研究：寒冷也會傳染

Just watching another person shiver can cause our own temperature to drop, scientists have found.

科學家發現，看着別人發抖，我們自己的體溫也會下降。

Volunteers who viewed videos of actors plunging their hands into ice-cold water, experienced a simultaneous drop in the temperature of their own hands.

當視頻中的演員將手放入冰冷的水中時，觀看視頻的志願者們自己的手部溫度也會同時下降。

Neuroscientist Neil Harrison, from the University of Sussex said: ‘We believe that this mimicry of people’s bodily response helps us understand how they are feeling.

蘇塞克斯大學（The University of Sussex）的神經系統科學家尼爾·哈里森（Neil Harrison）說，“我們認爲這種人體反應的模擬行爲可以幫助我們理解他人的感受。

‘Humans are profoundly social creatures and much of humans’ success results from our ability to work together in complex communities – this would be hard to do if we were not able to rapidly empathise with each other and predict one another’s thoughts, feelings and motivations.’

“人類是極度社會化的生物，我們所獲得的很多成功都來源於在複雜社會中的相互合作，如果無法快速理解他人的感受或是預測他人的想法、感受和動機，我們將難以合作。”

It’s believed that ‘mirror neurons’ in the brain are behind the phenomenon.

科學家認爲，這種現象的背後是大腦中的“鏡像神經元”在起作用。

Dr Harrison explained: ‘Mirror neurons found in very specific parts of the brain are known to fire when we perform an action or observe a similar action in others – it has been proposed that more general mirror properties may also exist across many other brain areas.'

哈里森博士解釋道，“僅在大腦特定部分存在的鏡像神經元在我們完成一個動作或是觀察到他人做出相似動作時會發揮作用，有人提出，大腦其他區域可能存在更多的鏡像特質。”

And the more naturally empathetic the person, the more likely they are to mimic another person’s responses, he added.

他補充道，“一個人越容易與他人產生同感，就越有可能模仿他人的反應。”

For the study, which was published in the Plos One journal, researchers asked 36 participants to watch eight videos that showed actors with one of their hands in visibly warm or cold water.

這一研究刊登於公共科學圖書館期刊（The Plos One journal），研究者讓36名參加者觀看八段視頻，視頻中演員將一隻手放入明顯溫暖或是冰冷的水中。

In the four 'warm' videos, the first 40 seconds showed the actor gradually adding hot water from a steaming kettle into the container, checking the temperature of the water every few seconds.

在其中四段關於熱水的視頻中，前40秒，演員將冒氣的水壺裏的熱水逐漸加入容器中，並每隔幾秒檢查一下水溫。

The actor was then shown with their hand immersed in the water for a further two minutes and 20 seconds.

之後，演員的手完全浸入水中，持續兩分鐘20秒。

The actor did the same in the 'cold' videos, but instead, filled the container with a bag of ice.

在另外四段關於冷水的視頻中演員做同樣的動作，但容器中加入了一袋冰。

Four control videos with the actors’ hand in front of a tank of room temperature water were also shown.

同時還有四段對照視頻，演員的手放在裝有與室溫相同溫度的水的容器前。

None of the actors’ faces could be seen and the temperature of the room was kept at a constant 21°C (70°F).

鏡頭裏看不到演員的臉，室溫保持在21攝氏度（70華氏度)。

The researchers monitored the participants’ hand temperature while the watched the videos.

研究人員監控了參與者觀看視頻時的手部溫度。

They found that when they viewed the actors putting their hands in the iced water, their temperatures dropped by a small, but statistically significant, amount: 0.2°in their left hands, and 0.05°in their right.

他們發現，當參與者看到演員將手放入冰水時手部溫度會有小幅度下降，幅度雖小，但在統計數據上很顯著。左手溫度下降了0.2攝氏度右手溫度下降了0.05攝氏度。

There was no significant change in their hand temperature when they watched the control videos and the warm water videos.

觀看對照視頻和溫水視頻時，參與者的手部溫度沒有明顯變化。

Dr Harrison said: ‘Though we didn’t see a significant change in participants’ own hand temperature when they viewed the warm videos, we think that this is probably because the warm videos were less potent.

哈里森博士說：“儘管我們並未發現參與者在觀看溫水視頻時自己的手部溫度有明顯變化，我們相信這可能是因爲溫水視頻效果不夠明顯。

'The only cues that the water was warm was steam at the beginning of the videos and the pink colour of the actor’s hand, whereas blocks of ice were clearly visible throughout the duration of the cold video.

“判斷水是溫的僅有線索是視頻開始時的蒸汽和演員手部紅潤的顏色，而在冷水視頻中，我們始終能明顯地看到冰塊。

‘There is also some evidence to suggest that people may be more sensitive to others appearing cold than hot. Why this may be the case is currently unclear.’

“這在一定程度上也可以證明，比起別人覺得熱這件事，人們對別人覺得冷更爲敏感，關於這一點的原因，目前還太不清楚。”