Scientists have found that mindfulness meditation, known as “Samatha Meditation,” could be reducing the pain that people experience. Fifteen research subjects given 120 degrees Fahrenheit heat pulses found the pain fifty-seven percent less unpleasant and forty percent less intense after just four twenty minute meditation sessions. Isn’t it hard to measure what people are feeling? The researchers didn’t just asking people how they felt. They used an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging machine to measure their brain activity. The MRI detects how much oxygen brain cells use. The more oxygen the cells use, the more active they are. As pain goes up, activity changes in certain areas of the brain.

【生詞注釋】
meditation n. 沉思; 冥想
session n.期間
measure v.測量
magnetic resonance imaging磁共振成像:
go up 上升;增長

【參考譯文】
科學家們發現冥想，也叫作“Samatha Meditation”,能夠減輕人們的疼痛感。15個人經受120華氏溫度來進行試驗，研究發現經過20分鐘的冥想后，疼痛感減少了 57%，緊張度較少了40%。測量人們的感覺不是很難嗎？研究人們不適直接詢問實驗人員的感覺。他們使用用磁共振成像機器來測驗腦部活動。機器可以偵測到腦細胞使用的氧氣，腦細胞使用的氧氣越多，它們越活躍。隨著疼痛的增加，腦部的局部區域細胞活動發生了變化。