大脑使我们逃避关于生死话题的恐惧

时间:2020-12-01 03:57:34

(单词翻译:单击)

That's because, researchers say, our brains do their best to keep us from dwelling1 on our inevitable2 demise3. A study found that the brain shields us from existential fear by categorizing death as an unfortunate event that only befalls other people.
 
研究人员说,这是因为,我们的大脑竭尽全力不让我们老去想那不可避免的死亡。一项研究发现,大脑将死亡归类为一个只会降临于他人的不幸事件,借此使我们逃避关于生死话题的恐惧。
 
"The brain does not accept that death is related to us," said Yair Dor-Ziderman, at Bar Ilan University in Israel. "We have this primal4 mechanism5 that means when the brain gets information that links self to death, something tells us it's not reliable, so we shouldn't believe it."
 
Being shielded from thoughts of our future death could be crucial for us to live in the present. The protection may switch on in early life as our minds develop and we realize death comes to us all.
 
"The moment you have this ability to look into your own future, you realize that at some point you're going to die and there's nothing you can do about it," said Dor-Ziderman. "That goes against the grain of our whole biology, which is helping6 us to stay alive."
 
To investigate how the brain handles thoughts of death, Dor-Ziderman and colleagues developed a test that involved producing signals of surprise in the brain.
 
They asked volunteers to watch faces flash up on a screen while their brain activity was monitored. The person's own face or that of a stranger flashed up on screen several times, followed by a different face. On seeing the final face, the brain flickered7 with surprise because the image clashed with what it had predicted.
 
Various words appeared above the faces on screen. Half of the time these were death-related words such as "funeral" or "burial". The scientists found that if a person's own face flashed up next to deathly words, their brain shut down its prediction system. It refused to link the self with death and no surprise signals were recorded.
 
Avi Goldstein, a senior author on the paper, said: "This suggests that we shield ourselves from existential threats, or consciously thinking about the idea that we are going to die, by shutting down predictions about the self, or categorizing the information as being about other people rather than ourselves."
 
Dor-Ziderman added: "We cannot rationally deny that we will die, but we think of it more as something that happens to other people."
 
In the not-so-distant past, Zor-Diderman pointed8 out, our brain's defences against thoughts of death were balanced out by the reality of death around us. Today, he believes, society is more death-phobic, with sick people confined to hospitals and elderly people to care homes. As a result, he suspects, people know far less about the end of life and perhaps come to fear it more.
 
Arnaud Wisman, a psychologist at the University of Kent, said people put up numerous defences to stave off thoughts of death. The young in particular may see it as a problem for other people, he said.
 
His own work had found that in modern societies people embraced what he called the "escape treadmill9", where hard work, pub sessions, checking mobile phones and buying more stuff meant people were simply too busy to worry about death.
 
"However, it is not a solution to the problem itself," he said. "So we need to keep escaping."

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1 dwelling auzzQk     
n.住宅,住所,寓所
参考例句:
  • Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
  • He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。
2 inevitable 5xcyq     
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的
参考例句:
  • Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
  • The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。
3 demise Cmazg     
n.死亡;v.让渡,遗赠,转让
参考例句:
  • He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标,但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
  • The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。
4 primal bB9yA     
adj.原始的;最重要的
参考例句:
  • Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
  • Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们,钱是主要的需要。
5 mechanism zCWxr     
n.机械装置;机构,结构
参考例句:
  • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
  • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
6 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
7 flickered 93ec527d68268e88777d6ca26683cc82     
(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
  • These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。
8 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
9 treadmill 1pOyz     
n.踏车;单调的工作
参考例句:
  • The treadmill has a heart rate monitor.跑步机上有个脉搏监视器。
  • Drugs remove man from the treadmill of routine.药物可以使人摆脱日常单调的工作带来的疲劳。

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