新研究表明鸟鸣可以让你心情愉悦！

张 洁 孙浩宇

（江苏省无锡市天一中学）

New Research Shows Birdsong Can Keep You Feeling Chirpy!

Does your neighborhood have plenty of birds? This could be good news for your mental health because birdsong can help relieve anxiety.This is the upbeat finding of a study published in theNature Portfoliojournal,Scientific Reports,illuminating the remarkable healing capabilities of birdsong.

Birds as mood boosters

Since the arrival of COVID,the increased anxiety and depression that people experience has been well documented.

In an effort to understand the influence of birdsong on mental health,researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin,joined scientists from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf to evaluate how birdsong and,by contrast,manmade traffic noise affect mood,paranoia and cognitive functioning.They did this in an online experiment involving 295 healthy people.These participants heard either six minutes of traffic noise,or birdsong,completing questionnaires before and after hearing the sounds.

Significantly,the study authors emphasize that healthy people can also experience anxiety and temporary paranoid perceptions.They believe that the questionnaire helped identify these tendencies in healthy participants without them having a diagnosis of mental health issues.

The study’s conclusions are interesting.Researchers found that hearing birdsongsoothedanxiety in healthy participants but did not appear to worsen depressive states.Traffic noise,meanwhile,was found to worsen depressive states.The study found that both traffic noise and birdsong did not impact cognitive performance.

And if just hearing birdsong has such a calming effect when listened to via computer,Emil Stobbe,an author of the study,suggests this effect could be even better in the great outdoors.

How does tweeting goodness work?

But how can outdoor sounds impact mental health?

The researchers believe that birdsong is a subtle indication of an intact natural environment,signaling a vital and threat-free safe space for humans,and taking our attention away from stressors.

But Stobbe offers another answer too,as quoted byNewsweek:“An alternative explanation is that humans may generally associate positive experiences with natural sounds,like birdsongs,which,when the sound is heard,activates these memories and relieves stress.”

The findings suggest exciting applications through using birdsong soundscapes in settings such as hospitals and therapy hubs to lift spirits.Further research could test how birdsong could help patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders and if birdsong sounds could be used to prevent mental disorders.

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The global move to cities,which has been linked to worsening mental health,according toNeuroscience News,in a discussion of this new research,also makes understanding how the urban environment affects our wellbeing an important priority.It is clear that birdlife has been adversely affected by urbanization,in terms of habitat loss and other negative impacts such as disorienting noise pollution.The Swaddleobserves that humans should read this as a warning to protect biodiversity so that city dwellers don’t end up only accessing birdsong via digital media.

阅读小练

1.What does the underlined word“soothed”probably mean?

A.Declined. B.Accelerated.C.Reduced. D.Increased.

2.Which of the following statements about the study isTRUE?

A.Birdsongs can be used to prevent mental disorders.

B.Birdsongs played by computer can also help relieve stress.

C.295 people with various mental problems participated in the study.

D.Natural sounds trigger happy memories and impact cognitive performance.

3.Which of the following can be put in the blank as a subtitle?

A.A global move to big cities B.A warning to birds’ habitat losses

C.Access to birdsong via digital media D.A call to protect birds due to urbanization

（答案见P45）

全篇译文

你家附近有很多鸟儿吗？这对你的心理健康来说可能是好消息，因为鸟鸣有助于缓解焦虑。这是发表在《自然》系列期刊《科学报告》上的一项研究的积极发现，（这个发现）阐明了鸟鸣的非凡治愈能力。

鸟类作为情绪助推器

自从新冠疫情暴发以来，人们所经历的焦虑和抑郁的增加已经得到了充分的证明。

为了了解鸟鸣对心理健康的影响，柏林马克斯·普朗克人类发展研究所的研究人员与汉堡-埃彭多夫大学精神病学和心理治疗系的科学家一起评估了鸟鸣和人造交通噪音会是如何影响（人们的）情绪、偏执和认知功能的。他们在一个有295 名健康人员参与的在线实验做到了这一点。这些参与者听6 分钟的交通噪音或者鸟鸣声，并在听之前和听完之后分别完成问卷。

值得注意的是，该研究人员强调，健康的人也会经历焦虑和暂时的偏执感受。他们认为这些问卷有助于确定健康的参与者（身上）的这些倾向，他们不用（专门）去诊断心理健康问题。

这项研究的结论很有趣。研究人员发现，听鸟鸣缓解了健康的参与者的焦虑，但似乎也不会加重抑郁状态。与此同时，交通噪音则会使抑郁状态加重。该研究发现，交通噪音和鸟鸣声都不会影响认知能力。

该研究的一位作者埃米尔•斯托布表示，如果通过电脑听鸟鸣声就具有如此让人平静的效果，那么这种效果在大自然中可能甚至会更好。

鸟鸣的好处是如何奏效的呢？

但自然界声音是如何影响心理健康的呢？

研究人员认为，鸟鸣是一个完整的自然环境的一个微妙暗示，标志着一个对人类来说至关重要而且无威胁的安全空间，并且能够将我们的注意力从压力来源上移开。

但正如《新闻周刊》引用的那样，斯托布也提供了另一个答案：“另一种解释是人类通常会将积极的经历与自然声音联系起来，比如鸟鸣，当听到这些声音时，会激活这些积极的回忆并缓解压力。”

这些研究结果表明利用鸟鸣声景会有振奋人心的实际应用，比如在医院和治疗中心等环境中让人们提起精神。进一步的研究可能测试鸟鸣声是如何帮助患有焦虑症患者的，以及鸟鸣声是否可以用于预防精神障碍。

因城市化而呼吁保护鸟类

《神经科学新闻》中一篇对于这项新研究的讨论指出，全球范围内（人们）向城市的移居不仅与其不断恶化的心理健康有关，也让懂得城市环境如何影响我们的健康成为重中之重。很明显，鸟类受到了城市化的不利影响，包括栖息地丧失和其他负面影响，例如会使其迷失方向的噪音污染。The Swaddle评论道，人类应该将此视为一个警告来保护生态多样性，这样城市居民就不会最终只能通过数码媒体才可以听到鸟鸣声。