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Our sense of smell can have a large impact on how we think and feel.
我們的嗅覺對我們的思維和感覺能夠產生很大影響。
But did you know that mood can affect how we smell?
但你知道嗎，心情也是能夠影響嗅覺的。
According to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin Madison, feeling anxious can make typically neutral smells seem repugnant.
根據威斯康星麥迪遜大學研究人員的一份報告顯示，焦慮的心情能夠讓典型的中性氣味變得刺鼻。
The study involved a dozen volunteers who rated a panel of neutral smells.
該項研究邀請了12名志愿者并讓他們辨別一組中性氣味。
Then, while inside an MRI machine, subjects were made to feel anxious with disturbing images of car crashes and grisly war scenes.
然后通過向他們播放撞車和可怕的戰爭場景圖像來使他們產生焦慮的情緒，并用核磁共振儀進行觀察。
They were then asked to rank the panels of neutral smells once again.
接著，志愿者們被要求再次對這組中性氣味進行辨別。
But now, after having been made anxious by the images, they described some of the smells as negative.
但是由于之前看到的影片產生了焦慮感，他們這次則表示聞到的氣體是刺鼻的。
MRI revealed that during induced anxiety, the smell related circuits of the brain became intertwined with the brain's emotional circuitry.
核磁共振結果顯示，由于心情焦慮，大腦中跟嗅覺有關的回路跟情緒相關的回路產生了交織。
Normally, those circuits don't interact much, but when the subjects were anxious, the circuits morphed into something like a unified network, essentially rewiring the brain.
正常情況下，這些回路并不會發生太多的互動，但是當人體變得焦慮時，這兩種回路就會變成一個看似交織在一起的網絡，本質上來說就是對大腦的回路進行了重組。
And somehow, that rewiring affected how the subjects interacted with theworld through smell.
而且，不知何故，這種改變影響了志愿者通過嗅覺與外界進行聯系的方式。
So why does this matter?
為什么知道這一點會很重要呢？
First, because it helps explain how anxiety can feed on itself.
首先，它可以有助于解釋焦慮是如何變強的。
In sofar as being anxious makes things smell generally worse, those worse smells may in turn cause greater anxiety, creating an anxiety feedback loop.
如果說一定程度的焦慮會讓人感覺聞到的東西很刺鼻，那么越刺鼻的氣味則會反過來引發更強烈的焦慮感，由此便產生了一種焦慮的惡性循環。
On the bright side, understanding how emotion and smell can intert wine may also lead to ways to use smell as a way to combat anxiety and other mental disorders an intriguing possibility that maybe borne out with more research.
好的一面是，如果理解了情緒跟氣味是如何互動的原理，我們可以利用氣味來戰勝焦慮和其他的心理疾病，但是這種有趣的可能性還需要投入更多的研究來加以證實。
