Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Apparently not. Words may very well influence how we interpret smell and other sensations. To test this idea, Oxford University experimental psychologist Edmund Roll subjected a group of people to a cheesy aroma while simultaneously flashing before their eyes either the phrase “body odor” or “cheddar cheese”. The smellers were then asked to rate the pleasantness of the scent. Perhaps not surprisingly, those who saw the latter phrase were generally pleased with what they sniffed; the others, not so much.
　　But the clincher came when Rolls analyzed fMRI brain images of the test subjects, which had been taken during the experiment. The scans revealed different patterns of activity in the secondary olfactory cortex—a collection of neurons that mediate pleasant sensory responses to smells and tastes. In the brains of those who liked the cheddar smell, the scans showed much more action than in the brains of those turned off by body odor. “The word label influences how the brain actually responds in its olfactory processing areas,” says Rolls. “We’re finding that words affect how you feel because they’re influencing the emotional part of the brain.” So if roses were actually called “stinkweeds”, he says, perhaps they wouldn’t be so well loved—at least not by our noses.
　　
　　如果玫瑰另有其名，那么“玫瑰”这两个字还会让人感觉芬芳香甜吗？很显然这不可能。在我们如何对气味和其他一些感觉作出正确的诠释时，词语对此的影响也是不容忽视的。为了验证这一观点，牛津大学实验心理学家艾德蒙·罗斯对一组人进行了有关奶酪气味识别的实验。在被试验者嗅到奶酪气味的同时在他们眼前滑过“体味”或者“切达干酪”的字样，然后则让被试验者对这股诱人的香味作出评判。果然不出所料，看到第二个词语的人闻到气味时流露出愉悦的表情，而其他人则恰恰相反。
　　在罗斯对实验中被试验者的fMRI信号大脑成像作一系列分析的过程中，这团迷雾也随之被破解。扫描显示出第二嗅觉皮层——在一组神经细胞的帮助下传递令人愉悦的嗅觉和味觉感官体验——中不同的行为模式。扫描中显示，喜欢“切达干酪”的人的脑要比回避“体味”的人脑更活跃。在嗅觉区，大脑如何反应会受到词语符号的影响。罗斯解释说：“我们发现，词语之所以能影响你的感觉是因为它们影响着脑中的情绪情感因素。”他说如果玫瑰“美”其名曰“曼陀罗”，或许也不会被人们所钟爱——至少不会被我们的鼻子所接受。
　　魔魔果 摘译自Discover