VOA慢速英語:Study Finds Light Color Affects Mood

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.

這里是美國之音慢速英語健康報道。

Some colors that people see late at night could cause signs of the condition mental health experts call clinical depression. That was the finding of a study that builds on earlier study findings. They show that individuals who live or work in low levels of light overnight can develop clinical depression.

人們深夜看到的一些顏色可能會導(dǎo)致精神衛(wèi)生專家所說的抑郁癥跡象。這是基于早些研究發(fā)現(xiàn)的一項(xiàng)研究的結(jié)果。研究表明，晚上在低暗光線下工作或生活的人可能會導(dǎo)致臨床抑郁癥。

Doctors use the words clinical depression to describe severe form of depression. Signs may include loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, low energy levels and thoughts of death or suicide.

醫(yī)生們使用臨床抑郁癥來描述深度抑郁癥。跡象可能包括，失去對大部分活動的興趣或樂趣，精力差，有死亡或自殺的想法。

In the new study, American investigators designed an experiment that exposed hamsters to different colors. The researchers chose hamsters because they are nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day and are active at night.

在這項(xiàng)新研究中，美國研究人員設(shè)計了一個實(shí)驗(yàn)，將倉鼠暴露于不同的顏色中。研究人員選擇倉鼠是因?yàn)樗鼈儠兎钩?，也就說是，它們白天睡覺，晚上出來活動。

The animals were separated into 4 groups. One group of hamsters was kept in the dark during their nighttime period. Another group was placed in (*) blue light, a third group slept in (*) white light. While a fourth was put in (*) red light.

這些倉鼠被分為4組。一組倉鼠在它們意義上的夜間時段被放置在黑暗中。另一組放在藍(lán)光下，第三組睡在白光下。而第四組放在紅光下。

After four weeks, the researchers noted how much sugary water the hamsters drank. They found that the more depressed animals drank the least amount of water.

四個星期之后，研究人員留意了倉鼠喝了多少糖水。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，倉鼠抑郁越嚴(yán)重喝水越少。

Randy Nelson heads the Department of Neuroscience at Ohio State University. He says animals that slept in blue and white light appeared to be the most depressed.

蘭迪·納爾遜(Randy Nelson)執(zhí)掌俄亥俄州立大學(xué)神經(jīng)科學(xué)系。他說，睡在藍(lán)光和白光下的倉鼠似乎最為抑郁。

"What we saw is these animals didn't show any sleep disruptions at all but they did have mucked up circadian clock genes and they did show depressive phenotypes whereas if they were in the dim red light, they did not."

“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些倉鼠未表現(xiàn)出任何睡眠中斷。但它們生物鐘基因的確被打亂了，并表現(xiàn)出抑郁癥的跡象。但是如果在紅光下則沒有這些跡象。”

Randy Nelson notes that photosensitive cells in the retina, have little to do with eyesight. He says these cells send signals to the area of the brain that controls what has been called the natural sleep-wake cycle.

納爾遜指出，視網(wǎng)膜上的感光細(xì)胞和視力關(guān)系不大。這些細(xì)胞會向控制自然睡眠-覺醒周期的大腦區(qū)域發(fā)送信號。

He says there's a lot of blue in white light, this explains why the blue light and white light hamsters appear to be more depressed than the hamsters see red light or darkness.

他說，白光中有很多藍(lán)色的光，這可以解釋為什么藍(lán)光和白光下的倉鼠比紅光或黑暗中的倉鼠更為抑郁。

Mr Nelson has suggestions for people who work late at night, or those who like to stay up late.

納爾遜對上夜班和喜歡熬夜的人有些建議。

"My recommendation is if you are just living a typical mostly active [life] during the day, mostly inactive at night, you want to limit exposure to TVs which are quite bluish in the light they give off and computer screens and things like that. You can get filtered glass, you can get filters on your computer screen and filters on your eReaders to put it more in the reddish light."

“我的建議是，如果你是典型的晝出夜伏，你想減少暴露在發(fā)出藍(lán)色光的電視、電腦屏幕和類似東西下，你可以戴濾光鏡，或者在電腦或電子閱讀器上裝上過濾器，使它們更偏紅色。”

The report on the effects of light on emotions was published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

光線對情緒影響的這份報告發(fā)表在《神經(jīng)科學(xué)》雜志上。