評論
打印
It was the 1970s in Romania.
這是20世紀(jì)70年代的羅馬尼亞。
Secretary General Nicolae Ceausescu was the communist leader in charge of the country
總書記尼古拉·齊奧塞斯庫是管理國家的共產(chǎn)黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，
and he wanted to grow the population,
他想要增加人口，
so he enacted a series of policies that outlawed both abortion and birth control.
于是他制定了一系列政策，宣布墮胎和節(jié)育都不合法。
As you can probably imagine, this did not go very well.
正如你所想，事情進(jìn)行的并不順利。
The population did grow, but so did widespread poverty,
人口確實(shí)增長了，但隨之而來的是大范圍饑荒，
and by the time Ceausescu was overthrown in 1989,
到1989年齊奧塞斯庫政權(quán)被推翻時(shí)，
more than 100,000 children had been abandoned to institutionalized, state-run orphanages.
已經(jīng)有10萬多名兒童被遺棄在了制度化的國營孤兒院里。
Which maybe would have been okay if they'd been given proper care. But they weren't.
如果他們得到了合適的照顧，也許還不錯(cuò)。但他們沒有得到照顧。
When the regime fell, it became clear that the conditions in these orphanages were horrific.
當(dāng)政權(quán)垮臺時(shí)，很明顯，孤兒院的條件很糟糕。
The children were extremely malnourished,
孩子們極度營養(yǎng)不良，
had very little social interaction with adults, and minimal care from their nurses.
與成年人幾乎沒有社會(huì)交往，從護(hù)士那里得到的照顧也很少。
Some had been tied to their beds.
有些人曾被綁在床上。
They were effectively left to fend for themselves, in some cases almost from birth.
他們實(shí)際上是被留下來自謀生路的，在某些情況下，他們幾乎從出生就開始謀生了。
Psychologists had already known that early-life relationships and care were incredibly important for brain development.
心理學(xué)家已經(jīng)知道，早期生活中的人際關(guān)系和照料對大腦的發(fā)育極其重要。
But what followed the release of these children is one of the clearest examples we've ever seen
但是這些孩子被釋放后的情況是我們見過的最明顯例子之一：
of what happens when someone is almost completely deprived of those things,
人們幾乎被完全剝奪了這些體驗(yàn)時(shí)會(huì)發(fā)生什么，
as well as how they might be able to recover.
以及他們?nèi)绾文軌蚧謴?fù)。
If you're like most people, you probably don't remember much from before about the age of three,
如果你和大多數(shù)人一樣，那么你可能記不住三歲之前的太多東西，
but some pretty important stuff happens in those early years.
但早年間會(huì)有一些非常重要的事情發(fā)生。
Human infants are basically helpless, so obviously they depend on their caregivers for food and shelter.
人類嬰兒基本上是無助的，所以很明顯，他們依靠自己的看護(hù)人來獲得食物和庇護(hù)。
But babies also need social relationships to grow and learn.
但是嬰兒也需要社會(huì)關(guān)系來成長和學(xué)習(xí)。
And without that, the Romanian children in the institutions
沒有這些關(guān)系，羅馬尼亞孤兒院里的孩子們
didn't develop cognitive, emotional and social skills the way they should have.
就不能發(fā)展出本該有的認(rèn)知、情感和社會(huì)技能。
After the regime fell, people began adopting these children into more stable families, mostly outside Romania.
羅馬尼亞政權(quán)倒臺后，人們開始把這些孩子送到更穩(wěn)定的家庭，這些家庭大多數(shù)是在羅馬尼亞境外。
As they were integrated into their new families,
當(dāng)他們?nèi)谌胄录彝r(shí)，
psychology researchers began to study how they'd been affected by this early, extreme deprivation,
心理學(xué)研究人員開始研究他們?nèi)绾问艿皆缙跇O度貧困的影響，
and the factors that influenced their recovery.
以及影響他們康復(fù)的因素。
One of the main avenues of research was the English and Romanian Adoptee Study,
該研究的主要途徑之一是英國籍和羅馬尼亞籍被收養(yǎng)者的研究，
which followed 165 Romanian children adopted by families in the UK, 144 of whom had been in these institutions.
它追蹤了英國家庭收養(yǎng)的165名羅馬尼亞兒童，其中144名曾住過那些孤兒院。
For comparison, it also included 52 children adopted from within the UK.
為了比較，它還追蹤了52名從英國境內(nèi)收養(yǎng)的兒童。
The study was longitudinal, meaning it followed the children over time to track their progress,
這項(xiàng)研究是縱向的，也就是說它長年累月地追蹤孩子們的進(jìn)步，
in this case by using tests, observations, and in-depth interviews
通過測試、觀察和深度訪談
to measure things like their cognitive and social abilities.
來衡量他們的認(rèn)知能力和社交能力等。
Overall, after about 2 to 3 years in loving and supportive families,
總的來說，在友愛助人的家庭生活兩三年后，
these children had gone a long way toward catching up to their typically-developing peers.
這些孩子在追趕那些正常發(fā)育的同齡人的道路上前進(jìn)了很多。
But the degree of catch-up was related to how old they were when they were adopted.
但是追趕的程度與他們被收養(yǎng)時(shí)的年齡有關(guān)。
Babies who were adopted before they were about 6 months old showed the highest degree of recovery,
未滿6個(gè)月被領(lǐng)養(yǎng)的嬰兒恢復(fù)程度最高，
probably because it was still relatively early in their brains' development.
這可能是因?yàn)樗蕴幱诖竽X發(fā)育的相對早期，
But older children were much more likely to show cognitive delays
但年齡較大的孩子更容易出現(xiàn)認(rèn)知延遲、
and difficulties forming healthy relationships with their adoptive parents,
難以和養(yǎng)父母建立健康關(guān)系等情況，
even if you take into account things like malnutrition and their overall health.
即使你把營養(yǎng)不良和他們的整體健康等因素考慮進(jìn)去了。
Among other things, a lot of them also had problems with attention, impulse control, and hyperactivity, and some were aggressive.
除此之外，很多人在注意力、沖動(dòng)控制和極度活躍等方面也會(huì)出現(xiàn)問題，有些具有攻擊性。
These kids also tended to have a harder time understanding and regulating their emotions,
這些孩子也更難理解和調(diào)節(jié)自己的情緒，
and they weren't as good at identifying emotions in other people's facial expressions.
而且他們也不擅長識別別人面部表情中的情緒。
They'd gone without a consistent bond with a caregiver or any bond at all, really,
他們和照顧者沒有持續(xù)的聯(lián)系，或者沒有任何聯(lián)系，
for so long that their social and emotional skills just hadn't developed,
因?yàn)楸缓鲆暤臅r(shí)間太久了，以至于他們的社交和情感技能沒有發(fā)展起來，
in a way that wasn't easy to reverse later in life.
在某種程度上，這在以后的生活中都很難逆轉(zhuǎn)。
Even before studying the children adopted from Romanian institutions,
即使在研究從羅馬尼亞孤兒院收養(yǎng)的兒童之前，
we'd known that neglect in early childhood could cause all kinds of developmental delays.
我們已經(jīng)知道，幼兒時(shí)期的忽視會(huì)導(dǎo)致各種發(fā)育遲緩。
But you can't really design an experiment to study that,
但是你不能設(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)來研究它，
you can't subject kids to severe neglect on purpose.
你不能故意讓孩子受到嚴(yán)重的忽視。
So trying to understand these children
所以試著去理解這些孩子，
after the fact gave researchers hard data on the effects of early neglect that they couldn't have gotten otherwise.
他們給了研究人員關(guān)于早期忽視影響的確鑿數(shù)據(jù)，否則他們不可能得到。
But the findings from the orphanage studies taught us something else about brain development, too:
但是孤兒院的研究結(jié)果也教會(huì)了我們一些關(guān)于大腦發(fā)育的東西：
the restorative power of relationships and interventions, even in cases of severe deprivation.
即使是在極端貧困的情況下，我們?nèi)杂腥穗H關(guān)系和干預(yù)的恢復(fù)能力。
The human brain is incredibly malleable, and yes, it's most flexible early in life, but you can rewire it later on, too.
人類的大腦具有不可思議的可塑性，是的，它在生命早期最靈活，但是你也可以在之后重塑它。
At least to an extent.
至少在一定程度上是這樣。
The road to recovery has been far from easy,
恢復(fù)之路并非一帆風(fēng)順，
but a lot of the children who were adopted from these orphanages
但是從這些孤兒院領(lǐng)養(yǎng)的很多孩子
have recovered more than some experts would have thought possible.
其恢復(fù)的程度已經(jīng)超出了一些專家的想象。
There's no denying that those first few years of life are incredibly important,
不可否認(rèn)，生命的最初幾年非常重要，
and abuse and neglect do a ton of damage.
虐待和忽視會(huì)造成大量傷害。
But with the right treatment and care later on, the damage isn't necessarily permanent.
但擁有之后的恰當(dāng)治療和護(hù)理，這種損害不一定是永久性的。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych,
感謝您收看本期的心理科學(xué)秀，
which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
它是由Patron贊助的。
If you'd like to learn more about how our experiences drive our thoughts and behaviors,
如果你想了解更多關(guān)于“我們的經(jīng)歷如何驅(qū)動(dòng)我們的思想和行為”，
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登錄youtube.com/scishowpsych點(diǎn)擊訂閱。
