运动真的能让我们变聪明吗

The scientists had seen this situation at work during an earlier study of video games and cognition. Past research had suggested that playing action-oriented video games improves players’ subsequent thinking skills. But when scientists in the new study asked video-game players to estimate by how much the games would improve their thinking, the players’ estimates almost exactly matched the gains seen on cognitive tests after playing. In other words, the cognitive benefits of playing video games appear to be largely a result of a placebo effect.
在早前对视频游戏与认知能力的关系所做的研究中，科学家们就遇到过这种情况。过去的研究显示，玩动作类视频游戏可以改善玩家的思维能力。但当进行新研究的科学家们让视频游戏玩家估计游戏能在多大程度上改善他们的思维能力时，玩家的估计几乎和玩后的认知测试的加分完全吻合。换句话说，玩视频游戏的认知好处似乎主要是心理作用。

For the new study, which was published last month in PLOS One, the researchers repeated this experiment but focused on exercise. Recruiting 171 people through an online survey system, they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning program performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking, including memory and mental multitasking.
关于锻炼的这项新研究上个月发表在《公共科学图书馆：综合》期刊(PLOS One)上。研究人员重复了这个实验，但把实验内容换成了体育锻炼。他们通过一个在线调查系统招募了171人，要求其中一半的志愿者来评估，如果一周进行三次拉伸运动，能够在多大程度上改善思维能力，比如记忆力和一心多用的能力。

The other volunteers were asked the same questions, but about a regular walking program.
另一组志愿者被问到同样的问题，不过锻炼项目换成了有规律的步行运动。

In actual experiments, stretching and toning regimens generally have little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills. Walking, on the other hand, seems to substantially improve thinking ability.
在真实的实验中，拉伸运动基本上对认知能力没有多少影响。另一方面，散步则显示出能大幅改善思维能力。

But the survey respondents believed the opposite, estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking. The volunteers’ estimates of the likely cognitive improvements from gentle toning averaged about a three on a scale from one to six. The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.
不过，在这项实验中，受试者的想法则正好相反。他们估计拉伸项目比步行对大脑更有益处。以1到6级来衡量，志愿者认为，轻度拉伸对认知的潜在改善的平均等级是3。他们对步行的评估则低一些。

These data, while they do not involve any actual exercise, are good news for people who do exercise. “The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect,” said Cary Stothart, a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University, who led the study.
这些数据虽然没有涉及真正的体育锻炼，对于真正从事锻炼的人来说却是个好消息。“我们的研究结果显示，有氧运动的好处不是安慰剂效应，”佛罗里达州立大学的认知心理学研究生卡里·斯托塔特(Cary Stothart)说。他牵头进行了这项研究。

If expectations had been driving the improvements in cognition seen in studies after exercise, Mr. Stothart said, then people should have expected walking to be more beneficial for thinking than stretching. They didn’t, implying that the changes in the brain and thinking after exercise are physiologically genuine.
斯托塔特解释，假如是人们的期待在驱动研究中发现的锻炼对认知能力的改善，那么受试者就应该是期待步行比拉伸更有益处。他们没有，这就意味着体育锻炼之后，大脑和思维能力真的发生了生理上的变化。

Of course, this study was small and involved a self-selected group of people who happen to like completing online surveys. Some said they exercised, others said they did not. None claimed to be familiar with the science related to exercise and the brain, but it is impossible to know if people were being forthright.
当然，这项研究的规模较小，参与者只涵盖了喜欢完成网上调查的人。有些人声称自己平时锻炼，其他人则说自己不运动。没人自称熟悉与运动和大脑有关的科学，但也无法知道他们是不是都说了真话。

Still, the findings are strong enough to suggest that exercise really does change the brain and may, in the process, improve thinking, Mr. Stothart said. That conclusion should encourage scientists to look even more closely into how, at a molecular level, exercise remodels the human brain, he said. It also should spur the rest of us to move, since the benefits are, it seems, not imaginary, even if they are in our head.
不过，斯托塔特表示，这些发现仍然足以证明，锻炼真的会改变大脑，或许在这个过程中，还可能改善思维能力。他说，这个结论应该可以鼓励科学家们进一步探索：在分子层面上，运动是如何重塑了我们的大脑。它还应该激励我们其他人动起来，因为看来这些益处并非想象出来的，虽然它们的确发生在我们的大脑里。