評論
打印
Science and technology
科學技術
Psychosomatic medicine
精神身體醫學
Think yourself well
好好反省一下吧
You can. But it helps to think well of yourself in the first place
你可以的。只是它會首先幫你好好反省一下自己。
THE link between mind and body is terrain into which many medical researchers, fearing ridicule, dare not tread.
大腦與身體之間存在著千絲萬縷的聯系，但是，因為怕被嘲笑，很多醫學研究人員不敢涉足這塊領域。
But perhaps more should do so.
但是，可能應該有更多人來研究它。
For centuries, doctors have recognised the placebo effect, in which the illusion of treatment, such as pills without an active ingredient, produces real medical benefits.
數個世紀以來，醫生們已經認識到了安慰劑的效力，其實是一種錯覺治療達到了真正的藥物效應，比如沒有實際療效的藥丸等。
More recently, respectable research has demonstrated that those who frequently experience positive emotions live longer and healthier lives.
最近以來，相當受重視的研究表明， 那些經常以積極的態度生活的人活得更長久，而且更健康。
They have fewer heart attacks, for example, and fewer colds too.
比如，他們幾乎不會有心臟病，而且也很少感冒。
Why this happens, though, is only slowly becoming understood.
只是這種現象現在還無法解釋。
What is needed is an experiment that points out specific and measurable ways in which such emotions alter an individual's biology.
我們需要的是做一個試驗，指明具體的，可衡量以情緒改變人體生物機理的方式。
And a study published in Psychological Science, by Barbara Fredrickson and Bethany Kok at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, does precisely that.
位于查珀爾希爾的北卡羅萊納州大學的巴巴拉弗雷德里克松和伯斯尼考克最近進行了一項研究，發表在心理科學雜志，他們的研究正體現了這點。
Dr Fredrickson and Dr Kok concentrated their attentions on the vagus nerve.
弗雷德里克松教授和考克教授集中于研究迷走神經。
This nerve starts in the brain and runs, via numerous branches, to several thoracic and abdominal organs including the heart.
這種神經起始端在大腦，通過眾多的分支與幾大胸部和腹部器官，包括心臟相連。
Among its jobs is to send signals telling that organ to slow down during moments of calm and safety.
它的一項職能就是，發出信號告訴這些器官，在人體處于平靜和安全的時候減緩工作步伐。
How effectively the vagus nerve is working can be tracked by monitoring someone's heart rate as he breathes in and out.
你可以通過監測一個人呼吸時的心率來有效地追蹤迷走神經的工作過程。
Healthy vagal function is reflected in a subtle increase in heart rate while breathing in and a subtle decrease while breathing out.
如果迷走神經工作正常的話，你可以從人體吸進空氣時心率的不明顯增加上看出來，同樣，當人體呼出空氣時心率也會有微弱的減少。
The difference yields an index of vagal tone, and the value of this index is known to be connected with health.
如果迷走神經處于不健康狀態時，會產生不同的迷走張力指數。
Low values are, for example, linked to inflammation and heart attacks.
眾所周知，這個指數值與健康密切相關。比如，指數值低的話，就可能說明有炎癥，及心臟病了。
What particularly interested Dr Fredrickson and Dr Kok was recent work that showed something else about the vagal-tone index:
特別有趣的是，弗雷德里克松教授和考克教授最近研究也顯示了與迷走神經張力指數有關的其它東西。
people with high tone are better than those with low at stopping bad feelings getting overblown.
在避免讓不良情緒擴大方面，指數高的人這方面的能力明顯優于指數低的人。
They also show more positive emotions in general.
這些人平時也會表現出更樂觀積極的情緒。
This may provide the missing link between emotional well-being and physical health.
這可能也彌補了在情感福祉與身體健康之間缺失的一環。
In particular, the two researchers found, during a preliminary study they carried out in 2010, that the vagal-tone values of those who experience positive emotions over a period of time go up.
特別是，兩位研究者發現，在他們2011年的初期實驗中，那些一直保持積極樂觀情緒的人的迷走神經張力指數也上升了。
This left them wondering whether positive emotions and vagal tone drive one another in a virtuous spiral.
這個現象讓他們想知道，積極情緒和張力指數之間的良性循環，究竟哪個才是真正的驅動呢？
They therefore conducted an experiment on 65 of the university's staff, to try to find out.
因此，他們對65所大學中的人員進行了試驗，想找出真相。
They measured all of their volunteers' vagal tones at the beginning of the experiment and at its conclusion nine weeks later.
他們測得了剛開始試驗時，試驗志愿者的張力指數及九周后的張力指數。
In between, the volunteers were asked to go each evening to a website especially designed for the purpose, and rate their most powerful emotional experiences that day.
在試驗期間，志愿者們被要求每晚去一家指定的，特別為這個試驗設計的網站，并且為他們每天最強烈的情感體驗打分。
Dr Fredrickson and Dr Kok asked their volunteers to consider nine positive emotions, such as hope, joy and love, and 11 negative ones, including anger, boredom and disgust.
弗雷德里克松教授和考克教授要求志愿者們想著積極的情緒，比如希望，喜悅和愛，還有11種消極的情緒，包括憤怒，厭倦和厭惡。
They were asked to rate, on a five-point scale, whether—and how strongly—they had felt each emotion.
志愿者們打分的標準分為五級，他們是否感覺到了要求的情緒，有多強烈等。
One point meant not at all; five meant extremely.
一級意味著沒什么；五級意味著極其。
In addition, half the participants, chosen at random, were invited to a series of workshops run by a licensed therapist, to learn a meditation technique intended to engender in the meditator a feeling of goodwill towards both himself and others.
另外，以隨機的方式抽取了一半的參與者，被邀請參加一系列由特許理療師主持的研討會，學習冥想技巧，以達到成為一名對自己或者他人心懷善意的禪定者。
This group was encouraged to meditate daily, and to report the time they spent doing so.
研究人員鼓勵這些人每天都冥想，并且要匯報他們花了多長時間做這件事。
Dr Fredrickson and Dr Kok discovered that vagal tone increased significantly in people who meditated, and hardly at all in those who did not.
弗雷德里克松教授和考克教授發現，這些人的每天冥想，使得他們的張力指數明顯上升，而那些沒有參與冥想學習的人幾乎沒什么變化。
Among meditators, those who started the experiment with the highest vagal-tone scores reported the biggest increases in positive emotions.
在這些冥想者中，那些試驗開始時迷走神經張力指數最高的人，在他們身上最大的變化就是保持積極情緒的時間更大長了。
Meditators who started with particularly low scores showed virtually no such boost.
而開始試驗時張力指數特別低的冥想者，他們的變化就沒有前者那么大。
Taken as a whole, these findings suggest high vagal tone makes it easier to generate positive emotions and that this, in turn, drives vagal tone still higher.
總體來說，這些發現表明，在張力指數高的情況下更容易產生積極的情緒，而反過來，積極的情緒又會讓指數變得更高。
That is both literally and metaphorically a positive feedback loop.
而這種現象無論是從字面上還是從修辭上，都稱為正面的回饋循環。
Which is good news for the emotionally positive, but bad for the emotionally negative, for it implies that those who most need a psychosomatic boost are incapable of generating one.
這些對擁有積極情緒的人是個好消息，而對總是彌漫著消極情緒的人可是個壞消息，因為它暗示，那些最需要身心健康的人是無法自己達成這個目的的。
A further experiment by Dr Kok suggests, however, that the grumpy need not give up all hope.
但考克博士進行了一項更深度的試驗，認為那些郁郁寡歡的人也不要完全放棄希望。
A simpler procedure than meditation, namely reflecting at night on the day's social connections, did seem to cause some improvement to their vagal tone.
一個比冥想更簡單的，在當天晚上即反映其一天社會關系的方式，似乎對這些人的張力指數有些提高作用。
This might allow even those with a negative outlook on life to bootstrap their way to a mental state from which they could then advance to the more powerful technique of meditation.
這可能讓那些擁有消極人生觀的人通過他們自己的方式，引導自身進入一種讓他們可以擁有更強大冥想技巧的精神狀態。
Whether, besides improving general health, the mechanism Dr Fredrickson and Dr Kok have discovered helps explain the placebo effect remains to be investigated.
除了改善一般健康，弗雷德里克松教授和考克教授發現的生理機制也在某種程度上說明了，安慰劑的效果仍有待研究。
But it might, because part of that effect seems to be the good feeling engendered by the fact of being treated.
但是，也許安慰劑真的是作用的，因為它們的部分效果似乎產生了良好的幸福感，這是基于病人認為他們正在接受治療這個事實。
More generally, doctors in the ancient world had a saying: a healthy mind in a healthy body.
更普遍的是，古時的醫生都會說這樣一句話：健康的心態，健康的身體。
This sort of work suggests that though this proverb is true, a better one might be, a healthy mind for a healthy body.
上述研究表明，雖然這種諺語是正確的，可能這種描述會更好些，為了健康的身體，你必須保持健康的心態。
