутый
propose	заявить; предложить	currently	в настоящее время
dozen	дюжина, масса	development	разработка, развитие
collaborators	коллеги, единомышленники	probably	возможно
recognize	узнать; признать	branches	ветви
instantly	тотчас	hold	держать
shape	форма	slices	срезы
extend	тянуть, расширять	obtain	получить, достать, раздобыть
delicate	ажурный, хрупкий	resolution	разрешение
except	кроме	stack	сложить вместе
still	все же; еще	cross-section	поперечный срез
top	сверху	reconstruct	восстановить
Interior	внутренняя часть	neurotransmitter	нейромедиаторы
vesicles	везикулы	communicate	передать информацию
contain	содержать	spit	выплюнуть
entire	весь	note	запоминать, отмечать
tackle	браться за решение	contact	соединяться
according to	согласно	plate	тарелка
compartmentalized	офисный (шкаф)	entangled	спутанный
capellini	очень тонкие спагетти	tissue	ткань
comparisons	сравнения	hopeless	безнадежно
assure	уверять	naked	невооруженный
tiny	маленький; крошечный	hidden	скрытый
give up	оставить, бросить	reveal	открыть, поведать
dread	страх, ужас, трепет, страшиться, испытывать благоговейный страх (трепет)	curiosity	любопытство
insignificance	малозначительность	despair	печаль, отчаяние
contemplate	задумываться о чем-то	awesome	восхитительный в своей сложности
vast	огромный	dare	посметь
outer	внешний	summarize	объединить
yet	все же; еще не	succeed	увенчать успехом
quixotic	донкихотский	aim	ставить цель
endeavor	попытка, дело, предприятие	modest	скромный
indeed	в самом деле	partial	частичный
harbor	затаить, вынашивать	convince	убедить
capture	захватить	plausibility	правдоподобие
database	база данных	adulthood	взрослость
eliminate	уничтожать	mere	простой
extent	степень	empowering	вдохновляющий
evidence	свидетельство	guide	направлять
refreshing	освежающий	timescals	шкала времени; масштаб времени
stream	поток	reshape	изменять форму
groove	канавка	ascend	подняться
direction	направление	heights	высоты
flow	течь; поток	remind	напомнить
propose	предложить	perceptions	ощущения, восприятие
constantly	постоянно	suppose	предположим; полагать; предлагать
pathways	проводящие пути; дороги; тропинки	consider	считать, рассматривать
propose	предлагать	sequencе	последовательность
direct	прямой	store	хранить
attempt	предпринять попытку	chain	цепь
scramblе	взболтать	pattern	образец; схема
recover	восстанавливать	replay	переигрывать
prediction	прогноз	appreciate	ценить, оценить
mess	возиться, беспорядок, путаница	indeed	действительно
wires	провода, подключать	headlines	заголовки
guess	догадываться; полагать	plausible	правдоподобный
length	длина	claims	утверждения
hint	намек	disorders	заболевания
estimate	оценка	practice	деятельность
skull	череп	cryonics	крионика
Implication	следствие	arrange	организовать
destruction	разрушение	advanced	развитая
prophets	провидцы	resurrect	оживить
claim	утверждать; требовать	immortality	бессмертие
cherish	лелеять	chuckle	хихикать
ridicule	высмеивать	propose	предлагать
fools	глупцы	damage	повреждение
graves	могилы	freezing	заморозка
attempt	попытаться	recover	восстановить
occur	происходить, случаться	succeed	произойти удачно; преуспеть
erase	стереть	quest	искать; поиск
resurrection	воскрешение	evolve	эволюционировать
describe	описывать	ancestor	предок
propel	побуждать	amazing	удивительный
ape-like	обезьяноподобный	opportunity	возможность
distinguish	отличать; различать	deconstruct	разбирать

• Ex. 1. Answer the questions:

1. What is a gene?

2. How mighty are genes?

3. Do you agree that our genes have awesome power over our destiny?

4.What is the composition of a tiny worm’s nervous system?

5. What is actually stored in the connections between neurons?

6. What are entangled branches of neurons for?

7. Do you think that your personal identity is stored in the connections between neurons?

8. Do connectomes change with time? What kind of changes take place?

9. What do connectomes look like? In what way do they differ from neurons?

10. What is the nature of signals that go through connectomes?

11. What kind of metaphor does the lecturer use to describe the processes taking place in the connectome?

12. How do empowering ideas affect neurons and connections between them?

13. What do female and male brains look like

14. Are memories stored as chains of synaptic connections? Speak on the examples that the lecturer gives.

15. What does the lecturer call the most striking technological challenge of our time?

16. What is stored in the form of a chain of synaptic connections?

17. Can we read memories through dissecting connectomes?

18. What is meant by miswiring of the brain?

19. What was the purpose of cryonics?

20. How can the stream of consciousness function in terms of neurons and signals?

21. Is the connectome intact in case of freezing the body?

Ex. 2. Does the lecturer sound convincing? Make up a number of statements using the following expressions

to argue logically – приводить логичные аргументы во время спора

to argue soundly – обоснованно аргументировать

to argue against smth. – приводить доводы против (чего-л.)

to argue for / in favour of smth. – приводить доводы в пользу (чего-л.)

to argue for the new law – приводить доводы в пользу нового закона

Ex. 3. Write an essay on the possible ways of improving the system of connection between your neurons.