警告：這是一篇關(guān)于死亡的文章！你現(xiàn)在也許想要點(diǎn)擊關(guān)閉鍵退出。

That’s because, researchers say, our brains do their best to keep us from dwelling on our inevitable demise. A study found that the brain shields us from existential fear by categorizing death as an unfortunate event that only befalls other people.
研究人員說(shuō)，這是因?yàn)椋覀兊拇竽X竭盡全力不讓我們老去想那不可避免的死亡。一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，大腦將死亡歸類為一個(gè)只會(huì)降臨于他人的不幸事件，借此使我們逃避關(guān)于生死話題的恐懼。

“The brain does not accept that death is related to us,” said Yair Dor-Ziderman, at Bar Ilan University in Israel. “We have this primal mechanism that means when the brain gets information that links self to death, something tells us it’s not reliable, so we shouldn’t believe it.”
以色列巴爾伊蘭大學(xué)的亞伊爾·多爾-齊德曼說(shuō)：“大腦不承認(rèn)死亡與我們有關(guān)。我們有這種原始機(jī)制，這意味著當(dāng)大腦收到將自我與死亡聯(lián)系起來(lái)的信息時(shí)，某個(gè)聲音就告訴我們，它不可靠，因此我們不應(yīng)該相信它?！?/p>

Being shielded from thoughts of our future death could be crucial for us to live in the present. The protection may switch on in early life as our minds develop and we realize death comes to us all.
屏蔽掉未來(lái)終有一死的想法對(duì)我們活在當(dāng)下至關(guān)重要。這種保護(hù)可能在我們生命的早期就開(kāi)啟了，隨著心智發(fā)育，我們漸漸認(rèn)識(shí)到人人都終有一死。

“The moment you have this ability to look into your own future, you realize that at some point you’re going to die and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Dor-Ziderman. “That goes against the grain of our whole biology, which is helping us to stay alive.”
多爾-齊德曼說(shuō)：“一旦你有了這種展望自己未來(lái)的能力，你就意識(shí)到，你到某一時(shí)刻會(huì)死，而你對(duì)此無(wú)能為力。這違背了幫助我們活下去的整個(gè)生物學(xué)原理。”

To investigate how the brain handles thoughts of death, Dor-Ziderman and colleagues developed a test that involved producing signals of surprise in the brain.
為了研究大腦如何應(yīng)對(duì)關(guān)于死亡的思考，多爾-齊德曼及其同事設(shè)計(jì)了一項(xiàng)關(guān)于大腦產(chǎn)生驚訝信號(hào)的測(cè)試。

They asked volunteers to watch faces flash up on a screen while their brain activity was monitored. The person’s own face or that of a stranger flashed up on screen several times, followed by a different face. On seeing the final face, the brain flickered with surprise because the image clashed with what it had predicted.
他們要求志愿者觀看在屏幕上閃現(xiàn)的面孔，同時(shí)對(duì)其大腦活動(dòng)進(jìn)行監(jiān)測(cè)。志愿者本人的面孔或一個(gè)陌生人的面孔在屏幕上閃現(xiàn)數(shù)次，隨后是一張不同的面孔。當(dāng)看到最后一張面孔時(shí)，大腦閃現(xiàn)出驚訝，因?yàn)閳D像與它的預(yù)測(cè)相沖突。

Various words appeared above the faces on screen. Half of the time these were death-related words such as “funeral” or “burial”. The scientists found that if a person’s own face flashed up next to deathly words, their brain shut down its prediction system. It refused to link the self with death and no surprise signals were recorded.
屏幕上的面孔上方配有各種單詞，一半與死亡有關(guān)，比如“葬禮”或“埋葬”?？茖W(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果一個(gè)人自己的面孔配上與死亡相關(guān)的字眼閃現(xiàn)，他們的大腦就會(huì)關(guān)閉預(yù)測(cè)系統(tǒng)，拒絕將自我與死亡聯(lián)系起來(lái)，不發(fā)出驚訝信號(hào)。

Avi Goldstein, a senior author on the paper, said: “This suggests that we shield ourselves from existential threats, or consciously thinking about the idea that we are going to die, by shutting down predictions about the self, or categorizing the information as being about other people rather than ourselves.”
論文第一作者阿維·戈德斯坦說(shuō)：“這表明，我們通過(guò)停止做出關(guān)于自我的預(yù)測(cè)或把死亡信息歸類為事關(guān)他人而非我們自己，以此屏蔽死亡威脅，或者說(shuō)，免于有意識(shí)地思考我們終會(huì)死亡的念頭。”

Dor-Ziderman added: “We cannot rationally deny that we will die, but we think of it more as something that happens to other people.”
多爾-齊德曼還說(shuō)：“我們?cè)诶碇巧蠠o(wú)法否認(rèn)我們會(huì)死亡，但我們更多地把它看作發(fā)生在他人身上的事?！?/p>

In the not-so-distant past, Zor-Diderman pointed out, our brain’s defences against thoughts of death were balanced out by the reality of death around us. Today, he believes, society is more death-phobic, with sick people confined to hospitals and elderly people to care homes. As a result, he suspects, people know far less about the end of life and perhaps come to fear it more.
多爾-齊德曼指出，在不太遙遠(yuǎn)的過(guò)去，我們大腦對(duì)死亡思考的防御被周圍有人死亡的現(xiàn)實(shí)抵消。他認(rèn)為，當(dāng)今社會(huì)對(duì)死亡的恐懼更甚，病人被關(guān)進(jìn)醫(yī)院，老人被送進(jìn)養(yǎng)老院。他懷疑，人們對(duì)生命之終結(jié)的了解因此少了許多，也許結(jié)果更加害怕死亡。

Arnaud Wisman, a psychologist at the University of Kent, said people put up numerous defences to stave off thoughts of death. The young in particular may see it as a problem for other people, he said.
肯特大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家阿諾德·威斯曼說(shuō)，人們想方設(shè)法抵御對(duì)死亡的思考。他說(shuō)，年輕人尤其可能會(huì)把死亡看成是別人的事。

His own work had found that in modern societies people embraced what he called the “escape treadmill”, where hard work, pub sessions, checking mobile phones and buying more stuff meant people were simply too busy to worry about death.
他的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在現(xiàn)代社會(huì)，人們欣然接受他所謂的“逃避性勞動(dòng)”，即辛苦工作、酒吧聚會(huì)、查看手機(jī)和購(gòu)買更多東西，忙得無(wú)暇擔(dān)心死亡。

“However, it is not a solution to the problem itself,” he said. “So we need to keep escaping.”
他說(shuō)：“然而，這不是解決問(wèn)題本身的辦法。所以我們需要不停地逃避?！?/p>

來(lái)源： 英語(yǔ)世界