Scanning the brains of people in love is also helping to refine science's grasp of love's various forms. Helen Fisher, a researcher at Rutgers University, and the author of a new book on love*, suggests it comes in three flavours: lust, romantic love and long-term attachment. There is some overlap but, in essence, these are separate phenomena, with their own emotional and motivational systems, and accompanying chemicals. These systems have evolved to enable, respectively, mating, pair-bonding and parenting.
对恋爱中人们大脑的扫描，也有助于使科学对各种形式爱情的领会变得更为精确。Rutgers 大学的一位研究人员Helen Fisher，同时是一本关于爱情的新书作者，她提出，爱会以三种滋味出现：欲望，浪漫的恋爱和长期的附属关系。三种滋味的爱情虽有一些重叠，但本质上是截然不同的现象，并且具有各自的情绪和激发系统，以及相伴的体内化学物质。这些系统通过进化后以分别让交配，伴侣联接和养育子女成为可能。
Lust, of course, involves a craving for sex. Jim Pfaus, a psychologist at Concordia University, in Montreal, says the aftermath of lustful sex is similar to the state induced by taking opiates. A heady mix of chemical changes occurs, including increases in the levels of serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin and endogenous opioids (the body's natural equivalent of heroin). “This may serve many functions, to relax the body, induce pleasure and satiety, and perhaps induce bonding to the very features that one has just experienced all this with”, says Dr Pfaus.
首先当然是欲望，包括对性的强烈渴求。蒙特利尔Concordia大学的一位心理学家，Jim Pfaus说道，贪欲的性行为其结果和使用鸦片引起的状况颇相类似：一种令人兴奋的混合化学变化，包括血液复合胺(5羟色氨)，催产素，抗利尿激素和内非肽(身体内的海洛英的天然同等物) 的水平升高。“这可能提供许多功能，如放松身体，产生快乐和满足感, 也可能导致把某些特征与刚才的全部经历联结起来，”Pfaus博士补充道。
Then there is attraction, or the state of being in love (what is sometimes known as romantic or obsessive love). This is a refinement of mere lust that allows people to home in on a particular mate. This state is characterised by feelings of exhilaration, and intrusive, obsessive thoughts about the object of one's affection. Some researchers suggest this mental state might share neurochemical characteristics with the manic phase of manic depression. Dr Fisher's work, however, suggests that the actual behavioural patterns of those in love—such as attempting to evoke reciprocal responses in one's loved one—resemble obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
接下来便是两性吸引，双方处于相爱的状态 (就是我们所知的浪漫的、或强迫性的恋爱)。这是纯粹的欲望的升华，它使人们总能回到某个特定配偶身边。这种状态的特征，是兴奋感和对情感对象打扰式的和强迫性的思恋。一些研究员提到，这一心理状态可能和狂躁状态的躁郁症有相同的神经化学特征。Fisher博士的工作揭示了恋爱人群真实的行为模式，比如：试图唤起被爱者的报答——类似于强迫性混乱症(OCD)。
That raises the question of whether it is possible to “treat” this romantic state clinically, as can be done with OCD. The parents of any love-besotted teenager might want to know the answer to that. Dr Fisher suggests it might, indeed, be possible to inhibit feelings of romantic love, but only at its early stages. OCD is characterised by low levels of a chemical called serotonin. Drugs such as Prozac work by keeping serotonin hanging around in the brain for longer than normal, so they might stave off romantic feelings. (This also means that people taking anti-depressants may be jeopardising their ability to fall in love.) But once romantic love begins in earnest, it is one of the strongest drives on Earth. Dr Fisher says it seems to be more powerful than hunger. A little serotonin would be unlikely to stifle it.
这又产生一个问题，即是否可能和处理OCD一样，用病理学方式来“处治”这种浪漫状态。任何沉醉于爱情的青少年，他们的父母可能都想知道相应的答案。Fisher博士提出，抑制浪漫爱情的可能性确实存在，但只能是在感情发展的最初阶段。OCD的特征，是血液中一种叫血液复合胺(5羟色氨)的含量较低。如果Prozac等药物让血液中的复合氨在大脑中停留得比正常时间更久，这些药品就可能阻止浪漫感觉的出现。(这也意味着服用抗抑郁药物的人们可能正在危及他们彼此相爱能力。)真挚浪漫的爱情一旦开始，它就成为了地球上最强大的动力之一。Fisher博士说，这种欲望比食欲强大得多，一点儿血液中的复合氨不太可能扼杀心中如此强烈的情感。
Wonderful though it is, romantic love is unstable—not a good basis for child-rearing. But the final stage of love, long-term attachment, allows parents to co-operate in raising children. This state, says Dr Fisher, is characterised by feelings of calm, security, social comfort and emotional union.
尽管浪漫的爱情如此奇妙，但它却并不稳定——这绝非养儿育女的良好基础。而爱情的最后阶段，即长期的附属关系，却使父母在养育孩子方面得以精诚合作——这种状态，Fisher博士认为，它的特征恰恰是平稳感、安全感、社会性的慰籍以及情感的最佳结合。
Because they are independent, these three systems can work simultaneously—with dangerous results. As Dr Fisher explains, “you can feel deep attachment for a long-term spouse, while you feel romantic love for someone else, while you feel the sex drive in situations unrelated to either partner.” This independence means it is possible to love more than one person at a time, a situation that leads to jealousy, adultery and divorce—though also to the possibilities of promiscuity and polygamy, with the likelihood of extra children, and thus a bigger stake in the genetic future, that those behaviours bring. As Dr Fisher observes, “We were not built to be happy but to reproduce.”
因为三个阶段的系统彼此独立，所以他们可能同时工作而导致危险的后果。如Fisher博士解释的那样，“你可能对长期配偶有深深的附属感，同时你又因另一人而感受到浪漫的爱情，其间，你又由于第三位异性而产生性驱动力。”这种独立性意味着你可能同时爱上多个异性而导致妒忌、私通和离婚——尽管也有可能是乱交、一夫多妻、和随之而来的额外生育，即最终一个更大的预期基因赌注。正如Fisher博士所述，“我们不是为快乐却是为了生殖而被创造的。”
The stages of love vary somewhat between the sexes. Lust, for example, is aroused more easily in men by visual stimuli than is the case for women. This is probably why visual pornography is more popular with men. And although both men and women express romantic love with the same intensity, and are attracted to partners who are dependable, kind, healthy, smart and educated, there are some notable differences in their choices. Men are more attracted to youth and beauty, while women are more attracted to money, education and position. When an older, ugly man is seen walking down the road arm-in-arm with a young and beautiful woman, most people assume the man is rich or powerful.
爱情的各阶段在性别之间略有差别。例如，与女性相比，男性的欲望更容易被视觉刺激唤醒。这或许就是为什么视觉色情对男性而言更加流行。虽然男人和女人用同样的强度表达浪漫的爱情，也同样会被可靠、和蔼、健康、聪明和有教养的伴侣所吸引，但不同性别在选择配偶时还是有着一些显著的不同。男性更易被年轻和美貌所吸引，而女性更多会青睐于金钱、教育和地位。当人们看到苍老而丑陋的男人手挽着年轻美丽的女子漫步道旁，大多数都会设想此公不是腰缠万贯，便有大权在握。
These foolish things / 这些愚蠢的玩意儿
Of course, love is about more than just genes. Cultural and social factors, and learning, play big roles. Who and how a person has loved in the past are important determinants of his (or her) capacity to fall in love at any given moment in the future. This is because animals—people included—learn from their sexual and social experiences. Arousal comes naturally. But long-term success in mating requires a change from being naive about this state to knowing the precise factors that lead from arousal to the rewards of sex, love and attachment. For some humans, this may involve flowers, chocolate and sweet words. But these things are learnt.
当然，爱情不止与基因有关。文化社会因素和后天的学习在其中也扮演着重要的角色。一个人曾经爱过谁？如何爱过？对他(她)将来任何时刻的相爱能力都是决定性的因素，因为动物（包括人类）能从他们的性和社会经验中进行学习。性唤醒可本能地产生，但长期而成功的配偶关系，却需要一个对爱情各种精确因素从无知到熟悉的改变过程，这个过程包括由性唤醒而导致性行为、爱和附属关系产生对大脑的奖赏。对于一些人来说，这可能包括鲜花、巧克力和甜言蜜语：这些都是可以学会的。
If humans become conditioned by their experiences, this may be the reason why some people tend to date the same “type” of partner over and over again. Researchers think humans develop a “love map” as they grow up—a blueprint that contains the many things that they have learnt are attractive. This inner scorecard is something that people use to rate the suitability of mates. Yet the idea that humans are actually born with a particular type of “soul mate” wired into their desires is wrong. Research on the choices of partner made by identical twins suggests that the development of love maps takes time, and has a strong random component.
人类常常会囿于自身的经验，因此某些人总喜欢一再地和相同“类型”伴侣约会。研究人员认为，随着人们年龄的增长，他们会在大脑内发展一个“爱情地图”——一个包含许多人们已经熟悉的、魅力事物的蓝图。这个内部记分卡是人们用于评价配偶适合度的依据。认为特定类型的“精神伴侣”与欲望的内在联系是与生俱来，这种想法是错误的。对同卵双胞胎择偶的研究表明，爱情地图的发展需要时间，而且有很强的随机成份。
Work on rats is leading researchers such as Dr Pfaus to wonder whether the template of features found attractive by an individual is formed during a critical period of sexual-behaviour development. He says that even in animals that are not supposed to pair-bond, such as rats, these features may get fixed with the experience of sexual reward. Rats can be conditioned to prefer particular types of partner—for example by pairing sexual reward with some kind of cue, such as lemon-scented members of the opposite sex. This work may help the understanding of unusual sexual preferences. Human fetishes, for example, develop early, and are almost impossible to change. The fetishist connects objects such as feet, shoes, stuffed toys and even balloons, that have a visual association with childhood sexual experiences, to sexual gratification.
针对家鼠的研究工作使Pfaus博士等研究人员力图查明：具有异性魅力的特征模板，是不是在性行为发展的关键时期形成的？他认为，即使在没有伴侣连接习性的动物当中——如家鼠——这些特征仍可能通过性奖赏的经验固定下来。家鼠能条件反射地偏爱特别类型的伴侣。举例来说，性奖赏同时伴随着某种提示条件，比如具有柠檬气息的异性。这项工作也许有助于对异常的性偏爱的理解。例如，人类的恋物情结发展于早期，而且几乎是不可改变。恋物癖者会把童年时期在视觉上和性经验关联的物体与性满足连接起来，诸如脚、鞋子、布玩具甚至气球等。
So love, in all its glory, is just, it seems, a chemical state with genetic roots and environmental influences. But all this work leads to other questions. If scientists can make a more sociable mouse, might it be possible to create a more sociable human? And what about a more loving one? A few people even think that “paradise-engineering”, dedicated to abolishing the “biological substrates of human suffering”, is rather a good idea.
因此，关于爱的所有光彩之处，看上去只不过是具有遗传基础和受环境影响的一种化学状态。与此相关，这儿涉及的一切还将导致更多其他的问题。如果科学家能制造一只社会性更强的老鼠，那么他们是否可能产生一个社会性更强的人呢？创造一个更惹人喜爱的人，其结果又将如何？一些人甚至认为致力于废除“人类受难的生物学基体”的“天堂工程”，是一个非常不错的主意。
As time goes by / 时光流逝
Progress in predicting the outcome of relationships, and information about the genetic roots of fidelity, might also make proposing marriage more like a job application—with associated medical, genetic and psychological checks. If it were reliable enough, would insurers cover you for divorce? And as brain scanners become cheaper and more widely available, they might go from being research tools to something that anyone could use to find out how well they were loved. Will the future bring answers to questions such as: Does your partner really love you? Is your husband lusting after the au pair?
通过彼此关联的医学、遗传基因和心理学的检查，预测人际关系最终结果的研究进展和关于忠诚度的遗传基础信息，能使求婚变得更像工作申请。如果这个结论足够可信，保险公司会为你的婚姻投保吗？当脑扫描仪变得更便宜更普及，它能由研究工具变成任何人都可以用于发现他们被爱到何种程度的手段吗？未来会不会就如下问题为人类找到答案：你的伴侣是否真的爱你? 你的丈夫是否正对来家打工的留学女生暗送秋波?
And then there are drugs. Despite Dr Fisher's reservations, might they also help people to fall in love, or perhaps fix broken relationships? Probably not. Dr Pfaus says that drugs may enhance portions of the “love experience” but fall short of doing the whole job because of their specificity. And if a couple fall out of love, drugs are unlikely to help either. Dr Fisher does not believe that the brain could overlook distaste for someone—even if a couple in trouble could inject themselves with huge amounts of dopamine.
接下来当然会有相应的药物。尽管Fisher博士对此有所保留。我们还是想问：药物是否可能帮助人们坠入爱河，或者破镜重圆? 或许不能完全做到，但却可能部分地提高“恋爱体验”。对此另一位学者Pfaus博士如是说：药物达不到整体提高的效果，因为药毕竟是药，这就是它的特殊性。如果一对夫妇不再相爱，药物多半无能为力。Fisher博士不相信大脑可以忽略对某人的厌恶——即使对婚姻危机中的夫妇大量注射的多巴氨，也于事无补。
However, she does think that administering serotonin can help someone get over a bad love affair faster. She also suggests it is possible to trick the brain into feeling romantic love in a long-term relationship by doing novel things with your partner. Any arousing activity drives up the level of dopamine and can therefore trigger feelings of romance as a side effect. This is why holidays can rekindle passion. Romantics, of course, have always known that love is a special sort of chemistry. Scientists are now beginning to show how true this is.
然而，她确实认为调控血液复合胺(5羟色氨)水平能更快地帮助人走出恋爱的低谷。她同时建议和你的伴侣做一些新鲜事，这样可能哄骗大脑在长期两性关系中依然能感觉到爱情的甜美。任何唤醒活动都会提高多巴胺的水平而引发浪漫的感受。这就是为什么假日能重新点燃激情的原因所在。当然，爱情浪漫主义者总是认为爱情是一种特殊的化学，而正是科学家们，现在开始展示出了这一看法是如何的千真万确。 |
