研究:閱讀古典文學可促進大腦發展大綱

The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week.

本週將發佈的一項研究揭示，閱讀莎士比亞與華茲華斯的作品好比大腦的“火箭助推器”，比讀一些自助書籍還要管用。

Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the Bard and other classical writers has a beneficial effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and triggers moments of self-reflection. Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S Eliot and others.

來自利物浦大學的科學家、心理學家和英文教授發現，閱讀莎士比亞及其他古典作家的作品對心智發展大有裨益，這些作品能夠抓住讀者的注意力，引發讀者的自我反思。通過使用掃描儀，他們監測到接受實驗的志願者在閱讀威廉•莎士比亞、威廉•華茲華斯、T•S•艾略特和其他作家的作品時的大腦活動。

They then “translated” the texts into more “straightforward”, modern language and again monitored the readers’ brains as they read the words.

他們隨後將這些文本“翻譯”爲更爲“通俗易懂”的現代語言，然後又對讀者在閱讀這些文字時的大腦活動進行了監測。

Scans showed that the more “challenging” prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions.

經掃描發現，散文和詩歌越“具挑戰性”，大腦中的電流活動就愈加頻繁，而那些通俗化的版本則達不到這種效果。

Scientists were able to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and record how it “lit up” as the readers encountered unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentence structure.

科學家們能夠研究大腦對每一個詞語做出反應時的活動，並記錄下讀者在遇到生僻詞語、新奇短語或複雜的句子結構時大腦如何“被激活”。

This “lighting up” of the mind lasts longer than the initial electrical spark, shifting the brain to a higher gear, encouraging further reading.

大腦的這一“激活”狀態比最初的電火花持續時間更長，讓大腦的轉動更高速，鼓勵讀者繼續往下閱讀。

The research also found that reading poetry, in particular, increases activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with “autobiographical memory”, helping the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read. The academics said this meant the classics were more useful than self-help books.

研究還發現，閱讀書籍，尤其是詩歌，可以增加與“自傳體記憶”有關的大腦右半球的活動頻率，有助於讀者根據閱讀內容對個人經歷進行反思和重新評價。學者們表示，這意味着閱讀古典作品比閱讀自助類書籍更有幫助。

Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study with the university’s magnetic resonance centre, will tell a conference this week: “Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain.

和利物浦大學的磁共振中心一同致力於此項研究的英文教授菲利普•戴維斯本週將在一次會議上宣稱：“嚴肅文學的作用相當於大腦的火箭助推器。

"The research shows the power of literature to shift mental pathways, to create new thoughts, shapes and connections in the young and thestaid alike.”

“研究顯示，文學作品對年輕人和中老年人都能產生強大的力量，它可以轉變思維方式，開拓新思路，引發新聯想。”