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Uh-oh, the new year's just begun and already you're finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the junk food, get off the couch or kick smoking. There's a biological reason a lot of our bad habits are so hard to break – they get wired into our brains.
噢喔，新的一年才剛剛開始，你就發現很難堅持“告別垃圾食品、遠離沙發、戒煙”這些新年決心了吧？我們很難改掉壞習慣是由于生物學的原因——這些壞習慣根植于我們的大腦中。
That's not an excuse to give up. Understanding how unhealthy behaviors become ingrained has scientists learning some tricks that may help good habits replace the bad.
這并不是讓人放棄新年決心的借口。了解不健康的習慣怎樣變得根深蒂固可以啟發科學家研究出一些讓好習慣代替壞習慣的“技巧”。
"Why are bad habits stronger? You're fighting against the power of an immediate reward," says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and an authority on the brain's pleasure pathway.
諾拉•沃爾科夫博士說：“為什么壞習慣更加頑固？因為它能帶來即時的犒賞，而這種即時犒賞的力量很強大。”沃爾科夫博士是美國國家藥物濫用研究所主任，同時也是大腦快樂通道方面的權威。
"We all as creatures are hard-wired that way, to give greater value to an immediate reward as opposed to something that's delayed," Volkow says.
沃爾科夫博士說，“我們的這種天性決定了我們會更看重眼前的好處，而不是遲來的好處。”
Just how that bit of happiness turns into a habit involves a pleasure-sensing chemical named dopamine. It conditions the brain to want that reward again and again – reinforcing the connection each time – especially when it gets the right cue from your environment.
那么這一點快樂的感覺是怎樣轉化為一種習慣的呢？這與一種感知快樂的化學物質多巴胺有關。多巴胺使大腦不斷期望得到這種犒賞，從而不斷加強快樂感與這種行為之間的聯系，特別是當它能從周圍環境中得到正確的暗示時。
