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It's possible to become a more compassionate person by training your brain, according to a new study.
通過訓(xùn)練你的大腦可以使你成為一個(gè)更富有同情心的人，根據(jù)一項(xiàng)新的研究。
Researchers found that engaging in compassion meditation -- where you practice feeling compassion for different groups of people, including yourself -- seemed to increase a sense of altruism.
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)進(jìn)行慈悲冥想——在那你練習(xí)為不同群體的人感到憐憫，包括你自己——似乎增添了利他主義的感覺。
"It's kind of like weight training," study researcher Helen Weng, a graduate student in clinical psychology at the university, said in a statement. "Using this systematic approach, we found that people can actually build up their compassion 'muscle' and respond to others' suffering with care and a desire to help."
“這就好像是舉重訓(xùn)練，”參與這項(xiàng)研究的翁海倫，大學(xué)臨床心理學(xué)的一名研究生，在一份聲明中說。“使用該系統(tǒng)的方法，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)人們可以建立他們的同情肌，用關(guān)心和渴望提供幫助來回應(yīng)他人的苦難。”
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, involved having study participants engage in a compassion meditation where they thought about when others have helped them to relieve their own suffering. They repeated compassion mantras, such as "May you be free from suffering. May you have joy and ease." And they also completed an exercise where they practiced compassion for groups of people including friends, "difficult people" and themselves.
這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《心理科學(xué)》雜志上，研究的參與者進(jìn)行了慈悲冥想，在那他們想到其他人幫助他們緩解自己痛苦的時(shí)候。他們重復(fù)慈悲咒語，比如“愿你從痛苦中解脫出來。愿你擁有歡樂和輕松。”他們還完成了一項(xiàng)練習(xí)，他們練習(xí)為一群人包括朋友、“敵人”以及自己祈禱。
Meanwhile, another group of study participants serving as the control group just learned a technique called cognitive reappraisal, which is when you reappraise your thoughts so that they are less negative.
與此同時(shí)，另一組參與者作為對(duì)照組，只是學(xué)習(xí)了認(rèn)知重評(píng)技術(shù)，就是當(dāng)你重新評(píng)估你的想法這樣它們就不那么消極。
Researchers conducted brain scans of both these groups, before and after their trainings.
研究人員在訓(xùn)練前后對(duì)這兩組人進(jìn)行了腦部掃描。
Then, they compared the altruism of the cognitive reappraisal group with the compassion meditation group by having them all play a game that involved donating money to people in need.
然后，通過讓其玩一個(gè)捐錢給需要的人的游戲，他們比較了利他主義的認(rèn)知重評(píng)組與慈悲冥想組。
The researchers found that the people who did the compassion training and who had the highest levels of altruism were also the ones who experienced the most brain changes in the inferior parietal cortex (involved in empathy) when exposed to others' suffering.
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，那些做了同情訓(xùn)練的人和擁有最高水平利他主義的人在感受他人痛苦時(shí)也成為了那些在頂葉皮質(zhì)(參與移情)方面經(jīng)歷大腦變化最多的人。
"The fact that alterations in brain function were observed after just a total of seven hours of training is remarkable," study researcher Richard J. Davidson, who is a professor at the university and the founder and chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, said in a statement.
“大腦功能的改變僅在七個(gè)小時(shí)的訓(xùn)練之后被觀察到的事實(shí)是引人注目的，”大學(xué)教授和調(diào)查健康心智中心的創(chuàng)始人及主席，即研究人員理查德•j•戴維森在一份聲明中說。
Of course, it shouldn't be all too surprising that meditation boosts compassion in the brain. Past research -- including a study published earlier this year by Harvard and Northeastern university researchers -- shows that meditation can help to boost do-good behavior.
當(dāng)然，這不應(yīng)該太奇怪，冥想增加了大腦中的同情。過去的研究，包括今年早些時(shí)候由哈佛大學(xué)和東北大學(xué)的研究人員發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究——顯示冥想可以幫助促進(jìn)公益行為。
