最新研究揭秘刷手机停不下来的原因：都怪我们的脑子

近日，一项最新研究表明，人的大脑在接受信息时均会受到刺激而变得兴奋，就像获得金钱和食物一样。不论信息是否有效，任何信息的输入对大脑来说都是一种奖励。

该研究发表在国际期刊<美国科学院院报（the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS）>上。

Researchers demonstrate common neural code for information and money; both act on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system

Science Daily

Can't stop checking your phone, even when you're not expecting any important messages? Blame your brain.

A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food.

dopamine

dopamine /ˈdəʊpəmiːn/表示“多巴胺（神经细胞产生的一种作用于其他细胞的化学物质）”，英文解释为“a chemical produced by nerve cells which has an effect on other cells”。

"To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it's useful," said Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist whose research employs functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), psychological theory, economic modeling, and machine learning. "And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful -- what some may call idle curiosity."

empty calories

表示“空热量，空卡路里”，英文解释为“calories derived from food containing no nutrients”。

空热量（empty calories）指含有高热量，却只含有少量或缺乏基本维生素、矿物质和蛋白质。In human nutrition, the term empty calories applies to foods and beverages composed primarily or solely of sugar, fats or oils, or alcohol-containing beverages. An example is carbonated soft drinks.

junk food

表示“（高脂肪、高糖分等的）不利健康的食品，垃圾食品”，英文解释为“food that is not healthy, for example because it contains a lot of fat, sugar etc”。

idle curiosity

表示“猎奇心；无意义的好奇心；随意的好奇心；求知的本能”，英文解释为“wanting to know something for no specific reason”举个🌰：

‘Why do you ask?’ ‘Oh, just idle curiosity (= no particular reason) .’

“你为什么要问？”“哦，只是好奇而已。”

补充：

· intellectual curiosity 求知欲

· curiosity killed the cat 表示“好奇害死猫，过于好奇会惹祸上身”，英文解释为“said to warn someone not to ask too many questions about something”。

The paper, "Common neural code for reward and information value," was published this month by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Authored by Hsu and graduate student Kenji Kobayashi, now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, it demonstrates that the brain converts information into same common scale as it does for money. It also lays the groundwork for unraveling the neuroscience behind how we consume information -- and perhaps even digital addiction.

unravel

表示“理解；解释，阐明”，英文解释为“to understand or explain something that is mysterious or complicated”举个🌰：

Detectives are still trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his death.

侦探们仍在试图解开他的死亡之谜。

"We were able to demonstrate for the first time the existence of a common neural code for information and money, which opens the door to a number of exciting questions about how people consume, and sometimes over-consume, information," Hsu said.

The paper is rooted in the study of curiosity and what it looks like inside the brain. While economists have tended to view curiosity as a means to an end, valuable when it can help us get information to gain an edge in making decisions, psychologists have long seen curiosity as an innate motivation that can spur actions by itself. For example, sports fans might check the odds on a game even if they have no intention of ever betting.

edge

表示“优势”，英文解释为“a slight advantage over sb/sth”举个🌰：

They have the edge on us.

他们略胜我们一筹。

spur

spur sb/sth (on) (to sth/to do sth)，表示“鞭策；激励；刺激；鼓舞”，英文解释为“to encourage sb to do sth or to encourage them to try harder to achieve sth”举个🌰：

Her difficult childhood spurred her on to succeed.

她艰辛的童年激励她取得成功。

Sometimes, we want to know something, just to know.

"Our study tried to answer two questions. First, can we reconcile the economic and psychological views of curiosity, or why do people seek information? Second, what does curiosity look like inside the brain?" Hsu said.

reconcile

表示“使和谐一致；调和；使配合”，英文解释为“to find an acceptable way of dealing with two or more ideas, needs, etc. that seem to be opposed to each other”举个🌰：

The possibility remains that the two theories may be reconciled.

这两种理论仍是有可能协调的。

To understand more about the neuroscience of curiosity, the researchers scanned the brains of people while they played a gambling game. Each participant was presented with a series of lotteries and needed to decide how much they were willing to pay to find out more about the odds of winning. In some lotteries, the information was valuable -- for example, when what seemed like a longshot was revealed to be a sure thing. In other cases, the information wasn't worth much, such as when little was at stake.

longshot

表示“希望不大的尝试”，英文解释为“something you try although it is unlikely to be successful; an attempt or guess that has only the slightest chance of succeeding or being accurate”举个🌰：

It's a long shot, but you could try phoning him at home.

尽管希望不大，你也可以试着给他家里打个电话。

For the most part, the study subjects made rational choices based on the economic value of the information (i.e., how much money it could help them win). But that didn't explain all their choices: People tended to over-value information in general, and particularly in higher-valued lotteries. It appeared that the higher stakes increased people's curiosity in the information, even when the information had no effect on their decisions.

The researchers determined that this behavior could only be explained by a model that captured both economic and psychological motives for seeking information. People acquired information based not only on its actual benefit, but also on the anticipation of its benefit, whether or not it had use.

Hsu said that's akin to wanting to know whether we received a great job offer, even if we have no intention of taking it. "Anticipation serves to amplify how good or bad something seems, and the anticipation of a more pleasurable reward makes the information appear even more valuable," he said.

akin to sth

表示“与某物相似的，与某物类似的”，英文解释为“very similar to something”举个🌰：

Something akin to panic overwhelmed him.

一种近似惊恐的感觉使他不知所措。

How does the brain respond to information? Analyzing the fMRI scans, the researchers found that the information about the games' odds activated the regions of the brain specifically known to be involved in valuation (the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex or VMPFC), which are the same dopamine-producing reward areas of the brain activated by food, money, and many drugs. This was the case whether the information was useful, and changed the person's original decision, or not.

VMPFC

VMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex 表示“腹内侧前额叶皮层”，The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a part of the prefrontal cortex in the mammalian brain. The ventral medial prefrontal is located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of risk and fear, as it is critical in the regulation of amygdala activity in humans.

striatum表示“纹状体，端脑皮质下的一部分”，The striatum, or corpus striatum (also called the neostriatum and the striate nucleus) is a nucleus (a cluster of neurons) in the subcortical basal ganglia of the forebrain.

Next, the researchers were able to determine that the brain uses the same neural code for information about the lottery odds as it does for valuation or money by using a machine learning technique (called support vector regression). That allowed them to look at the neural code for how the brain responds to varying amounts of money, and then ask if the same code can be used to predict how much a person will pay for information. It can.

In other words, just as we can convert such disparate things as a painting, a steak dinner, and a vacation into a dollar value, the brain converts curiosity about information into the same common code it uses for money and other concrete rewards, Hsu said.

disparate

表示“迥然不同的，不相干的”，英文解释为“consisting of things or people that are very different and not related to each other”举个🌰：

Scientists are trying to pull together disparate ideas in astronomy.

科学家正试图把天文学界各种迥然不同的观点汇集起来。

"We can look into the brain and tell how much someone wants a piece of information, and then translate that brain activity into monetary amounts," he said.

While the research does not directly address overconsumption of digital information, the fact that information engages the brain's reward system is a necessary condition for the addiction cycle, he said.

"The way our brains respond to the anticipation of a pleasurable reward is an important reason why people are susceptible to clickbait," he said. "Just like junk food, this might be a situation where previously adaptive mechanisms get exploited now that we have unprecedented access to novel curiosities."

susceptible

表示“（人）易受影响的”，英文解释为“a susceptible person is easily influenced or attracted by someone or something”举个🌰：

A lot of TV advertising is aimed at susceptible young children.

很多电视广告瞄准了易受影响的幼儿。

clickbait

click为点击，bait表示使别人上当的“引诱物，诱饵”(something attractive that is offered to someone to make them do something or buy something, especially when this is done in a dishonest way that tricks people）；所以clickbait可以理解为网络用语“标题党”，诱惑你点击的内容，英文解释为“(on the Internet) content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page”；

Wikipedia的定义：Clickbait is a form of false advertisement which uses hyperlink text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, with a defining characteristic of being deceptive, typically sensationalized or misleading.

Sally Kohn：Don’t like clickbait? Don’t click

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