幸福婚姻有助于緩解女性壓力

A new study has found that all women need to lower their stress levels is a strong and happy marriage.

A new study has found that all women need to lower their stress levels is a strong and happy marriage.

A team of researchers led by James A. Coan, a University of Virginia neuroscientist has found that women under threat who hold their husbands' hands show signs of immediate relief, which can clearly be seen on their brain scans.

Coan, an assistant professor in the U.Va. Neuroscience Graduate Program and the Department of Psychology, and his team conducted a study involving several couples who rated themselves as highly satisfied with their marriages.

The researchers designed a functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study in which 16 married women were subjected to the threat of a very mild electric shock while theyby turnsheld their husband's hand, the hand of a stranger (male) or no hand at all.

They found that the MRI was able to show how these women's brains responded to this handholding while in a threatening situation.

The researchers noted a large decrease in the brain response to threat as a function of spouse handholding, and a limited decrease in this response as a function of stranger handholding.

Moreover, spouse handholding effects varied as a function of marital quality, with women in the very highest quality marriages benefiting from a very powerful decrease in threat-related brain activity.

"This is the first study of the neurological reactions to human touch in a threatening situation." said Dr. Coan.

The study is published in the December 2006 issue of the journal Psychological Science.

一項最新研究發現，牢固美滿的婚姻有助于緩解女性的壓力。

弗吉尼亞大學神經學家詹姆斯·A·可恩負責的一個研究小組通過腦部掃描發現，女性在受到威脅的情況下如果抓住丈夫的手，壓力會立刻緩解。

可恩是弗吉尼亞大學神經系統科學碩士項目和心理學系的副教授，他所負責的研究小組對幾對婚姻很美滿的夫婦進行了一項研究。

研究人員設計了一項功能磁共振成像研究，他們讓16名已婚女性在受到弱電擊時分別握住丈夫的手、握住一位陌生男性的手以及不握手。

結果發現，功能磁共振成像可以顯示出這些女性在受到威脅的情況下，握住不同人的手時的大腦反應。

研究人員發現，受到威脅的女性抓住丈夫的手時，腦部反應明顯減弱；而抓住陌生男性的手時，腦部反應的變化則沒有那么明顯。

此外，這種握手所起到的效果受到婚姻質量的影響，婚姻很美滿的女性握手時壓力明顯緩解。

可恩博士說：“這一研究首次對人在受到威脅的情況下進行身體接觸所產生的神經學反應進行了探究。”

這項研究結果在《心理科學》的12月刊上發表。

Vocabulary:
by turns: 輪流；交替