4.
阅读理解
They say music is
universal, and it seems to be true since wherever we go, we see people
listening, playing or dancing to it. We tend to think that music is larger than
our cultural differences and shows the deeper connections bet ween us.
But according to a
recent study published in the Current Biology, music doesn't speak to everyone.
There is a condition(情况) where people are, the
researchers argue, called "musical anhedonia". They say that those
who have this condition may have few abilities to experience pleasure from
music.
For the study, 30
people listened to the same, mostly classical music pieces. They were then
asked to complete a questionnaire on how they felt about the music. At the same
time, the researchers measured their heart rate and skin reaction, which are
considered physiological measurement (生理测量)of
feelings.
According to the
researchers, most of the people in the study got pleasure from the music.
They had a quicker
heartbeat and sweated more. However, a small number of them had very little and
even no pleasant feeling while they were listening to the music. These people
had none or very few of the physical signs that the others in the study
experienced.
The researchers say
that this means people have different abilities to enjoy music and that "there
are people who specifically can't enjoy music at all".
To study the condition
more deeply, another group of scientists, at Columbia University, Us, researched
brain activities. They found that the key is the blood flow to the reward
system in the brain. People who got less pleasure from music had comparatively
lower blood flow to areas involved in the reward system of the brain when they
were listening to music.
The lower blood flow
makes it more likely that the brain's "reward system" will be
inactive. And it will produce less of the "pleasure chemical" dopamine(多巴胺). As a result, people get less pleasure from music.
If the research is
correct, according to National Public Radio, there are simply people who just
don't get music. They may get pleasure from many things, but a good tune
isn't one of them.