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We often find ourselves in an endless loop of thoughts.
我們时常会陷入无尽的思考循环之中。
That Susan is so funny...oh， I need to bring the car to the wash tomorrow… did I turn off the stove... why is this person being so loud... my toe feels weird... I feel like I know that person... here comes the sun， doo-doo-doo-doo.
We often find ourselves in an endless thought loop. And every so often， we try to stop this endless flow of thoughts by telling ourselves to just stop thinking. But do we or can we ever really stop thinking？
It depends on how you define “thinking，” said Michael Halassa， an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. A thought， which is the result of chemical firing between brain cells， can happen both on the conscious and unconscious level， he said.
The type of thinking we are aware of， such as the endless thoughts that pop up when we’re trying to sleep， can， in theory， be silenced. That’s presumably what meditation is all about， Halassa said.
But even though that’s what meditators strive to do—it’s not clear how much of a blank state they can actually achieve. “I don’t know if [completely stopping thinking] is theoretically possible and if it is， I think that would be incredibly difficult to test，” said Julia Kam， a cognitive scientist at the Knight Lab at the University of California， Berkeley.
But it’s clear that “meditators are a lot more tuned into what their thoughts are，” Kam said. “So when they’re supposed to be focused on something and their mind shifts away， then they’re just a lot better at picking up on1 that shifting of attention.”
There’s a difference between having a thought， and being aware that you’re having a thought， she said. So if you ask someone what they’re thinking about and they respond with “nothing，” they could just not be aware that they’re having thoughts， Kam said. For instance， you could be deeply in thought about a relationship or an upcoming test， and you only become aware of it when someone taps you on the shoulder and snaps you out of it， she said. People who are thinking about “nothing” could also be having stream of consciousness thoughts that don’t tell a coherent story， Halassa said.
But the brain never actually stops “thinking” in a broader sense. Most thoughts are actually happening in the background without us being aware of them， and “there’s not really a way to turn these things off，” Halassa said. If you see a familiar face in a crowd and think you know them， you might not be able to come up with how you know them right away， Halassa said. But maybe hours later， you’ll suddenly remember. That’s a result of your brain “thinking，” in the background， he said.
Even making decisions happens mostly unconsciously. For example， some of this background “thinking” results in what we call a “gut feeling，” Halassa said. “A lot of times our brains are crunching2 a lot of numbers and spitting out a gut feeling that we ultimately go with.” We don’t always have conscious access to our brain’s decision-making process and sometimes we create a story to explain the decision—sometimes it’s accurate， sometimes it’s not， he added.
Kam agrees that how you define “thinking” changes the answer to the question. “If you mean thinking， as in having an inner dialogue with ourselves， then， yes， we can stop having that inner dialogue，” Kam said. But if thinking means not focusing attention on anything in particular， “I think that would be a lot more difficult for the layperson.”
Even sitting here reading this， thinking about thinking is sending messages across a chain of neurons in the brain. So if we somehow manage to stop ourselves from “thinking” consciously， or achieve a “blank state of mind” through meditation， the brain won’t sign off3. It will continue to have thoughts—we just won’t be aware of them.
苏珊那人太好笑了……哎呦，明天我得把车开到洗车店……我关好炉子了吗……这人讲话声音怎么这么大……我的脚趾有点不对劲……我好像认识那个人……太阳出来了，嘟嘟嘟嘟。
我们时常会陷入无尽的思考循环之中。而且有时为了结束这种连绵不断的思绪，我们告诉自己干脆停止思考。不过，我们真的会，或者说真的能够停止思考吗？
麻省理工学院大脑与认知科学系助理教授迈克尔·哈拉萨表示，这取决于如何定义“思考”。他说，思想是脑细胞之间化学激发的产物，在有意识和无意识的层面都会发生。
我们意识到的这种思考，比如打算入睡时脑海里迸发出的无穷无尽的想法，理论上是可以平息的。哈拉萨认为，这想必就是冥想的目的所在。
不过，即使冥想者想要努力做到这一点，也尚不清楚他们究竟能在多大程度上达到思想的空白状态。“我不知道（完全停止思考）在理论上是否可行。即便确实可行，检验起来也极为困难。”加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校奈特实验室的认知科学家朱莉娅·卡姆如是说。
很显然，“冥想者更能感知自己的思想，”卡姆说，“因此每当他们需要专注于一件事情而心有旁骛，他们察觉注意力转移的能力比别人强得多。”
卡姆还说，有想法不等于意识到自己有想法。如果你打听别人正在想什么，而对方回答说“没什么”，那么他们可能没有意识到自己正在思考。她举例说，你可能正在琢磨一段感情或即将到来的一场考试，但只有别人拍拍肩膀让你回过神来，你才会意识到自己正在想事情。哈拉薩指出，“什么都没有想”的人也可能正在经历意识流式的思考，只不过这些思绪无法构成一个连贯的故事。
不过从更广泛的意义上讲，大脑从来不会真正停止“思考”。大多数思考实际上是在后台进行的，我们意识不到。哈拉萨说：“事实上人们无法将这些思考关掉。”
哈拉萨指出，如果你在人群中看到熟悉的面孔，感觉自己认识，你或许不能马上想起自己是如何认识的。但可能几个小时之后，你会突然回想起来。这就是大脑在后台“思考”的结果。
甚至决策也大都是在无意识间完成的。哈拉萨说，比如，有些后台“思考”会产生所谓的“直觉”，“很多时候，我们的大脑会快速进行大量运算，然后产生一种直觉，最终为我们采纳。”他补充说，我们并非总能感知大脑的决策过程，有时会构建一种情境来解释所做出的决定——这个情境有时准确，有时则不然。
上述问题的答案取决于如何定义“思考”，卡姆赞成这种说法。“如果你认为思考意味着在内心深处与自己进行对话，那么我们是可以停止这种内心对话的。”卡姆说。但是如果思考意味着无须专注于任何特定事物，“我认为对普通人来说，完全停止思考的难度要大得多。”
就连你坐在这里阅读本文，思考着思考这件事情，也会通过大脑中一连串的神经元传递信息。所以，假使我们设法阻止自己有意识地“思考”，或者通过冥想实现了“思维的空白状态”，大脑也不会停止运转。大脑会不断产生想法，只是我们意识不到。
（译者单位：中央民族大学）
我們时常会陷入无尽的思考循环之中。
That Susan is so funny...oh， I need to bring the car to the wash tomorrow… did I turn off the stove... why is this person being so loud... my toe feels weird... I feel like I know that person... here comes the sun， doo-doo-doo-doo.
We often find ourselves in an endless thought loop. And every so often， we try to stop this endless flow of thoughts by telling ourselves to just stop thinking. But do we or can we ever really stop thinking？
It depends on how you define “thinking，” said Michael Halassa， an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. A thought， which is the result of chemical firing between brain cells， can happen both on the conscious and unconscious level， he said.
The type of thinking we are aware of， such as the endless thoughts that pop up when we’re trying to sleep， can， in theory， be silenced. That’s presumably what meditation is all about， Halassa said.
But even though that’s what meditators strive to do—it’s not clear how much of a blank state they can actually achieve. “I don’t know if [completely stopping thinking] is theoretically possible and if it is， I think that would be incredibly difficult to test，” said Julia Kam， a cognitive scientist at the Knight Lab at the University of California， Berkeley.
But it’s clear that “meditators are a lot more tuned into what their thoughts are，” Kam said. “So when they’re supposed to be focused on something and their mind shifts away， then they’re just a lot better at picking up on1 that shifting of attention.”
There’s a difference between having a thought， and being aware that you’re having a thought， she said. So if you ask someone what they’re thinking about and they respond with “nothing，” they could just not be aware that they’re having thoughts， Kam said. For instance， you could be deeply in thought about a relationship or an upcoming test， and you only become aware of it when someone taps you on the shoulder and snaps you out of it， she said. People who are thinking about “nothing” could also be having stream of consciousness thoughts that don’t tell a coherent story， Halassa said.
But the brain never actually stops “thinking” in a broader sense. Most thoughts are actually happening in the background without us being aware of them， and “there’s not really a way to turn these things off，” Halassa said. If you see a familiar face in a crowd and think you know them， you might not be able to come up with how you know them right away， Halassa said. But maybe hours later， you’ll suddenly remember. That’s a result of your brain “thinking，” in the background， he said.
Even making decisions happens mostly unconsciously. For example， some of this background “thinking” results in what we call a “gut feeling，” Halassa said. “A lot of times our brains are crunching2 a lot of numbers and spitting out a gut feeling that we ultimately go with.” We don’t always have conscious access to our brain’s decision-making process and sometimes we create a story to explain the decision—sometimes it’s accurate， sometimes it’s not， he added.
Kam agrees that how you define “thinking” changes the answer to the question. “If you mean thinking， as in having an inner dialogue with ourselves， then， yes， we can stop having that inner dialogue，” Kam said. But if thinking means not focusing attention on anything in particular， “I think that would be a lot more difficult for the layperson.”
Even sitting here reading this， thinking about thinking is sending messages across a chain of neurons in the brain. So if we somehow manage to stop ourselves from “thinking” consciously， or achieve a “blank state of mind” through meditation， the brain won’t sign off3. It will continue to have thoughts—we just won’t be aware of them.
苏珊那人太好笑了……哎呦，明天我得把车开到洗车店……我关好炉子了吗……这人讲话声音怎么这么大……我的脚趾有点不对劲……我好像认识那个人……太阳出来了，嘟嘟嘟嘟。
我们时常会陷入无尽的思考循环之中。而且有时为了结束这种连绵不断的思绪，我们告诉自己干脆停止思考。不过，我们真的会，或者说真的能够停止思考吗？
麻省理工学院大脑与认知科学系助理教授迈克尔·哈拉萨表示，这取决于如何定义“思考”。他说，思想是脑细胞之间化学激发的产物，在有意识和无意识的层面都会发生。
我们意识到的这种思考，比如打算入睡时脑海里迸发出的无穷无尽的想法，理论上是可以平息的。哈拉萨认为，这想必就是冥想的目的所在。
不过，即使冥想者想要努力做到这一点，也尚不清楚他们究竟能在多大程度上达到思想的空白状态。“我不知道（完全停止思考）在理论上是否可行。即便确实可行，检验起来也极为困难。”加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校奈特实验室的认知科学家朱莉娅·卡姆如是说。
很显然，“冥想者更能感知自己的思想，”卡姆说，“因此每当他们需要专注于一件事情而心有旁骛，他们察觉注意力转移的能力比别人强得多。”
卡姆还说，有想法不等于意识到自己有想法。如果你打听别人正在想什么，而对方回答说“没什么”，那么他们可能没有意识到自己正在思考。她举例说，你可能正在琢磨一段感情或即将到来的一场考试，但只有别人拍拍肩膀让你回过神来，你才会意识到自己正在想事情。哈拉薩指出，“什么都没有想”的人也可能正在经历意识流式的思考，只不过这些思绪无法构成一个连贯的故事。
不过从更广泛的意义上讲，大脑从来不会真正停止“思考”。大多数思考实际上是在后台进行的，我们意识不到。哈拉萨说：“事实上人们无法将这些思考关掉。”
哈拉萨指出，如果你在人群中看到熟悉的面孔，感觉自己认识，你或许不能马上想起自己是如何认识的。但可能几个小时之后，你会突然回想起来。这就是大脑在后台“思考”的结果。
甚至决策也大都是在无意识间完成的。哈拉萨说，比如，有些后台“思考”会产生所谓的“直觉”，“很多时候，我们的大脑会快速进行大量运算，然后产生一种直觉，最终为我们采纳。”他补充说，我们并非总能感知大脑的决策过程，有时会构建一种情境来解释所做出的决定——这个情境有时准确，有时则不然。
上述问题的答案取决于如何定义“思考”，卡姆赞成这种说法。“如果你认为思考意味着在内心深处与自己进行对话，那么我们是可以停止这种内心对话的。”卡姆说。但是如果思考意味着无须专注于任何特定事物，“我认为对普通人来说，完全停止思考的难度要大得多。”
就连你坐在这里阅读本文，思考着思考这件事情，也会通过大脑中一连串的神经元传递信息。所以，假使我们设法阻止自己有意识地“思考”，或者通过冥想实现了“思维的空白状态”，大脑也不会停止运转。大脑会不断产生想法，只是我们意识不到。
（译者单位：中央民族大学）