時差N小時:心情能夠影響你的嗅覺 The Smell Of Anxiety

Our sense of smell can have a large impact on howwe think and feel.

我們的嗅覺對我們的思維和感覺能夠產(chǎn)生很大影響。

But did you know that mood can affect how wesmell?

但你知道嗎，心情也是能夠影響嗅覺的。

According to a study by researchers at the Universityof Wisconsin Madison, feeling anxious can maketypically neutral smells seem repugnant.

根據(jù)威斯康星麥迪遜大學(xué)研究人員的一份報(bào)告顯示，焦慮的心情能夠讓典型的中性氣味變得刺鼻。

The study involved a dozen volunteers who rated a panel of neutral smells.

該項(xiàng)研究邀請了12名志愿者并讓他們辨別一組中性氣味。

Then, while inside an MRI machine, subjects were made to feel anxious with disturbing imagesof car crashes and grisly war scenes.

然后通過向他們播放撞車和可怕的戰(zhàn)爭場景圖像來使他們產(chǎn)生焦慮的情緒，并用核磁共振儀進(jìn)行觀察。

They were then asked to rank the panels of neutral smells once again.

接著，志愿者們被要求再次對這組中性氣味進(jìn)行辨別。

But now, after having been made anxious by the images, they described some of the smells asnegative.

但是由于之前看到的影片產(chǎn)生了焦慮感，他們這次則表示聞到的氣體是刺鼻的。

MRI revealed that during induced anxiety, the smell related circuits of the brain becameintertwined with the brain's emotional circuitry.

核磁共振結(jié)果顯示，由于心情焦慮，大腦中跟嗅覺有關(guān)的回路跟情緒相關(guān)的回路產(chǎn)生了交織。

Normally, those circuits don't interact much, but when the subjects were anxious, the circuitsmorphed into something like a unified network, essentially rewiring the brain.

正常情況下，這些回路并不會發(fā)生太多的互動，但是當(dāng)人體變得焦慮時，這兩種回路就會變成一個看似交織在一起的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，本質(zhì)上來說就是對大腦的回路進(jìn)行了重組。

And somehow, that rewiring affected how the subjects interacted with theworld through smell.

而且，不知何故，這種改變影響了志愿者通過嗅覺與外界進(jìn)行聯(lián)系的方式。

So why does this matter?

為什么知道這一點(diǎn)會很重要呢?

First, because it helps explain how anxiety can feed on itself.

首先，它可以有助于解釋焦慮是如何變強(qiáng)的。

In sofar as being anxious makes things smell generally worse, those worse smells may in turncause greater anxiety, creating an anxiety feedback loop.

如果說一定程度的焦慮會讓人感覺聞到的東西很刺鼻，那么越刺鼻的氣味則會反過來引發(fā)更強(qiáng)烈的焦慮感，由此便產(chǎn)生了一種焦慮的惡性循環(huán)。

On the bright side, understanding how emotion and smell can intert wine may also lead to waysto use smell as a way to combat anxiety and other mental disorders an intriguing possibilitythat maybe borne out with more research.

好的一面是，如果理解了情緒跟氣味是如何互動的原理，我們可以利用氣味來戰(zhàn)勝焦慮和其他的心理疾病，但是這種有趣的可能性還需要投入更多的研究來加以證實(shí)。