One of the really interesting things you talk about in the book is this idea of sort of how our thoughts about aging affect our physical abilities.

あなたがこの本の中で話していることの中で、とても興味深いことのひとつに、老化に対する考え方が身体能力にどのような影響を与えるかという考え方があります。

What I interpreted from that is our thoughts about aging have an impact on our aging.

そこから私が解釈したのは、私たちの老いに対する思いが、私たちの老いに影響を与えているということだ。

Yeah, so actually there's a really fascinating study, it's one of my favorite ones to talk about which was three groups of octogenarians.

そう、実はとても魅力的な研究があるんだ。私が一番好きな研究のひとつなんだけど、八十代の高齢者を対象にした3つのグループの話なんだ。

What's an octogenarian?

オクトジェナリアンとは？

People in their 80s.

80代の人たち。

Okay.

オーケー。

And one group was the control group, so they just lived like normal for a week.

一方のグループは対照群で、1週間は普通に生活した。

One group had to reminisce about being in their 60s for most of the week whenever they had an opportunity to.

あるグループは、機会があれば週の大半を60代であったことを回想していた。

And one group were actually driven to retrofitted versions of their homes that look like what their house looked like 20 years ago.

そしてあるグループは、20年前に住んでいた家と同じような改修を施した家に追いやられた。

They were given newspapers dated from 20 years ago, they had photos of themselves in that house when they were in their 60s.

20年前の新聞が配られ、60代の頃の写真があった。

And one of the things was they got there and they were they were sort of like, okay, you know, who's going to carry our suitcase up to the bedroom or whatever and they were like, no, you're 60 now, you carry your own suitcase.

そして、そのうちのひとつは、彼らがそこに着いて、誰が私たちのスーツケースを寝室まで運んでくれるんだろう、みたいな感じだったんだけど、彼らは、いや、君はもう60歳なんだから、自分でスーツケースを運べ、みたいな感じだったんだ。

So literally started from the minute they got there and these little old ladies and gentlemen had to carry their cases up.

そのため、文字通り、到着した瞬間から、小さな老婦人や紳士たちがケースを担ぎ上げなければならなかった。

After one week, the people in that group were taller because thus their posture improved, they had better musculoscoletal coordination than they had a week before.

1週間後、そのグループの人たちは背が伸びていた。姿勢も良くなり、筋骨格の調整も1週間前より良くなっていたからだ。

And before and after photos that were shown to people that didn't know them, they were rated as younger in the one week after photos than the photos from arriving at that place.

また、彼らを知らない人に見せたビフォーアフターの写真では、その場所に到着したときの写真よりも、1週間後の写真の方が若いと評価された。

And the reminiscing group also had some improvements but not as much as a group that lived like they were in their 60s.

また、回想するグループにも改善は見られたが、60代と同じように生活したグループほどではなかった。

So there was three groups, the ones that went back and relive their life, the ones that reminisce and the ones that did nothing at all.

つまり、過去に戻って人生を追体験するグループ、思い出に浸るグループ、そして何もしないグループだ。

Yeah.

そうだね。

Wow.

すごいね。

You talk about this your eyes as well, about you're going to get was it like laser eye surgery or something.

目についても、レーザー手術か何かを受けるつもりだと話していたね。

No, no, it's just like people told you you needed glasses.

いやいや、メガネが必要だと言われたのと同じだよ。

Well, my optician told me.

眼鏡屋に言われたんだ。

So he's of Indian origin same age as me and he said, oh I think you know, you're probably going to need reading glasses next year and I was like, no, I do not want reading glasses, that makes you look really old and he was like, yeah, I know, I know we both look younger than we are but you know, your eyes are going to age just like anybody else's.

彼は私と同い年のインド人なんだけど、来年には老眼鏡が必要になるんじゃないかって言うから、老眼鏡なんていらないよ、そんなの老け顔に見えるよって言ったら、彼は、ああ、そうだね、僕たち二人とも実年齢より若く見えるのはわかるけど、君の目も他の人と同じように老化していくんだよって言ったんだ。

And I was like, no, they are not.

私は、そんなことはないと思った。

So I left, came back a year later, he said, how's it going with the reading?

それで、私は退職し、1年後に戻ってきた。

So it's fine.

だから大丈夫だよ。

He sort of went, okay Tara.

タラ、オーケー。

So he's doing my eye test, he spins around on his little chair halfway through and says, your eyes haven't got worse, they haven't even stayed the same, they've got better.

彼は私の視力検査をしていて、途中で小さな椅子の上でくるっと回って言ったんだ。

And I said, I know and he said, what you what have you been doing?

と言うと、彼は、君は何をしていたんだ？

And I said, well I just said no to you when you said I'm going to have to get reading glasses.

老眼鏡を買わなきゃいけないって言われたとき、断ったばかりなのに。

And when I'm like looking at my phone or a book and it feels like it would be a bit easier if I moved it further away, I just don't.

携帯電話や本を見ていて、遠くに移動すればもう少し楽になるような気がするときは、そうしない。

And what's that doing in the brain?

それは脳の中で何をしているのか？

Why is that?

なぜですか？

Why did that.

なぜそんなことをしたのか。

Why did that improve your reading?

なぜそれで読書が上達したのですか？

Well, I hadn't experienced a problem with my reading, but he was obviously seeing the numbers slightly change.

まあ、私の読みに問題はなかったが、彼は明らかに数字が微妙に変わっているのを見ていた。

Um, I really didn't do much more than what I've just said, so it was like not accepting the the limitation and then not changing my behavior.

ええと、今言ったこと以上のことはしていないので、制限を受け入れないまま、自分の行動を変えないという感じでした。

And I think that's what you see from the third group of people which is that they had to change their behavior to live like without any help.

そして、第3のグループの人たちは、助けなしで生活するように行動を変えなければならなかった。

And in a way that they had to when they were younger, so that essentially removed the limitations that we impose on ourselves, which is that if I'm X age, it must mean that I need reading glasses or I need a walking stick or whatever it is.

その結果、私たちが自分自身に課している制限、つまり、もし私がX歳なら、老眼鏡が必要だとか、杖が必要だとか、そういう制限を本質的に取り払うことができた。

There's a kind of opposite experiment to that too, which was done with young medical students in Florida and they had to walk between five rooms and on the table were five pieces of paper with a word on it and you had to string a sentence out of it.

フロリダで若い医学生を対象に行われたもので、5つの部屋を行き来し、テーブルの上には単語が書かれた紙が5枚置いてあり、そこから文章を作るというものだ。

But that wasn't the real experiment.

しかし、それは本当の実験ではなかった。

They thought that was the experiment.

彼らはそれが実験だと思っていた。

The real experiment was that in one of the rooms, the words that were on the table were Florida, beach, sunshine, walk, bungalow.

実際の実験では、ある部屋のテーブルにフロリダ、ビーチ、サンシャイン、ウォーク、バンガローといった言葉が並べられた。

And all of them walked more slowly out of that room than any of the other rooms because those words are associated with retirement.

この言葉は引退を連想させるからだ。

And that made them slow down.

それで彼らはペースを落とした。

You asked me, is language important in our to our brain?

私たちの脳にとって言語は重要なのか？

That's how important it is.

それほど重要なことなんだ。