研究顯示:沉迷刷屏的人可能會短暫失聰

Teenagers around the world can rejoice with the news that their brain deserves the blame when parents' orders go ignored while they tap on their smartphones.

在專注玩手機的時候，我們的大腦會自動“屏蔽”掉父母的嘮叨——世界各地的青少年聽到這個消息一定都會高興地跳起來吧。

A new scientific study from the University College London has found that humans may be rendered temporarily deaf when they're simultaneously focusing on something visual.

倫敦大學學院最新的研究發現，人們在專注於眼前事物時，可能會出現短暫性的失聰症狀。

Research found that the 13 volunteers experienced 'inattentional deafness' to the normal-volume sounds playing in the background as their visual tasks became increasingly difficult.

研究人員對13名志願者進行了實驗，發現他們在面對不斷深入的視覺任務時，會經歷“無意失聰”，即對正常音量的背景音置若罔聞。

'We found that when volunteers were performing the demanding visual task, they were unable to hear sounds that they would normally hear,' study co-author Maria Chait said in a statement.

該研究的聯合作者瑪麗亞·柴特稱：“我們發現，在志願者專注於需要集中精力的視覺任務時，他們會聽不到他們平常原本能聽到的聲音。”

'The brain scans showed that people were not only ignoring or filtering out the sounds, they were not actually hearing them in the first place.'

“通過對志願者大腦的掃描我們還發現，他們不是有意忽略或者選擇過濾掉那些聲音，而是確實沒有聽到。”

The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that the visual and auditory processing centers that make sense of the sights and sounds that surround us share limited resources.

這篇發表在《神經科學》期刊上的研究成果表明，視覺與聽覺的處理中心共享有限的資源空間，而這決定了人們能夠看到和聽到的東西。

Inattentional deafness is a common every day experience and the study explains why, according to UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Professor Nilli Lavie, a co-author of the study.

倫敦大學學院認知神經學研究所教授、此次研究的聯合作者尼麗·萊薇表示，“無意失聰”是生活中常見的現象，而他們的研究對其原因給出了合理的解釋。

'If you try to talk to someone focusing on a book, game, or television program and don't receive a response, they aren't necessarily ignoring you, they simply might not hear you!' she said.

萊薇說：“如果你想和一個正專注於讀書、打遊戲或者看電視的人說話，可他並不理會你，你別在意，因爲他不是故意忽視你，而是他根本就沒聽見你在說什麼。”

'This could also explain why you might not hear your bus or train stop being announced if you're concentrating on your phone, book, or newspaper.'

“這也就解釋了爲什麼你在專注於低頭刷手機或者看書讀報時，會聽不到汽車、火車報站的聲音。”

Loud sounds - like ambulance sirens - will still be able to break through, but some situations could become potentially dangerous when the quieter ones go unheard, according to Medical Daily.

《醫藥日報》指出，人們能對諸如救護車的警笛這樣的高分貝聲音還是會有所反應，但在某些低分貝情況下，這種失聰會爲人們的安全埋下隱患。

'This has more serious implications in situations such as the operating theater, when a surgeon concentrating on their work might not hear the equipment beeping,' Lavie said.

對此萊薇表示：“某些情況下，無意失聰可能會帶來嚴重的後果。比如在手術室裏，當醫生們專注於手術操作時，他們可能無法聽到儀器的提示音。”

'It also applies to drivers concentrating on complex directions as well as cyclists and motorists who are focusing intently on something such as an advert or even simply an interesting-looking passerby.'

“同樣，在司機專注於觀察複雜的導航，自行車和摩托車手專注於路邊的廣告或僅僅是模樣奇特的行人時，他們也很難留意到耳邊的聲音。”