時差N小時:迷失在書里

Yael: Hey Don, what are you reading? Don? Don!

雅艾爾：嘿，唐，你在讀什么?唐?唐!

Don: Huh?

唐：哈?

Yael: I asked what book you're reading.

雅艾爾：我問你在看什么書。

Don: Oh, sorry. I guess I was lost in the story.

唐：啊，對不起。我剛才對這個故事太入迷了。

Yael: That's OK. That's what a good story will do,right? In fact, there's a study that explains what'sgoing on the brain when we get caught up in a story.

雅艾爾：沒關系。好故事總是會讓人入迷，不是嗎?事實上，有一項研究解釋了我們被好故事吸引時大腦的活動。

Don: Do tell.

唐：請講。

Yael: Basically, according to the study, when you read a story that engages you, your braincreates detailed and vivid simulations of the details in the story.

雅艾爾：根據這項研究，基本來說當你被一篇故事吸引時，大腦會詳細生動地模擬故事情節(jié)。

Don: You mean that when I'm reading, my brain is activated as though I'm actually doing thethings I'm reading about?

唐：你是說在我讀書時，大腦會被激活，仿佛我正在做讀到的事情?

Yael: Or observing them, or imagining them. The point is that reading isn't a passive activitywhere the brain is just processing language. It's much more dynamic and active. So if you'rereading a book about baseball, say, the brain reacts in ways similar to how it would if you wereactually playing baseball, or watching a game, or imagining yourself hitting a ball, or whatever.

雅艾爾：或者觀察，想象著你讀到的事情。重點是讀書不是一項被動的活動，而大腦也不只是在單純地處理語言。讀書是更為動態(tài)的，積極的。比如說，當你正在讀一本關于棒球的書時，大腦的反應跟你在真正打棒球，看比賽或者想象自己在打球時的大腦反應相似。

Don: Interesting. How was this studied?

唐：很有趣。怎么研究出來的呢?

Yael: That's interesting, too. The researchers studied readers' brains using an MRI scanner. Butbecause the readers had to remain perfectly still, their heads were immobilized as they read thestory one word at a time on a computer screen.

雅艾爾：那也很有趣。研究人員通過核磁共振掃描儀來研究讀者的大腦活動。但由于讀者需要保持絕對靜止，在他們一字一句閱讀電腦屏幕上的故事時，他們的頭就被固定住了。

Don: That's hardly a typical reading experience.

唐：這樣的閱讀經歷真是獨特啊。

Yael: True. But even reading stories in that strange, one-word-at-a-time way, thereaders'brains were still activated to create mental simulations of the story.

雅艾爾：當然，但是即使是以這種奇怪的，一字一句的方式閱讀，讀者的腦子仍然被激活，仍然會從心理上模擬故事情節(jié)。

Don: So what does this mean?

唐：因此這意味著什么呢?

Yael: Maybe that being lost in a good book doesn't mean you're zoned out. It's more like yourbrain is tuned in.

雅艾爾：也許迷失在一本好書里并不意味著你迷糊了?？雌饋砀袷谴竽X在收聽。