手機和真實社交，你選哪個?

Your Phone vs. Your Heart

手機和真實社交，你選哪個?

CAN you remember the last time you were in a public space in America and didn’t notice that half the people around you were bent over a digital screen, thumbing a connection to somewhere else?

你記不記得，曾幾何時美國的公共空間不是像現(xiàn)在這樣，周圍半數(shù)的人都低頭對著一塊數(shù)碼屏幕，用手指和另一個地方保持聯(lián)絡?

Most of us are well aware of the convenience that instant electronic access provides. Less has been said about the costs. Research that my colleagues and I have just completed, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, suggests that one measurable toll may be on our biological capacity to connect with other people.

我們對即時電子通訊帶來的便利都深有體會。但很少有人提到它的代價。我和我的同事們剛剛完成一項研究，即將在下一期《心理科學》(Psychological Science)發(fā)表，研究的結果表明我們與他人交流的生理能力可能會因此蒙受相當大的損失。

Our ingrained habits change us. Neurons that fire together, wire together, neuroscientists like to say, reflecting the increasing evidence that experiences leave imprints on our neural pathways, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Any habit molds the very structure of your brain in ways that strengthen your proclivity for that habit.

我們的固有習慣會改變我們。通過觀察神經學家常說的“一起發(fā)射則連在一起”的神經元(赫布理論的總結性表述，原話為“一起發(fā)射的神經元連在一起” ——譯注)，我們越來越確信經歷會在我們的神經通道上留下印記，這種現(xiàn)象叫“神經可塑性”。任何習慣都會對你的大腦結構產生塑造作用，并進一步加強你對該習慣的傾向性。

Plasticity, the propensity to be shaped by experience, isn’t limited to the brain. You already know that when you lead a sedentary life, your muscles atrophy to diminish your physical strength. What you may not know is that your habits of social connection also leave their own physical imprint on you.

可塑性，也就是經歷作用下的傾向，并不僅限于大腦。久坐的生活會帶來什么你已經很清楚，你的肌肉會萎縮，從而削弱你的肢體力量。但你可能不知道，社交聯(lián)絡的習慣也會在你身上留下實實在在的印記。

How much time do you typically spend with others? And when you do, how connected and attuned to them do you feel? Your answers to these simple questions may well reveal your biological capacity to connect.

你通?；ǘ嗌贂r間和別人來往?來往的時候，你覺得和對方有多親近、多合拍?你對這些簡單問題的回答，可以很好地說明你與人交流的生理能力。

My research team and I conducted a longitudinal field experiment on the effects of learning skills for cultivating warmer interpersonal connections in daily life. Half the participants, chosen at random, attended a six-week workshop on an ancient mind-training practice known as metta, or “lovingkindness,” that teaches participants to develop more warmth and tenderness toward themselves and others.

我和我的研究團隊做了一項縱向的實地試驗，了解在日常生活中人是否可以通過學習技能來促成一種更溫暖的人際關系。隨機征募的實驗對象中，有一半人參加了一個為期六周的學習班，學習一種叫做“慈悲”(metta)的古代心法，它會教導參與者用一種更溫和、親切的方式對待自我和他人。

We discovered that the meditators not only felt more upbeat and socially connected; but they also altered a key part of their cardiovascular system called vagal tone. Scientists used to think vagal tone was largely stable, like your height in adulthood. Our data show that this part of you is plastic, too, and altered by your social habits.

我們發(fā)現(xiàn)經過這種冥想的人會顯得更樂觀，愿意交際;但同時他們的迷走神經張力——心血管系統(tǒng)的一項重要機能——也發(fā)生了改變。科學家一度認為迷走神經張力大體上是穩(wěn)定的，就像人在成年后的身高。而我們得到的數(shù)據表明這部分也是可塑的，會被你的社交習性改變。

To appreciate why this matters, here’s a quick anatomy lesson. Your brain is tied to your heart by your vagus nerve. Subtle variations in your heart rate reveal the strength of this brain-heart connection, and as such, heart-rate variability provides an index of your vagal tone.

為了幫助理解這一點的重要性，我們簡要講一些解剖學知識。你的大腦是通過迷走神經和心臟連動的。從心率的細微變化可以得出心腦聯(lián)系的強度，因此心率變異度就成了迷走神經張力的一項指標。

By and large, the higher your vagal tone the better. It means your body is better able to regulate the internal systems that keep you healthy, like your cardiovascular, glucose and immune responses.

總的來說迷走張力是越高越好的。高意味著你的身體對內部系統(tǒng)的管理能力更強，比如心血管、葡萄糖和免疫反應，有助于保持健康。

Beyond these health effects, the behavioral neuroscientist Stephen Porges has shown that vagal tone is central to things like facial expressivity and the ability to tune in to the frequency of the human voice. By increasing people’s vagal tone, we increase their capacity for connection, friendship and empathy.

除了在健康方面的影響，行為神經學家史蒂芬·珀格斯(Stephen Porges)還發(fā)現(xiàn)迷走張力對面部表現(xiàn)力和接收人聲頻率的能力也起到關鍵作用。增加迷走張力可以促進我們建立關系、友情和同感的能力。

In short, the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you become, and vice versa. This mutual influence also explains how a lack of positive social contact diminishes people. Your heart’s capacity for friendship also obeys the biological law of “use it or lose it.” If you don’t regularly exercise your ability to connect face to face, you’ll eventually find yourself lacking some of the basic biological capacity to do so.

簡單來說，一個人越是能和他人和諧相處，身體就越健康，反之就越不健康。這種相互影響也解釋了為什么缺乏積極的社交聯(lián)絡會讓人消沉。你的心對友誼的容納能力同樣遵循“用進廢退”的生理法則。如果不時常練習面對面交流的能力，你最終會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己開始缺乏這方面的一些基本生理能力。

The human body — and thereby our human potential — is far more plastic or amenable to change than most of us realize. The new field of social genomics, made possible by the sequencing of the human genome, tells us that the ways our and our children’s genes are expressed at the cellular level is plastic, too, responsive to habitual experiences and actions.

多數(shù)人都沒有意識到人體及我們潛能的可塑性或應變能力有多強。人類基因排序技術幫助我們開辟了社交基因學這一新領域，通過它我們了解到，我們以及我們的子女在細胞水平上的基因表達途徑也是可塑的，會對慣性經歷和行動做出反應。

Work in social genomics reveals that our personal histories of social connection or loneliness, for instance, alter how our genes are expressed within the cells of our immune system. New parents may need to worry less about genetic testing and more about how their own actions — like texting while breast-feeding or otherwise paying more attention to their phone than their child — leave life-limiting fingerprints on their and their children’s gene expression.

社交基因學的研究成果表明，我們的個人社交史，比如寂寞的體驗，會造成基因表達的變化，這種變化發(fā)生在免疫系統(tǒng)的細胞中。新生兒的父母應該少去操心什么基因測試，多留意自己的行為——例如一邊哺乳一邊發(fā)短信，或注意力更多地放在手機而不是孩子身上——這會給他們以及他們的孩子的基因表達帶去造成生活障礙的印記。

When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other. It’s micro-moments like these, in which a wave of good feeling rolls through two brains and bodies at once, that build your capacity to empathize as well as to improve your health.

當你對著一個人微笑或大笑時，你們之間會產生一種明顯的同步，你們的姿態(tài)和生化指標，甚至神經元的發(fā)射，都會構成一種鏡像的對應。在這些細微的瞬間里，兩個人的大腦和身體都會產生一種美好的感覺，這有助于增強你的同感能力，同時也會改善你的健康狀況。

If you don’t regularly exercise this capacity, it withers. Lucky for us, connecting with others does good and feels good, and opportunities to do so abound.

如果你不經常去鍛煉這種能力，它就會枯萎。和他人交流會有好處，感覺也很好，這是我們的幸運，而且我們隨時有這個機會。