Magic Water
神奇水
A brain chemical dubbed ‘ the hormone of love ’could encourage wallflowers to become more outgoing at social gatherings, a study shows.
一种名叫“爱情荷尔蒙”的大脑刺激药品能够帮助害羞的人在社交场合“畅所欲言”。
Now researchers have found it improves the social skills of the shy-but has little effect on those who are naturally confident.
研究者发现，这个药品改进了害羞的人的社交技巧，但是对那些“天生自信”的人却“收效甚微”。
The finding could have implications for those with severe social deficiencies, often apparent in conditions like autism.
研究发现，药品对那些患有严重的社交缺陷的人疗效明显，比如：自闭症患者。
They conducted a test of 27 healthy adult men, giving them the hormone or a placebo via a nasal spray and then asking them to perform an‘empathetic accuracy task’.
研究邀请了27 名健康男性，对他们进行了针对性测试。用喷雾给他们“注射”荷尔蒙，进而观察在“强调准确性”的任务中的表现。
This involved watching others discussing emotional moments in their lives, then rating how they felt those people were feeling.
他们观察别人谈论生活中激动人心的时刻，实验再对他们就他人身上发生的事情的感受能力打分。
The scientists, whose research is published in Psychological Science, also measured the participants' social competency, using a test known as AQ which is usually used in autistic patients.
研究还对参与者的“社会能力”进行了测试，测试中囊括了一种叫做“逆境商数”(AQ)的测验。这种测验通常用来测试自闭症患者。
The more socially comfortable participants performed well on the empathetic accuracy task regardless of whether they were on oxytocin or placebo,
不管有没有“催产素”，表现“自信”的人都在“同情心测试”中表现得很好，
but less socially proficient participants performed significantly better on oxytocin, with their empathetic accuracy performance identical to that of the socially proficient participants.
但是“不那么自信”的人的表现却显著提升，甚至到达了和“自信”的人一样的水平。
Prof Jennifer Bartz, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said: “Oxytocin is widely believed to make all people more empathic and understanding of others.
西奈山医院的詹妮弗·巴茨教授说：“人们普遍认为‘催产素’能使人变得更加有同情心，更能理解别人。
Our study contradicts that. Instead, oxytocin appears to be helpful only for those who are less socially proficient.
但是我们的研究与这种观点不同。我们认为“催产素”对那些社交能力不强的人很有效果。
Our data show that oxytocin selectively improves social cognition in people who are less socially proficient, but had little impact on more socially proficient individuals.”
我们的数据显示“催产素”可以选择性地改善人们的社交认知能力，它对社交能力不强的人效果很好，但是对本身就很自信的人没有什么效果。
