美国人为了更快地学外语，居然要改造大脑？

It's not easy being a soldier or a spy: you have to immerse yourself in dangerous situations, assess intelligence in the field, speak foreign languages, and handle all kinds of technical equipment and weaponry.

当个士兵或者间谍可并不容易：你得把自己置身于危险的环境中、在前线收集情报、讲外语，还得操弄各种技术装备和武器。

Learning how to do all of that takes a lot of training, which is why the research wing of the US Department of Defence wants to figure out ways to make its workers learn these vital skills quicker – even if they have to zap them to do it.

要学会这些，你得接受大量的训练；而因为这个原因，美国国防部的研究团队打算找出一个方法，好让他们的雇员能够更快地学会这些至关重要的技能——就算得把他们折腾死也在所不惜。

To explore these possibilities, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has just awarded more than an estimated US$50 million in funding to eight teams looking into how electrical stimulation of the nervous system can help facilitate learning.

为了探索这些可能性，国防高级研究设计局刚刚给8个团队提供了预估相当于50,000美金的资金，这8个团队正在研究如何通过对神经系统进行电刺激来提高学习能力。

The four-year program, called Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT), aims to identify safe and optimal neurostimulation methods that can activate what's called synaptic plasticity – the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken, and by doing so, learn how to do new things and make memories.

这个为期4年的项目叫做“神经可塑性靶向训练”，它旨在找出一种安全且最优的神经刺激方式来激发所谓的“突触可塑性”；“突触可塑性”指的是突触可以强化或者弱化，我们可以通过这个现象来学习新东西并制造记忆。

"The Defence Department operates in a complex, interconnected world in which human skills such as communication and analysis are vital, and the Department has long pushed the frontiers of training to maximise those skills," says bioengineer Doug Weber, who manages the TNT program.“

国防部的运作环境是复杂的，而且是高度连接的；在这样的环境中，人的交流能力和分析能力至关重要；国防部长久以来一直在拓展训练的极限，以此使这些技能达到最优化。”作为TNT项目负责人的生物工程师道格·韦伯如是说。