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  3. The Sense That Shapes Our Future When he puts his three-year-old daughter to bed at night, psychologist Michael Meaney gives

The Sense That Shapes Our Future When he puts his three-year-old daughter to bed at night, psychologist Michael Meaney gives

admin2013-01-20  60
问题                     The Sense That Shapes Our Future
    When he puts his three-year-old daughter to bed at night, psychologist Michael Meaney gives her an extra hug. His animal research suggests that caresses (爱抚) in early youth may lead in adulthood to healthier brain cells, clearer memories and fewer problems from aging.
    Premature babies fill rows of incubators (放置早产婴儿的恒温箱) in a city hospital. All receive the same food, but those who are massaged daily show greater weight gain and mental development than preemies (早产儿) who aren’t.
    Shoppers in a supermarket are asked to sample a new brand of pizza. Those who are touched for a fraction of a second during the sales pitch are more likely to buy the new product.
    Touch is the first sense we develop, and we acquire it before birth. We could not live without it. Imagine being unable to sense the danger of scalding (滚烫的) water or to feel our way down a dark stairway. We tend to think of sight as our most important sense, yet we close our eyes in sleep for a third of each day. Touch never blinks, never turns off its awareness of the world around us.
    Scientists have now discovered that touch also shapes our minds and health. Dr. Saul Schanberg, professor of pharmacology  (药理学) and biological psychiatry (精神病学) at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, studied baby rats. He found that when separated from their mother for as little as 45 minutes they underwent major internal changes. Their level of growth hormone (荷尔蒙) and of a key enzyme (酶) dropped sharply, but came back to normal soon after their mother returned to the nest. The lack of touch from the mother’s licking triggered these biochemical changes, but firmly stroking the newborns with a moist paintbrush restored them to normal.
    In collaboration with Scanberg, researchers at the University of Miami Medical School’s Touch Research Institute, directed by psychologist Tiffany Field, began giving premature babies 45 minutes of massage each day. Common wisdom had held that these infants should be kept in an isolated, womblike environment, that touch would stress them and impair their chances for survival. Nevertheless, Field and her co-workers gave 20 stabilized preemies three 15-minute periods of slow, firm massage strokes and limb movements.
    Within ten days the massaged babies showed 47-percent greater weight gain than their wardmates, as well as improved sleep, alertness and activity. Up to eight months later they displayed greater mental and physical skills. Most dramatically, the massaged preemies were able to leave the costly critical-care unit an average of six days earlier than preemies not massaged.      Field explains that touch stimulates certain hormones that emerge naturally in full-term babies, including those that facilitate food absorption.
    According to Dr. Ronald Bart of Montreal’s Children’s Hospital, some infants are held only about two to three hours each day by their mothers, compared with some African tribal cultures in which babies are handled or carried by their mothers up to 90 percent of the time. Adds nursing professor Kathryn Barnard, "About 80 percent of a baby’s communication is done through body movement, and skin-to-skin contact makes it easier for a mother to read that communication." The more a mother holds her baby, the more aware she is of the baby’s needs.
    Touching serves purposes beyond giving comfort and security. Scientists have discovered that when babies put a rattle or toy in their mouths they are doing more than just trying to taste. They are using their lips and tongue, among the most sensitive regions of touch, to confirm and refine what their eyes see. Confirming the distance, shape and hardness of their surroundings with touch helps them to develop other senses such as sight.
    Even as adults we rarely accept the notion that "seeing is believing." Instead we speak of preferring things that we can "get a grip on." that are "tangible." The world we perceive through touch differs from what our eyes see. Put on a blindfold and have a friend touch cookie cutters of different shapes against your skin; the average person will recognize the shape less than half the time. But if you are allowed to touch each cookie cutter with your finger, recognition jumps to 95-percent accuracy.
    More touching may take place in preschool or kindergarten than during any other period. Touching is lowest in the early to mid teens, but, late in high school or early in college, most people begin touching members of the opposite sex, a pattern that grows more intense until marriage. "When we’ve studied couples in public places," says University of Missouri psychology professor Frank Willis, Jr., "we observed that before marriage the man initiates touching with the woman. After marriage, it’s always the woman who touches the man first."
    Generally, successful and self-confident people feel freer to touch others than shy, unsure ones. In daily life women use and accept touching far more than men do, and are more sensitive to touch everywhere from their fingertips to their toes.Men, who tend to perceive uninvited touch as a sign of dominance and of their own vulnerability, more often react to touch with tension.
    Some touch messages may be easily misinterpreted. A brief touch on the shoulder, elbow or hand is usually friendly. But when someone of the opposite sex touches you, does it convey friendliness, a come-on or harassment ( 骚扰)? A lingering touch on the hand, face or neck is likely something more. A pat on the head can be patronizing, conveying "I am the adult, you the child."
    Even when unnoticed, touch exerts a powerful psychological impact. Willis found that when shoppers were solicited (恳求) to try a sample of pizza or when passers-by were asked to sign a petition (请愿书), many more complied (依从) when given a slight touch lasting a fraction of a second. Other researchers have found that a momentary touch gains bigger tips for waitresses. Says Willis, "New research into our nonverbal behavior reflects what successful salespeople have long known: a light, inconspicuous touch can often persuade customers that you are familiar and a friend."
    In hospitalized patients, the caring touch of nurses and loved ones can relieve anxiety and tension headaches. Touch can sometimes reduce rapid heartbeat and heart arrhythmias (心律不齐). "Human contact makes people feel better, more comfortable and secure." says registered nurse Rita King. "More than that, it has a placebo (安慰剂) effect. When patients feel they’re in good caring hands, they heal faster."
Some scientists explain that touching gives premature babies a better chance to survive because it ______.
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答案stimulates certain hormones that emerge naturally in full-term babies
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