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A couple stands at the embankment of the Volga River in Samara, about 1000 km (620 miles) southeast of Moscow May 18, 2007.
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It often seems a thin line between love and hate, and now scientists think they know why.
Brain scans of people shown images of individuals they hated revealed a pattern of brain activity that partly occurs in areas also activated by romantic love, Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya of University College London reported Tuesday.
"This linkage may account for why love and hate are so closely linked to each other in life," the researchers wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS One.
"Our results show that there is a unique pattern of activity in the brain in the context of hate."
In their study, the researchers showed 17 men and women pictures of someone the volunteers said they hated along with three familiar, neutral faces. The hated individuals were all former lovers or work rivals, except for one famous politician.
The brain scans identified a pattern of activity in different areas of the brain the researchers called a "hate circuit" that switched on when people saw faces they despised, the researchers said.
The so-called hate circuit includes structures in the cortex and the sub-cortex and represented a pattern distinct from emotions such as fear, threat and danger, Zeki said in a telephone interview.
The brain activity also occurred in the putamen and insula, two areas activated when people viewed the face of a loved person. Scientists have linked the regions to aggressive action and distressing situations, Zeki said.
But there were important differences as well. A bigger part of the cerebral cortex - an area linked to judgment and reasoning - de-activates with love compared to hate.
"It is more likely that in the context of hate the hater may want to exercise judgment in calculating moves to (cause) harm," Zeki said in a statement.
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(Agencies)
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人們常說(shuō)：“愛恨只在一線間”，現(xiàn)在科學(xué)家找到了其中的原因。
倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的薩米爾?澤克和約翰?保羅?羅馬亞于本周二發(fā)布研究報(bào)告稱，他們通過(guò)人腦掃描發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)研究對(duì)象看到自己憎恨的人時(shí)，大腦進(jìn)行特定活動(dòng)的部分區(qū)域同時(shí)也是“愛情激活區(qū)”。
研究人員在《公共科學(xué)圖書館-綜合》上發(fā)表的研究報(bào)告中指出：“這一關(guān)聯(lián)或許能解釋為什么在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中愛恨總是緊密相連?！?/font>
“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)人在產(chǎn)生憎恨情緒時(shí)，大腦會(huì)發(fā)生一種特定的活動(dòng)?！?/font>
研究人員向17名男女志愿者展示了他們所憎恨的一些人的照片，其中除一位是政界知名人士外，其他都是研究對(duì)象過(guò)去的戀人或工作上的死對(duì)頭。此外，研究對(duì)象還看了三張熟人的照片，他們對(duì)這幾個(gè)人既不愛也不恨。
通過(guò)對(duì)研究對(duì)象進(jìn)行腦部掃描發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)人們看到自己厭惡的面孔時(shí)，大腦中的幾個(gè)不同區(qū)域會(huì)發(fā)生某種特定的活動(dòng)，研究人員將這幾個(gè)由“憎恨”啟動(dòng)的腦區(qū)稱為“憎恨回路”。
澤克在電話采訪中稱，大腦“憎恨回路”包括大腦皮層和下皮層中的結(jié)構(gòu)，它所反映的大腦活動(dòng)形式與恐懼、威脅和危險(xiǎn)等情緒截然不同。
“憎恨回路”中的殼核和腦島兩個(gè)區(qū)域在人們看到喜歡的人時(shí)也會(huì)活動(dòng)。澤克說(shuō)，此前已有科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)這兩個(gè)區(qū)域與攻擊行為和痛苦體驗(yàn)有關(guān)。
但愛與恨畢竟不同，其中最重要的差別是，人在產(chǎn)生愛意時(shí)，大部分與判斷和推理相關(guān)的大腦皮層都處于不活躍狀態(tài)，而在產(chǎn)生恨意時(shí)只有一小部分不活躍。
澤克在聲明中說(shuō)：“這可能是因?yàn)槿嗽诋a(chǎn)生憎恨情緒時(shí)，要通過(guò)判斷來(lái)決定如何采取攻擊或報(bào)復(fù)行動(dòng)?！?/font>
（實(shí)習(xí)生瞿漫 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍 編輯）
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