第 47 題至第 50 題為題組
When we view a scene in which another person exhibits delight, pain, or disgust, the parts of our brain that react
when we experience those emotions ourselves are activated. Scientists at the NeuroImaging Center, the Netherlands,
wanted to see if that same region that governs those three emotions—the anterior insula—was activated when people read
about someone experiencing disgust.
To test this, they placed participants in an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow in the brain, and
showed them 3-second movie clips of an actor sipping from a cup and then looking disgusted. “Later on, we asked them
to read an article and imagine short emotional scenarios in it,” said study team member Christian Keysers. “For instance,
bumping into a drunken man, who then starts to throw up, and realizing that some of his vomit had ended up in your own
mouth.” Finally, the researchers had the participants taste an unpleasant drink while in the scanner.
“In all three cases, the same location of the anterior insula lit up,” Keysers said. People with damaged anterior insula
lose the capacity to feel disgusted. “If you give them sour milk, they would drink it happily and say it tastes like soda,”
Keysers said. But for normal people, sipping that sour milk will result in them spitting it right back out with a “blech.” It
is an evolutionary advantage to have the same reaction when watching someone else spit out the milk: you won’t try the
same milk if you are aware of the other person’s disgust.
“What this means is that whether we see a movie or read a story, the same thing happens: we activate our bodily
representations of what it feels like to be disgusted,” Keysers said. “And that is why reading a book and viewing a movie
can both make us feel as if we literally feel what the protagonist is going through.”
【題組】49 Based on the article, which of the following is “an evolutionary advantage”?
(A)You watch a movie clip about someone feeling disgusted.
(B)You feel happy when you drink something tasty.
(C)You learn from other people’s experiences.
(D)You read a lot and go to the movies a lot.
It is an evolutionary advantage to have the same reaction when watching someone else spit out the milk: you won’t try the same milk if you are aware of the other person’s disgust