李鵬飛

Do you ever wonder why we yawn？ Do you always yawn when you see other people yawn？ A new study from Nottingham University in the UK has done research on this. Researchers found that yawning is contagious2. It is a powerful and unstoppable reaction. People automatically3 want to yawn when they see other people yawning. The researchers said people actually yawn more when they try to stop yawning. The researchers also found that some people have a much stronger urge4 to yawn than other people. Lead researcher Professor Stephen Jackson said that even reading about yawning could be enough to make people yawn. You might even want to yawn right now.

你有沒有想過我們?yōu)槭裁创蚬?？看到別人打哈欠時，你總會打哈欠嗎？英國諾丁漢大學對此進行了一項新研究。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)打哈欠是會傳染的。這是一個強大且不可阻擋的反應。當人們看到別人打哈欠時，他們會不由自主地想打哈欠。研究人員說，當人們試圖停止打哈欠時，實際上他們打得更多。研究人員還發(fā)現(xiàn)，有些人比其他人有更強烈的打哈欠的欲望。首席研究員斯蒂芬·杰克遜教授說，即便是讀到關于打哈欠的東西時也足以讓人打哈欠。你現(xiàn)在甚至就可能想打呵欠。

The researchers studied the reactions and brain activity of 36 adult volunteers. The volunteers looked at the videos of other people yawning. They then had two choices—either to stop themselves yawning or to allow themselves to do it. The volunteers were videoed as they yawned or tried not to yawn. The researchers also monitored the brain activity of the volunteers and checked how strong their feeling to want to yawn was. Jackson said understanding more about yawning will help to treat conditions such as dementia5， epilepsy6 and Tourettes7. He said， “We are looking for potential non-drug， personalized treatments...that might be effective in （changing） imbalances8 in the brain.”

研究人員對36名成年志愿者的反應和大腦活動進行了研究。志愿者們觀看了其他人打哈欠的視頻。他們有兩種選擇，要么阻止自己打哈欠，要么放任自己打哈欠。當他們打哈欠或試圖不打哈欠時，志愿者們被錄像了。研究人員還監(jiān)測了志愿者的大腦活動，并檢查他們想打哈欠的感覺有多強烈。杰克遜說，了解更多打哈欠的奧秘，能幫助治療癡呆、癲癇和妥瑞氏癥等疾病。他說：“我們正在尋找可能的非藥物治療法，個性化治療……這也許能有效地（改變）大腦的不平衡狀況。endprint