負面情緒如何改變大腦
我們時常感嘆大腦本身的複雜，然而情緒卻比我們想像的更加強大，它甚至能夠影響大腦活動和我們的想法。壞心情，會減弱我們對處在痛苦中的他人的同理心，讓我們更容易忽略他人的感受。
負面情緒如何改變大腦
作者：Melissa Hogenboom
譯者：鄧小雪 &高浦銘
校對： 黃倩霞
策劃：張松
Our emotions can have an unexpected downside of how we respond to others in pain, finds Melissa Hogenboom
梅麗莎·霍根博的研究表明，我們對於他人經受痛苦時的反應，會出乎意料地受到自身負面情緒的影響。
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In Margaret Atwood』s dystopian novel A Handmaid』s Tale, the many wrongs that befall Offred strike a chilling chord among most readers. When she is struck with a cattle prod we can almost feel her pain, and recoil at the terrible injustice of her imprisonment.
在馬格瑞特·阿特伍德的反烏托邦小說《使女的故事》中，大部分讀者都會為主人公奧佛瑞的悲慘境遇而唏噓不已。當她被趕牛棒毆打的時候，我們幾乎能感受到她的痛苦，並為她的監禁深感不公。
It is so unsettling because we know that each scenario in this fictional work was influenced by an element of history. 「If I was to create an imaginary garden I wanted the toads in it to be real,」 Atwood wrote of her work in the New York Times.
這種感覺令人如此不安，因為我們知道這部虛構的小說中的每一個場景，都或多或少受到歷史的影響。「如果我想創造一個幻想的花園，我希望裡面的蟾蜍都看起來像真的。」作者阿特伍德在對紐約時報談起她的作品時表示。
We are therefore easily able to put ourselves in Offred』s shoes and feel empathy towards her. It taps into our very human capacity to share the feelings others feel. In fact, when we see someone else hurt, the brain areas linked to our own pain also become active.
因此，我們很容易把自己置身於主人公奧佛瑞的境地，並對她產生同理心。這是因為我們作為人類有著與生俱來的能力，對他人的境遇感同身受。實際上，看到別人受傷時，我們大腦中與自己疼痛相關的區域也會被激活。
But it turns out that our emotional state has an effect on how much empathy we feel. Our emotions literally change the way our brain responds to others, even when they are in pain. In particular, it is when we feel bad that it can have a consequence on our social world.
然而，我們自己的情緒狀況也會影響同情心的程度。我們的情緒能改變大腦對於他人的反應方式，即便大腦正處於痛苦之中。具體來說，當我們心情糟糕時，大腦的反應會影響我們的社交活動。
It is apparent that our mood can influence our behavior in a myriad of ways, from the food choices we make – when we are in a bad mood we eat less healthily – to our friendships. When our friends are down and gloomy, the feeling can be contagious and can makes us feel more miserable too. Bad moods can even spread on social media, a 2017 study found.
很顯然，我們的心情能以各種方式影響我們的行為，從食物的選擇（當心情不好的時候我們會吃垃圾食品）到友誼的維繫。如果我們的朋友情緒低落沮喪，我們也會受到感染感覺痛苦不堪。一份2017年的研究表示，負面情緒甚至能在社交媒體上傳播。
In fact, our emotions are so powerful that when we are in a positive mood, it can dampen how much pain we feel when injured. It provides us with an analgesic-like effect. When it comes to negative emotions, the opposite occurs: our feeling towards that pain is exaggerated.
實際上，我們的情緒非常強大，以至於正能量情緒能減弱我們受傷時感覺到的痛苦，其作用與止痛劑類似。而負能量情緒則正好相反：它能放大痛苦的感覺。
Worse, a recent study, published in December 2017, has shown that when we feel bad it affects our in-built capacity to respond to others in pain. It literally dampens our empathy. Emilie Qiao-Tasserit at the University of Geneva and her team wanted to understand how our emotions influence the way we respond to others while they are in pain. Individuals were made to feel pain with a temperature-increasing device on their leg. The team also showed participants positive or negative movie clips while in a brain scanner, in addition to making them feel pain, or when watching clips of others in pain. Did participants feel empathy towards those who they knew were made to feel pain, the team wondered.
2017年12月公布的一項研究顯示，更糟糕的是，負面情緒能影響我們與生俱來對於他人痛苦產生反應的能力。它會減弱我們的同理心。日內瓦大學的艾米麗·喬塔斯利特和她的團隊想要了解情緒如何影響了我們對於他人痛苦所產生的反應。研究對象通過胳膊上的升溫儀器感知疼痛。除此之外，研究團隊也給參與者觀看正面或負面的影片片段或他人遭遇痛苦的片段，同時掃描他們的大腦。他們想知道，參與者是否會在感知到他人痛苦時產生同理心。
It turns out that those who watched a negative clip and then saw others in pain showed less brain activity in areas that are related to pain: the anterior insula and middle cingulate cortex. These are usually active when we see others in pain as well as when we experience pain ourselves. 「In other words, negative emotions can suppress our brain capacity to be sensitive to others』 pain,」 explains Qiao-Tasserit.
結果表明，觀看負面影片的參與者看到他人受苦時，大腦中與疼痛相關的區域——前腦島和中部的扣帶皮層的活躍程度比較低。這些區域通常在我們自身感受疼痛或看到別人經歷痛苦時比較活躍。「換句話說，負面情緒能抑制我們對於他人痛苦的感知。」喬塔斯利特解釋道。
This work is revealing. It shows that emotions can literally change our 「brain state」, and that by doing so our own feelings modify how we perceive someone else』s.
這項實驗結果是發人深省的：人們的情緒確實會改變「大腦的狀態」，而我們的主觀感受也會因此影響我們對他人的看法。
Along similar lines, another study by Qiao-Tasserit and colleagues found that after watching a negative clip, people tended to judge a face with a neutral emotion as more negative.
無獨有偶，喬塔斯利特和他的同事在另一個研究中發現，當研究對象看完一條負能量的短片後，他們很有可能將一個面無表情的人看作是愁眉苦臉的。
These results obviously have real-world implications. If a person in power, say a boss, has been exposed to something negative in their lives – even something as simple as a negative movie – they could be less sensitive to a colleague in pain and even view them more negatively. Our bad moods literally make us less receptive to others』 feelings.
這些結果具有明顯的現實意義：如果一個有權有勢的人（比如公司老闆）經歷了些不愉快的事後（沒準就看了個充滿負能量的電影），便可能很難察覺到員工的痛苦，甚至會更消極的看待他們。這說明，當我們心情糟糕時，會更易忽視他人的感受。
A lack of empathy has other implications too. Findings show that reduced empathy will result in less money donated to charity. Brain scans reveal that we also show less empathy to those who are not in our immediate social circle, say teammates in a sports club.
缺乏同理心也會帶來其他的影響。研究顯示：一旦人們對他人的同理心下降，他們對慈善機構的捐助也會隨之減少。腦部掃描結果顯示，如果對方不是我們最親近的人（比如體育俱樂部里的隊友），我們不會對他們有過多同感。
So why would negative emotions reduce empathy? It could be that a specific type of empathy, called empathic distress, is at play. This, explains Olga Klimecki, also at the University of Geneva, is 「the feeling of being overwhelmed」 when something bad happens to someone else, which makes you want to protect yourself instead of being overcome by negative feelings. This type of empathy even shows very different brain activation compared to typical empathy. This kind of distress might naturally also reduce compassion.
那麼，為什麼當人們心情不好時，同理心會隨之降低呢？這很有可能是因為「同理抑制」（一種特殊形式的同理心）在作祟。日內瓦大學的奧爾加.克里米奇解釋道，當看到不好的事發生在他人身上時，人們也會不知所措，這時就產生自我保護欲，避免自己被消極情緒壓垮。從大腦活動上看，這種同理心不同於普遍的同情心，也可能隨之減少人們對他人的同情。
It might also be that any situation that elicits negative emotions encourages us to focus more on ourselves and any issues we face. "Anxious and depressed patients who suffer from an excess negative emotions are more likely to focus on their own problems and be isolated," says Qiao-Tasserit.
另外，當我們悶悶不樂時，會更關注於自己的問題。喬塔斯利特說道，「焦慮和消極的病人深受極端壓抑之苦，他們心裡大多隻盤算著自己的煩心事，並且變得自閉。」
One 2016 study by Klimecki and colleagues even found that empathic distress increases aggression. Here participants were subjected to unfair scenarios and then had the chance to punish or forgive their competitors. What』s more, the participants in her study were asked to do personality tests before they came into the lab. She found that those who were more naturally compassionate reacted with less derogatory behaviour.
2016年，克林米奇和她的同事在一項研究中發現，「同理抑制」會增加人的攻擊性。實驗開始之前，參與者按要求參加了性格測試，在實驗中，參與者遭到了不公平的對待後，他們可以選擇對手採取報復或給予寬容。克林米奇發現，那些天生同情心更強的人，報復心更弱。
For Klimecki this was telling. In her extensive research on empathy she has shown that it is possible to cultivate more compassionate behaviour. She found that feelings of compassionate empathy can be trained. Our emotional responses to others are therefore clearly not set in stone.
克林米奇認為這個實驗結果很能說明問題。她在大範圍的研究調查中發現：人們可能通過後天的培養變得更有同情心。她發現同情心是可以通過「訓練」得到的。因此，很明顯，我們對他人的情緒反應不是一成不變的。
This shows that we can all re-engage our inner empathy, even in the face of someone else』s distress. And when we think a bit more positively it will help broaden our attention towards others』 needs. 「This could contribute to greater relationships, a key factor of happiness,」 says Qiao-Tasserit.
這意味著，即便我們在面臨他人的痛苦時，我們也可以找回發自內心的惻隱之情。當我們的想法越積極，我們就更關注他人所需。喬塔斯利特談到，「這可以增進我們與他人間的友誼，並且對獲得個人的幸福感十分重要。
So next time you are in a foul mood, consider the effect it might have on the people you communicate with day-to-day. You may also want to time your reading of chilling dystopian novels or horror movies wisely. If you read or watch them while in a bad mood, that』s the perfect time to keep your empathy at bay, and feel a little less distressed at the pain – real or fictional – of others.
因此當你以後心情不好時，可以想一下：這種心情會給每日相伴的朋友帶來怎樣的影響。你也應該在這時，明智地分配花在驚悚的反烏托邦小說和恐怖電影上的時間。因為如果你心情不好的同時看這些書和電影，那你此時的同理心勢必會減少，對他人的悲慘遭遇——無論真實還是虛構，也不會那麼感同身受。
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