任务型阅读（满分10分） Romantic novelists rarely fail to include in their writings that special moment when two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire. Now these writings have now been validated（证实）by science, for experts have discovered that eye-to-eye contact in fact leads to a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain. Neuroscientists at University College London asked eight female and eight male volunteers to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side. While the volunteers looked at the pictures, they were given a scan with functional magnetic resonance imaging（磁性共振成影仪器）, which measures increased blood flows to the various parts of the brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity（大脑活动）. The volunteers were then asked to rate the attractiveness of each face, and their score was matched against the scan. The result: when volunteer had direct eye contact with the face, there was an increase of activity in the ventral striatum（腹面纹状体）, a central part of the brain that anticipates reward or pleasure. But if the eyes did not meet, there was no activity in that brain area at all. The activity increase occurred regardless of the gender of the face in direct eye contact. However, there was a bigger-than-usual increase if the person giving the eye was found to be attractive. Activity in the ventral striatum surged. But if the cute person gazed to one side, the ventral striatum remained dormant, apparently disappointed that the stranger was clearly not interested. Interestingly, the ventral striatum also perked up if a plug-ugly person gazed to one side, rather than looked at the volunteer right in the eyes.
|