中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 Sunny disposition: Scientists believe that the month you are born can affect your health and personality, with babies born in the summer months being the happiest. |
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Being born in the summer could give you a sunny disposition for life. And a winter birthday might cast a permanent shadow over your happiness, scientists believe. Experiments suggest that season of birth dramatically affects the way the speed at which the body clock ticks. A winter birth could leave it moving too slowly – affecting health and personality. The intriguing theory comes from a study of mice exposed to varying amounts of light in the first months of life. Some were given summer conditions of 16 hours of light and eight hours of darkness per day. Others had only eight hours of daily light, to mimic the short days of winter. After they were weaned, they were kept in the same light cycle for several weeks or switched to the opposite one. Finally, they were plunged into darkness and watched to see how they would react. Those reared in summer conditions kept to a daily routine, but those brought up in little light struggled to cope with the change, the journal Nature Neuroscience reports. Researcher Professor Douglas McMahon said: ‘The mice raised in the winter cycle show an exaggerated response to a change in season that is strikingly similar to that of human patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder.’ Despite this, the finding raises the intriguing possibility that the amount of light to which the human brain is exposed in the first weeks or months of life affects mood. The professor said: ‘Our biological clocks measure the day length and change our behaviour according to the seasons. ‘Several studies show that people born in the winter months have an elevated risk of mood disorders such as seasonal depression, bipolar depression and schizophrenia – all of which are associated with disruption of normalcircadian rhythms.’ But being born in the summer can have drawbacks – such as an increased risk of short-sightedness. Another study of more than 1.5 million children in the US clearly showed that those conceived in the summer are less clever than other youngsters. It is thought that they receive more exposure to pesticides during the first few months of pregnancy – a critical time for brain development. (Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，出生在夏天將賦予你開朗的性情，而出生在冬天則可能給你的快樂(lè)蒙上永久的陰影。 實(shí)驗(yàn)表明，出生的季節(jié)會(huì)極大地影響人體生物鐘運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的速度。 冬天出生的人體內(nèi)的生物鐘運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)得太慢，從而可能對(duì)健康和性格產(chǎn)生影響。 這一離奇有趣的理論來(lái)自一項(xiàng)對(duì)老鼠的研究，該研究把剛出生的老鼠暴露在不等量的光線下長(zhǎng)達(dá)數(shù)月。 有些老鼠被放置在夏天的光照條件下，每天有16小時(shí)的“白天”和8個(gè)小時(shí)的“黑夜”。其他老鼠則只有8個(gè)小時(shí)的“白天”，和冬天晝短夜長(zhǎng)的光照條件類似。 在這些老鼠斷奶后，他們被放置在相同的光照周期中長(zhǎng)達(dá)數(shù)周，或轉(zhuǎn)換到相反的光照環(huán)境。 最后，科學(xué)家把它們都放置到黑暗中，觀察它們的反應(yīng)。 根據(jù)《自然神經(jīng)科學(xué)》雜志的報(bào)道，那些在夏天的光照條件下成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)的老鼠像往常一樣作息，而那些在缺少光線的環(huán)境中成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)的老鼠在應(yīng)對(duì)這一變化時(shí)卻顯得吃力。 研究者道格拉斯?麥克馬洪教授說(shuō)：“在冬天的光照周期中成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)的老鼠對(duì)于季節(jié)的變化表現(xiàn)出夸大的反應(yīng)，這和得了季節(jié)性情感抑郁癥的人類病患的反應(yīng)極其相似?！?/p> 此外，這一研究發(fā)現(xiàn)還提出了一個(gè)非常有趣的可能性，就是人的大腦在生命的最初幾周或幾個(gè)月所感知到的光照量可能會(huì)對(duì)心情造成影響。 教授說(shuō)：“我們體內(nèi)的生物鐘對(duì)白日的長(zhǎng)短進(jìn)行衡量，并根據(jù)季節(jié)變化而改變我們的行為。 “幾項(xiàng)研究都表明，出生在冬天的人發(fā)生情緒異常的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更大，他們更容易患上諸如季節(jié)性抑郁癥、兩極型憂郁癥和精神分裂癥這種病，而這些病癥都和打亂正常的晝夜節(jié)律有關(guān)。” 但是，出生在夏天也有不利之處，比如近視的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)會(huì)增大。 另外一項(xiàng)面向美國(guó)150多萬(wàn)兒童的研究顯示，夏天受孕后生出的小孩不如其他小孩聰明。 據(jù)認(rèn)為，這是因?yàn)檫@些小孩在孕期的頭幾個(gè)月接觸更多的殺蟲劑所致，而這幾個(gè)月正是大腦發(fā)育的關(guān)鍵時(shí)期。 相關(guān)閱讀 研究：出生月份影響當(dāng)運(yùn)動(dòng)員的幾率 嬰兒哭聲藏玄機(jī) 聲調(diào)不同因在母語(yǔ) 研究：母親的經(jīng)驗(yàn)可“自動(dòng)”傳給子女 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯：馮明惠） |
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Vocabulary: sunny: cheerful and happy（歡樂(lè)的；快樂(lè)的） intriguing: very interesting because of being unusual or not having an obvious answer（非常有趣的；引人入勝的；神秘的） wean: to gradually stop feeding a baby or young animal with its mother's milk and start feeding it with solid food 使（嬰兒或動(dòng)物幼崽）斷奶 circadian rhythm: 晝夜節(jié)律 |
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