You Really Can Feel Another Person’s Pain 你真的可以感受到別人的痛

文/麗莎·瑞恩 譯/魏新俊 By Lisa Ryan

You Really Can Feel Another Person’s Pain 你真的可以感受到別人的痛

文/麗莎·瑞恩 譯/魏新俊 By Lisa Ryan

Many of us flinch1flinch退縮;畏縮。when we see someone get injured.

[2] Whether they cut their finger while chopping vegetables or accidentally stub2stub使（腳或腳趾）碰踢。their food—it’s common to grimace at the mere sight of3at the mere sight of只要一看到。their pain.

[3] Most of us assume that we are just having an emotional response—not feeling pain ourselves.

[4] But, scientists have revealed that the same brain structures—the anterior insula4anterior insula前腦島。and cingulate cortex5cingulate cortex扣帶皮層。—are activated, whether the pain is personally experienced or empathetic6empathetic移情作用的；同感的。.

[5] And so, even if a person doesn’t experience the injury themselves, they still experience similar symptoms to the person actually going through the pain,according to experts from Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences7馬克斯·普朗克人類認知和腦科學研究所，位于德國的萊比錫。該研究所成立于2004年，是由以前的萊比錫認知神經科學研究所和慕尼黑認知神經科學研究所合并而成。它是馬克斯·普朗克學會的83個研究所之一。.

看到有人受傷時，我們很多人都會退縮。

[2]不管他們是在切蔬菜時割破了手指，還是不小心踢到了食物——只要一看到他們的疼痛，我們通常就會露出痛苦的表情。

[3]我們大多數人以為這只是一種情緒反應——而不是自己感覺疼痛。

[4]但是，科學家已經發現，無論疼痛是親身經歷還是移情所致，大腦的相同結構——前腦島和扣帶皮層——都會被激活。

[5]因此，馬克斯·普朗克人類認知和腦科學研究所的專家認為，即使人們本身沒有受到傷害，他們仍然會體驗到與實際經歷疼痛者的類似癥狀。

[6] Dr Anita Tusche, a neuroscientist at Max Planck, said: “The fact that our brain processes pain and other unpleasant events simultaneously for the most part,no matter if they are experienced by us or someone else, is very important for social interactions because it helps to us understand what others are experiencing.”

[7] Researchers compared brain activation patterns during both personally experienced and empathetic pain.

[8] When a person, for instance, hammers their own finger, they experience physical distress.

[9] They then focus their attention on the injured finger and take steps to not repeat the event.

[10] But, if a person were to see a friend injure himself in the same way,they would feel empathetic pain.

[11] Although they haven’t sustained any injury, they would feel similar symptoms to the person in physical pain.

[12] The empathetic friend would feel anxiety, put distance between themselves and the source of the pain, and store the information so as to avoid that pain in the future.

[13] Previous studies showed that the anterior insula and cingulate cortex are activated for both personal and empathetic pain—but there was a lack of research as to how the two forms of pain were similar.

[6]馬克斯·普朗克研究所的神經科學家安妮塔·塔斯切博士說：“我們的大腦在大部分時間同時處理疼痛和其他不愉快的事情，無論是我們還是別人經歷的，這對社會交往非常重要，因為它有助于我們了解別人正在經歷的事情。”

[7]研究人員比較了親身經歷和感同身受的疼痛期間所產生的大腦激活模式。

[8]例如，當人們砸到手指時，會感受到肉體上的劇痛。

[9]于是他們將注意力集中在受傷的手指上，確保此事不再發生。

[10]但是，如果人們看到朋友以同樣的方式傷害他自己，他們便會感到切身的疼痛。

[11]雖然他們沒有受到任何傷害，但是他們會感受到身體疼痛者的類似癥狀。

[12]感同身受的朋友會感到焦慮，讓自己遠離疼痛的根源，并把該信息存儲起來，以避免將來會有那樣的疼痛。

[13]以往的研究表明，前腦島和扣帶皮層會因親身經歷和移情作用的疼痛而被激活——但是對于這兩種形式的疼痛的相似度則缺乏研究。

[14]馬克斯·普朗克研究所主任泰納·辛格博士說：“無論是否真的疼痛，我們都需要擺脫這個非此即彼的問題。”

[15]科學家們轉而提出，多要素間的復雜相互作用——包括知覺過程和情感過程——形成了“疼痛”的體驗。

[16]科學家首次證實，在疼痛的體驗中，前腦島和扣帶皮層既處理普通信息又處理具體的疼痛信息。

[17]這些普通信息也出現在其他消極的經歷中，如厭惡或憤慨。

[18]而且，具體的疼痛信息向大腦報告痛感——無論是由本人還是其他人經歷。

[19]塔斯切博士說：“非特異性和特異性信息，負責疼痛的大腦結構對其并行處理，但激活模式不同。”

[20]因此，大腦可以以高效、節能的方式處理各種不愉快的經歷。

[21]然而，大腦也可以快速記錄詳細的信息，以便人們確切地知道發生了什么樣的不愉快事件——無論是否會直接影響到他們。

[14] Dr Taina Singer, director of Max Planck, said: “We need to get away from this either-or question, whether the pain is genuine or not.”

[15] The scientists instead proposed that a complex interaction of multiple elements—including sensory and emotional processes—form the experience of “pain.”

[16] The scientists demonstrated for the first time that during painful experiences, the anterior insula region and cingulate cortex process both general components and specific pain information.

[17] Those components also occur during other negative experiences, such as disgust or indignation.

[18] And, the specific pain information tells the brain that pain is involved—whether it’s explained by the person or someone else.

[19] Dr Tusche said: “Both the nonspecific8nonspecific〈醫〉非特異性的；非特殊的。and the specific information are processed in parallel in the brain structures responsible for pain, but the activation patterns are different.”

[20] And so, the brain can process various unpleasant experiences in a time-efficient, energy-saving manner.

[21] However, the brain can also register detailed information quickly, so that a person knows exactly what kind of unpleasant event has occurred—whether or not it affects them directly.