Smile! You’ ll Feel Better
As the song says,smiling when you’re feeling blue appears to put you in a rosy mood.At least that’s the theory set forth by Robert B.Zajonc,Ph.D.,director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
When you smile,two things happen:You breathe through your nose,and you exert pressure on the veins1) in your face.Both of these activities result in cooler blood entering the region of the brain known a s the hypothalamus2) ――which,Zajonc believes,causes the release of chemicals that can suppress pain and /or help you fee l better.When you breathe through your nose,you bring cool air into your nasal3) passages,which cools the veins and t he blood flowing through them.And when you use the“smile muscles”at the corners of your mouth,you change the direction of the blood flow inside your face in such a way that it causes the temperature of the blood to drop.
Cooling the blood may also inhibit4) the release of serotonin5),thought to be related to depression,and promote the release of endorphins6),which suppress pain and give you a lift.
All this may be one reason we enjoy kissing so much.Notes Zajonc,“When you kiss,you have to breathe through your nose,because your mouth is otherwise occupied.”
微笑!你將感覺更好
正如一首歌所唱的那樣,當你感到沮喪時,微笑似乎能讓你樂觀起來。至少這是密歇根大學社會研究所主任羅伯特B·贊喬恩克博士提出的一種理論。當你微笑時會發(fā)生兩件事:你在通過鼻子呼吸并對臉部的靜脈加壓。這兩個動作導致流入丘腦下部的血液冷卻---贊喬恩克認為這會產生能夠抑制疼痛和/或有助于你感覺好些的化學物質。
當你通過你的鼻腔呼吸時,冷空氣進入了你的鼻腔通道,這冷卻了靜脈和流經靜脈的血液。當你使用嘴角的“微笑肌肉”時,你改變了流進臉部血液的方向,用這種方式能降低血液的溫度。
冷卻血液也可能抑制血清素的產生,血清素被認為和沮喪有關。而且冷卻血液有助于腦內啡肽的產生,腦內啡肽能抑制疼痛,給你一個好心情。
所有這一切可能是我們如此喜歡親吻的一個理由。贊喬恩克講道,“當你親吻時,你不得不通過你的鼻子呼吸,因為你的嘴已經被占用。”
NOTE 注釋:
vein [vein] n. 靜脈血管
hypothalamus [7haipEu5WAlEmEs] n. [解剖]視丘下部
nasal [5neizEl] n. 鼻腔
inhibit [in5hibit] [化][醫(yī)]抑制
5.serotonin [7siErE5tEunin] n. 含于血液中的復合胺
6.endorphin [in5dC:fin] n. 啡肽