張 潔 孫浩宇

（江蘇省無錫市天一中學(xué)）

New Research Shows Birdsong Can Keep You Feeling Chirpy!

Does your neighborhood have plenty of birds? This could be good news for your mental health because birdsong can help relieve anxiety.This is the upbeat finding of a study published in theNature Portfoliojournal,Scientific Reports,illuminating the remarkable healing capabilities of birdsong.

Birds as mood boosters

Since the arrival of COVID,the increased anxiety and depression that people experience has been well documented.

In an effort to understand the influence of birdsong on mental health,researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin,joined scientists from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf to evaluate how birdsong and,by contrast,manmade traffic noise affect mood,paranoia and cognitive functioning.They did this in an online experiment involving 295 healthy people.These participants heard either six minutes of traffic noise,or birdsong,completing questionnaires before and after hearing the sounds.

Significantly,the study authors emphasize that healthy people can also experience anxiety and temporary paranoid perceptions.They believe that the questionnaire helped identify these tendencies in healthy participants without them having a diagnosis of mental health issues.

The study’s conclusions are interesting.Researchers found that hearing birdsongsoothedanxiety in healthy participants but did not appear to worsen depressive states.Traffic noise,meanwhile,was found to worsen depressive states.The study found that both traffic noise and birdsong did not impact cognitive performance.

And if just hearing birdsong has such a calming effect when listened to via computer,Emil Stobbe,an author of the study,suggests this effect could be even better in the great outdoors.

How does tweeting goodness work?

But how can outdoor sounds impact mental health?

The researchers believe that birdsong is a subtle indication of an intact natural environment,signaling a vital and threat-free safe space for humans,and taking our attention away from stressors.

But Stobbe offers another answer too,as quoted byNewsweek:“An alternative explanation is that humans may generally associate positive experiences with natural sounds,like birdsongs,which,when the sound is heard,activates these memories and relieves stress.”

The findings suggest exciting applications through using birdsong soundscapes in settings such as hospitals and therapy hubs to lift spirits.Further research could test how birdsong could help patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders and if birdsong sounds could be used to prevent mental disorders.

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The global move to cities,which has been linked to worsening mental health,according toNeuroscience News,in a discussion of this new research,also makes understanding how the urban environment affects our wellbeing an important priority.It is clear that birdlife has been adversely affected by urbanization,in terms of habitat loss and other negative impacts such as disorienting noise pollution.The Swaddleobserves that humans should read this as a warning to protect biodiversity so that city dwellers don’t end up only accessing birdsong via digital media.

閱讀小練

1.What does the underlined word“soothed”probably mean?

A.Declined. B.Accelerated.C.Reduced. D.Increased.

2.Which of the following statements about the study isTRUE?

A.Birdsongs can be used to prevent mental disorders.

B.Birdsongs played by computer can also help relieve stress.

C.295 people with various mental problems participated in the study.

D.Natural sounds trigger happy memories and impact cognitive performance.

3.Which of the following can be put in the blank as a subtitle?

A.A global move to big cities B.A warning to birds’ habitat losses

C.Access to birdsong via digital media D.A call to protect birds due to urbanization

（答案見P45）

全篇譯文

你家附近有很多鳥兒嗎？這對你的心理健康來說可能是好消息，因為鳥鳴有助于緩解焦慮。這是發(fā)表在《自然》系列期刊《科學(xué)報告》上的一項研究的積極發(fā)現(xiàn)，（這個發(fā)現(xiàn)）闡明了鳥鳴的非凡治愈能力。

鳥類作為情緒助推器

自從新冠疫情暴發(fā)以來，人們所經(jīng)歷的焦慮和抑郁的增加已經(jīng)得到了充分的證明。

為了了解鳥鳴對心理健康的影響，柏林馬克斯·普朗克人類發(fā)展研究所的研究人員與漢堡-埃彭多夫大學(xué)精神病學(xué)和心理治療系的科學(xué)家一起評估了鳥鳴和人造交通噪音會是如何影響（人們的）情緒、偏執(zhí)和認知功能的。他們在一個有295 名健康人員參與的在線實驗做到了這一點。這些參與者聽6 分鐘的交通噪音或者鳥鳴聲，并在聽之前和聽完之后分別完成問卷。

值得注意的是，該研究人員強調(diào)，健康的人也會經(jīng)歷焦慮和暫時的偏執(zhí)感受。他們認為這些問卷有助于確定健康的參與者（身上）的這些傾向，他們不用（專門）去診斷心理健康問題。

這項研究的結(jié)論很有趣。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，聽鳥鳴緩解了健康的參與者的焦慮，但似乎也不會加重抑郁狀態(tài)。與此同時，交通噪音則會使抑郁狀態(tài)加重。該研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，交通噪音和鳥鳴聲都不會影響認知能力。

該研究的一位作者埃米爾?斯托布表示，如果通過電腦聽鳥鳴聲就具有如此讓人平靜的效果，那么這種效果在大自然中可能甚至?xí)谩?/p>

鳥鳴的好處是如何奏效的呢？

但自然界聲音是如何影響心理健康的呢？

研究人員認為，鳥鳴是一個完整的自然環(huán)境的一個微妙暗示，標(biāo)志著一個對人類來說至關(guān)重要而且無威脅的安全空間，并且能夠?qū)⑽覀兊淖⒁饬膲毫碓瓷弦崎_。

但正如《新聞周刊》引用的那樣，斯托布也提供了另一個答案：“另一種解釋是人類通常會將積極的經(jīng)歷與自然聲音聯(lián)系起來，比如鳥鳴，當(dāng)聽到這些聲音時，會激活這些積極的回憶并緩解壓力。”

這些研究結(jié)果表明利用鳥鳴聲景會有振奮人心的實際應(yīng)用，比如在醫(yī)院和治療中心等環(huán)境中讓人們提起精神。進一步的研究可能測試鳥鳴聲是如何幫助患有焦慮癥患者的，以及鳥鳴聲是否可以用于預(yù)防精神障礙。

因城市化而呼吁保護鳥類

《神經(jīng)科學(xué)新聞》中一篇對于這項新研究的討論指出，全球范圍內(nèi)（人們）向城市的移居不僅與其不斷惡化的心理健康有關(guān)，也讓懂得城市環(huán)境如何影響我們的健康成為重中之重。很明顯，鳥類受到了城市化的不利影響，包括棲息地喪失和其他負面影響，例如會使其迷失方向的噪音污染。The Swaddle評論道，人類應(yīng)該將此視為一個警告來保護生態(tài)多樣性，這樣城市居民就不會最終只能通過數(shù)碼媒體才可以聽到鳥鳴聲。