時尚雙語:腦部掃描探測你是否助人爲樂

Altruism(1), one of the Most difficult human behaviors to define, can be detected in brain scans, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

They found activity in a specific area of the brain could predict altruistic behavior -- and people's own reports of how selfish or giving they are.

"Although understanding the function of this brain region may not necessarily(2) identify what drives people like Mother Theresa, it may give clues(3) to the origins of important social behaviors like altruism," said Scott Huettel, a neuroscientist(4) at Duke University who led the study.

They set up an experiment in which they put 45 college students into a functional magnetic(5) resonance(6) imaging scanner, which can take real-time images of brain activity.

They gave the students various games to play, and told them that winning earned cash for either themselves or for a charity. The students had chosen the charities beforehand(7) from a list, the researchers report.

The students reacted differently depending on whether they won for themselves or for charity with the ones who described themselves as altruistic responding more strongly.

"The game involved reacting as fast as one can to the appearance of a target; if one responds fast enough, then money was earned," Huettel said.

The task was fairly simple, and the students did not give up any payments to themselves to give to the charities. But it cost enough effort that Huettel believes it did represent altruistic intent.

"Conversely, trying to watch people in their daily lives would make data collection nearly impossible. So, we settled on(8) self-reports as a good, albeit(9) imperfect, measure."

Huettel believes it is valid(10) to try to assess altruism scientifically.

"It is hardly the case that all altruistic acts come from people who are religiously faithful; there are undoubtedly many altruistic atheists(11)," He said.

"And, a religious explanation would have considerable(12) difficulty explaining why some animals help others of their species at significant cost or danger to themselves."

Next his team hopes to test children, and find out how and when altruism develops.

週日，美國研究人員稱，最難解釋的人類行爲之一—利他主義可以通過腦部掃描探測。

他們發現腦部一塊特殊區域的活動能預示利他主義行爲—身體自己彙報自私度或者利他度。

本研究組長、杜克大學神經學家Scott Huettel說：“儘管對這部分腦功能的認識還無法解釋到底是什麼可以讓人們像德蘭修女一樣，但卻能讓我們更加靠近諸如利他主義這樣的重要社會行爲的根源。”

研究人員將45位大學生送入能夠實時記錄腦部活動的功能磁共振成像掃描儀。

他們讓學生們玩不同的遊戲，並每次讓他們選擇贏的錢是留給自己還是捐獻福利機構。遊戲開始前學生們可以從列表上選擇受捐贈的福利機構。

選擇不同受益者，遊戲結果大大不同，同時自稱是利他主義者的學生的反應更爲強烈。

Huettel說：“其中一個遊戲是讓學生目擊突然出現的目標，如果反應夠快就能贏錢。”

任務都很簡單，學生們在此過程中不會有任何金錢損失。但是Huettel認爲學生付出的努力足可以代表他們的利他意圖。

“相反地，通過觀察人們的日常生活蒐集數據幾乎是不可能的。所以，我們認爲自我彙報是一種雖然不完美，但還不錯的方法。”

Huettel認爲這是評估利他主義的科學有效途徑。

他說：“並非所有的利他行爲都來自有宗教信仰的人；毫無疑問太多無神論者同樣是利他主義者。”

“而且，宗教無法解釋爲什麼有些動物會付出很大代價、冒很大風險幫助同類。”

下一步，他的團隊希望測試兒童，試圖發現利他主義行爲是從何時、如何發展的。