爱情魔力背后隐藏的秘密

为什么我们渴望的爱这么多，甚至到了会为爱而死的地步？要了解我们最为真实和实际的浪漫爱情，人类学家海伦·费舍尔(Helen Fisher)和她的研究小组对陷入爱河与失恋阵线联盟的人们做了核磁共振。他们发现了什么新大陆呢?

Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love -- and people who had just been dumped.

演讲视频全文本：

I and my colleagues Art Aron and Lucy Brown and others, have put 37 people who are madly in love into a functional MRI brain scanner. 17 who were happily in love, 15 who had just been dumped, and we're just starting our third experiment: studying people who report that they're still in love after 10 to 25 years of marriage. So, this is the short story of that research.

我和阿尔特.阿伦、露西.布朗还有其他同事 对37位处在恋爱不同阶段的人的大脑 进行了核磁共振测试， 其中17位正享受爱情带来的幸福，而15位则刚刚被甩。 我们刚刚开始第三项实验： 研究那些在10到25年后 仍然处在爱恋中的人们， 接下来是关于这项研究的一些介绍。

In the jungles of Guatemala, in Tikal, stands a temple. It was built by the grandest Sun King, of the grandest city state, of the grandest civilization of the Americas, the Mayas. His name was Jasaw Chan K'awiil. He stood over six feet tall. He lived into his 80s, and he was buried beneath this monument in 720 AD. And Mayan inscriptions proclaim that he was deeply in love with his wife. So, he built a temple in her honor, facing his. And every spring and autumn, exactly at the equinox, the sun rises behind his temple, and perfectly bathes her temple with his shadow. And as the sun sets behind her temple in the afternoon, it perfectly bathes his temple with her shadow. After 1,300 years, these two lovers still touch and kiss from their tomb.

在危地马拉的丛林深处的提卡尔，矗立着一座神庙。 它由史上最显贵的太阳王建造， 位于最壮丽的城邦， 代表着美洲最伟大的古文明--玛雅。 这位君王，名曰Jasaw Chan K'awiil， 他体型魁梧， 并活到了八十余岁， 在公元720葬于提卡尔神庙。 按照玛雅碑文的说法， 他深爱着他的妻子。 他为妻子修建了一座神庙，正对着提卡尔神庙。 每到春分或秋分， 太阳在提卡尔神庙后升起， 而他妻子的神庙便浸浴在拖长的影子中。 到了下午落日之时， 他妻子的神庙的影子也会完全遮罩在提卡尔神庙上。 直到1300年后的今天， 这对恋人的陵墓依旧互相拥抱、亲吻。

Around the world people love. They sing for love, they dance for love, they compose poems and stories about love. They tell myths and legends about love. They pine for love, they live for love, they kill for love, and they die for love. As Walt Whitman once said, he said,"Oh, I would stake all for you." Anthropologists have found evidence of romantic love in 170 societies. They've never found a society that did not have it.

世界各地的人都有不同的爱情。 人们为爱情歌唱，人们因爱情起舞， 人们通过诗赋和故事来抒发爱情。 人们讲述关于爱情的神话和传说。 人们渴望爱情，因爱而生， 人们为爱着迷，甚至为爱而死。 沃尔特.惠特曼曾说过： "我愿意为你赌上我的一切！" 人类学家在170个社会中发现了爱情存在的证据。 爱情普遍地存在于每一个人类社会。

But love isn't always a happy experience. In one study of college students, they asked a lot of questions about love, but the two that stood out to me the most were, "Have you ever been rejected by somebody who you really loved?" And the second question was, "Have you ever dumped somebody who really loved you?" And almost 95 percent of both men and women said yes to both. Almost nobody gets out of love alive.

但爱情并不总是愉快的经历。 在一项针对大学生的调查中， 他们提出了很多关于爱情的问题， 其中的两个特别让我印象深刻， 一个是"你曾经被你真心爱着的人拒绝过吗？" 而另一个则是 "你曾经拒绝过真心爱着你的人吗？" 对于这两个问题，有95%的人作出了肯定的答复。 要活着走出爱情几乎是不可能的。

So, before I start telling you about the brain, I want to read for you what I think is the most powerful love poem on Earth. There's other love poems that are, of course, just as good, but I don't think this one can be surpassed. It was told by an anonymous Kwakutl Indian of southern Alaska to a missionary in 1896, and here it is. I've never had the opportunity to say it before. "Fire runs through my body with the pain of loving you, pain runs through my body with the fires of my love for you. Pain like a boil about to burst with my love for you, consumed by fire with my love for you, I remember what you said to me. I am thinking of your love for me, I am torn by your love for me. Pain and more pain, where are you going with my love? I am told you will go from here. I am told you will leave me here. My body is numb with grief. Remember what I said, my love. Goodbye, my love, goodbye." Emily Dickinson once wrote, "Parting is all we need to know of hell." How many people have suffered in all the millions of years of human evolution? How many people around the world are dancing with elation at this very minute? Romantic love is one of the most powerful sensations on Earth.

那么，在开始讲述关于大脑的事情前， 我要读一段 在我看来最富深情的情诗。 当然，很多情诗都很不错， 但我认为它们都无法超越这首。 在1896年的南阿拉斯加，一位不知名的夸扣特尔印第安人 把它讲述给了一名传教士。 这是我第一次当众读它。 "爱你之痛如熊熊烈焰穿透我的身体； 对你如火一般的热恋让疼痛贯穿我的身体。 痛楚如沸水，饱含我对你的爱， 爱的火焰将其蒸发殆尽。 我仍记得你对我说的话， 我想着你对我的爱， 它将我的躯体撕裂。 疼痛，更多的疼痛， 你要把我的爱带至何处？ 你对我说，你将从这里出发； 你对我说，你将在这儿把我遗弃。 我因此悲痛，因此失去知觉。 带上我的只言片语，我的爱人！ 再见，吾爱，再见！ 艾米莉.狄金森曾写道， "人因离别而品尝地狱" 在人类百万余年的进化过程中， 有多少人曾遭受这样的痛苦？ 而此时此刻， 世界各地又有多少人在尽情跳舞？ 爱情是世上最有力的感情。

So, several years ago, I decided to look into the brain and study this madness. Our first study of people who were happily in love has been widely publicized, so I'm only going to say a very little about it. We found activity in a tiny little factory near the base of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. We found activity in some cells called the ApEn cells. Cells that actually make dopamine, a natural stimulant, and spray it to many brain regions. Indeed this part, the VTA, is part of the brain's reward system. It's way below your cognitive thinking process. It's below your emotions. It's part of what we call the reptilian core of the brain, associated with wanting, with motivation, with focus and with craving. In fact, the same brain region where we found activity becomes active also when you feel the rush of cocaine.

所以多年之前，我决定研究大脑中的这种狂热的情感。 我们第一项对处在幸福爱恋中的人们的研究 得到了很好地宣传， 因此我只简短地介绍一下。 我们发现在大脑底部附近有一块活跃的微小的区域 --腹侧背盖区。 其中活跃的细胞称为ApEn细胞。 实际上，这种细胞制造了多巴胺--一种天然的兴奋剂， 并将它散发到大脑的众多区域。准确地说来，这里腹侧背盖区是大脑奖励系统的一部分。它运作在潜意识中，也不受情绪控制。 腹侧背盖区也是被我们称作爬虫类脑核的部分。 它关系到欲求、动机、 专注和渴望。 事实上，这一片区域在可卡因瘾发作时也会活跃起来。

But romantic love is much more than a cocaine high -- at least you come down from cocaine. Romantic love is an obsession. It possesses you. You lose your sense of self. You can't stop thinking about another human being. Somebody is camping in your head. As an eighth-century Japanese poet said, "My longing had no time when it ceases." Wild is love. And the obsession can get worse when you've been rejected.

但比起可卡因，爱情让它更加活跃-- 至少你还能从可卡因中回过神来。 爱情萦绕于心，占据着你。 你失去自我意识，不能自主地去想他 --他一直盘踞在你脑中。 就如8世纪的一位日本诗人所说， "我的渴求永不停止。" 爱情是狂热的。 当你被抛弃之后，牵挂会更深。