Letting in a little extra light throughout the day may do more than just lift your spirits. It could make you more alert and help you avoid an afternoon energy slump(1).



Ambient(2) light influences brain functions and different aspects of human physiology(3) such as circadian(4) rhythm, heart rate, and hormone release. While these functions have been recognized and studies have looked at the part of the brain that induces these responses at nighttime, little has been known about daytime responses to light.



But Gilles Vandewalle of the University of Liege, Belgium, and colleagues wanted to see if light exposure has similar effects on brain function during the day, when we are naturally exposed to light.



The researchers exposed a group of people to 21 minutes of bright white light in the morning while they imaged their brains. Not only were the participants more alert, but responses in certain parts of their brain also got a boost.



This boost was correlated(5) with regions of the brain that are involved in alertness and some cognitive(6) processes and can briefly prevent the sleepiness developed in continuous darkness, the researchers said.



The brain regions that were affected by light are also typically involved in attention and arousal(7) regulation, Vandewalle said. "So light affects these regulatory systems at the cerebral and behavioral level. This could be relevant for demanding jobs for example, usually performed by tired people."



Tired people can be found in offices everywhere from the equator(8), where the sun shines down directly, to the Arctic Circle, where for half the year folks(9) get much less direct sunlight.



"People stay inside most of the time everywhere on the planet," Vandewalle said, adding that people should expose themselves to natural light in all countries, since light outside is always brighter than what we get in offices.







白天，让更多的阳光照进房间能让你精神倍增。它能让你更加清醒，还能帮你避免下午犯困。



周遭的光线会影响大脑功能和人类生理的诸多方面如：生理节奏、心律和荷尔蒙分泌。我们已经了解了这些功能和脑部相关部分在夜间的反应，但是对于在日间对光线的反应，我们所知甚少。



比利时列日大学的吉利斯万德威尔和同事们希望研究在本来就有日照的白天，人类大脑对光线是否有类似反应。



上午，研究人员将一组人置于日照下21分钟，同时记录了他们的脑部运动。不仅参与人员更加清醒，其脑部相关部分也有刺激反应。



研究人员说脑部有关警觉和一些感知系统的部分都产生了刺激反应。这种反应可在短期内阻止由于长期黑暗而产生的困倦。



被光线影响的大脑区域主要与"注意力"和"觉醒机制"有关。万德威尔说："因此光线通过影响这些调节系统左右脑部和行为的变化。对于从事复杂工作的劳累人群来说，这将非常有意义。"



从日照充足的赤道到半年都晒不到太阳的北极圈，劳累的办公室工作者随处可见。



"世界各处的人们大多数时间都呆在房间里，" 万德威尔建议人们应该接受自然光的照耀，因为室外光比办公室中的光明亮很多。





中国国际广播电台 译

1. slump：消沉，衰退



2. ambient：周围的



3. physiology：生理学



4. circadian：生理节奏的



5. correlate：使相互关联



6. cognitive：认知的，感知的



7. arousal：觉醒



8. equator：赤道



9. folk：人们




关键字:双语新闻
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