多巴胺齋戒有何用？

It's the latest fad in Silicon Valley. By reducing the brain's feel-good chemical known as dopamine – cutting back on things like food, sex, alcohol, social media and technology – followers believe that they can "reset" the brain to be more effective and appreciate simple things more easily.

這是硅谷的新風潮。通過減少大腦中使人感覺良好的化學物質多巴胺(減少接觸食物、性、酒精、社交媒體和科技)，擁護者們相信他們可以“重置”大腦，使其更高效，更容易欣賞簡單的事物。

Some even go so far as avoiding all social activities, and even eye contact.

有些人甚至避開了所有的社交活動，甚至避開了眼神交流。

The exercise, dubbed "dopamine fasting" by San Francisco psychologist Dr Cameron Sepah, is now getting increasing international attention. But what exactly is it? And does it work?

被舊金山心理學家卡梅隆·賽帕博士稱為“多巴胺齋戒”的這項活動，如今引起了國際社會的高度關注。但它到底是什么樣的活動呢?它有效嗎?

As someone who studies the brain's reward system, I'd like to share my knowledge with you.

作為一個研究大腦獎勵機制的人，我想和你們分享一下我的見解。

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a chemical messenger produced in the brain. It is sent around the brain conveying signals related to functions such as motor control, memory, arousal and reward processing.

多巴胺是一種神經遞質，是大腦產生的一種化學信使。它在大腦中傳遞與運動控制、記憶、興奮和獎勵機制等功能相關的信號。

For example, too little dopamine can result in disorders like Parkinson's Disease, involving symptoms of muscle rigidity, tremors and changes in speech and gait. One of the treatments for Parkinson's is the drug L-DOPA, which can cross the blood-brain barrier and be converted into dopamine to help ease the symptoms.

例如，多巴胺過低會導致帕金森氏癥等疾病，引起肌肉僵硬、顫抖以及言語能力和步態(tài)的改變等癥狀。L-DOPA是治療帕金森氏癥的藥物之一，它可以穿過血腦屏障，轉化為多巴胺，幫助緩解癥狀。

Dopamine is also important in the reward system in the brain. It is activated by primary rewards like food, sex and drugs.

多巴胺在大腦的獎勵機制中也很重要。它可以被食物、性和毒品等基本獎勵激活。

Importantly, the brain's reward system can "learn" over time – cues in our environment that we associate with potential rewards can increase the activity of dopamine even in the absence of an actual reward. So just being in a sweet shop and thinking about sweets can activate our brain's dopamine.

重要的是，隨著時間的推移，大腦的獎勵機制還可以“學習”，例如，即使沒有真正的獎勵，但我們聯想到環(huán)境中潛在獎勵的線索也可以增加多巴胺的活動。所以，在糖果店里，只是想著糖果就可以激活我們大腦中的多巴胺。

This expectation and anticipation of rewards is called the "wanting" in neuroscience language. As one of the main symptoms of depression is "anhedonia" – the lack of wanting, interest and pleasure in normally rewarding experiences – dysfunctional dopamine regulation has also been linked to this disorder.

這種對獎勵的期待在神經科學語言中被稱為“欲求”。抑郁癥的主要癥狀之一是“快感缺失”也就是在通常令人滿足的經歷中缺乏欲望、興趣和愉悅感，而多巴胺調節(jié)功能失調也與這種疾病有關。

Some treatments for depression, such as the drug bupropion, are designed to increase dopamine levels in the brain.

一些治療抑郁癥的藥物，如安非他酮，就是為了增加大腦中的多巴胺濃度。