时差N小时:心情能够影响你的嗅觉 The Smell Of Anxiety

Our sense of smell can have a large impact on howwe think and feel.

我们的嗅觉对我们的思维和感觉能够产生很大影响。

But did you know that mood can affect how wesmell?

但你知道吗，心情也是能够影响嗅觉的。

According to a study by researchers at the Universityof Wisconsin Madison, feeling anxious can maketypically neutral smells seem repugnant.

根据威斯康星麦迪逊大学研究人员的一份报告显示，焦虑的心情能够让典型的中性气味变得刺鼻。

The study involved a dozen volunteers who rated a panel of neutral smells.

该项研究邀请了12名志愿者并让他们辨别一组中性气味。

Then, while inside an MRI machine, subjects were made to feel anxious with disturbing imagesof car crashes and grisly war scenes.

然后通过向他们播放撞车和可怕的战争场景图像来使他们产生焦虑的情绪，并用核磁共振仪进行观察。

They were then asked to rank the panels of neutral smells once again.

接着，志愿者们被要求再次对这组中性气味进行辨别。

But now, after having been made anxious by the images, they described some of the smells asnegative.

但是由于之前看到的影片产生了焦虑感，他们这次则表示闻到的气体是刺鼻的。

MRI revealed that during induced anxiety, the smell related circuits of the brain becameintertwined with the brain's emotional circuitry.

核磁共振结果显示，由于心情焦虑，大脑中跟嗅觉有关的回路跟情绪相关的回路产生了交织。

Normally, those circuits don't interact much, but when the subjects were anxious, the circuitsmorphed into something like a unified network, essentially rewiring the brain.

正常情况下，这些回路并不会发生太多的互动，但是当人体变得焦虑时，这两种回路就会变成一个看似交织在一起的网络，本质上来说就是对大脑的回路进行了重组。

And somehow, that rewiring affected how the subjects interacted with theworld through smell.

而且，不知何故，这种改变影响了志愿者通过嗅觉与外界进行联系的方式。

So why does this matter?

为什么知道这一点会很重要呢?

First, because it helps explain how anxiety can feed on itself.

首先，它可以有助于解释焦虑是如何变强的。

In sofar as being anxious makes things smell generally worse, those worse smells may in turncause greater anxiety, creating an anxiety feedback loop.

如果说一定程度的焦虑会让人感觉闻到的东西很刺鼻，那么越刺鼻的气味则会反过来引发更强烈的焦虑感，由此便产生了一种焦虑的恶性循环。

On the bright side, understanding how emotion and smell can intert wine may also lead to waysto use smell as a way to combat anxiety and other mental disorders an intriguing possibilitythat maybe borne out with more research.

好的一面是，如果理解了情绪跟气味是如何互动的原理，我们可以利用气味来战胜焦虑和其他的心理疾病，但是这种有趣的可能性还需要投入更多的研究来加以证实。