The mystery of motion sickness - Rose Eveleth

晕动症的奥秘 － 罗斯·埃佛莱斯

翻译人员: Denise Tso 校对人员: Zhiting Chen

Can you read in the car?

你可以在车上阅读吗？

If so, consider yourself pretty lucky.

如果可以的话， 你算是挺幸运的了。

For one-third of the population,

因为对大约1/3的人口来说，

looking at a book while moving along in a car

在移动中的汽车上、

or a boat or train or plane

船上、

火车上、

或者飞机上阅读

很快就会让他们觉得反胃噁心

quickly makes them sick to their stomach.

但是首先，我们为什么 会有这种”晕动症“呢？

But why do we get motion sickness in the first place?

Well, believe it or not, scientists aren't exactly sure.

这个嘛，信不信由你

其实科学家都不是很确定

The most common theory has to do

最广为接受的理论是晕动症

with mismatched sensory signals.

跟感官讯号错配有关。

When you travel in a car, your body gets two different messages.

当你坐到车上，

你的身体会接受到 两种非常不同的信息。

Your eyes are seeing the inside of a vehicle,

你的眼睛看见车的内部，

which doesn't seem to be moving.

感觉车好像没有在动。

同时，你的耳朵却在告诉你的脑袋

Meanwhile, your ear is telling your brain you're accelerating.

你在加速的状态中

Wait, your ear?

等等，你的耳朵？

Your ear has another important function besides hearing.

对呀，你的耳朵其实

除了听觉外还有另外一个重要的作用。

In its innermost part lies a group of structures known as the vestibular system,

在它最深处的位置有一组架构

叫作前庭系统，

给予人们平衡和动感的感知。

which gives us our sense of balance and movement.

这个系统里面有三条半圆细管

Inside there are three semicircular tubules

以感知转动，

that can sense rotation, one for each dimension of space.

每一条都负责一个空间维度。

另外系统还有两个有毛发排列的囊袋

And there are also two hair-lined sacks filled with fluid.

里面充满液体。

所以当你移动时

When you move, the fluid shifts and tickles the hairs,

液体也会跟着移动并触动到毛发

告诉你的大脑

你到底是在横向移动

telling your brain if you're moving horizontally or vertically.

还是垂直移动。

All this tells your body which direction you're moving in,

把这些元素结合一起，

身体就会感知

你往哪边移动，

how much you've accelerated, even at what angle.

加快的速度有多少，

甚至是在什么坡度上移动。

所以，当你坐车的时候，

In a car,

你的前庭系统能够 准确地感知到你在移动，

your vestibular system correctly senses your movement,

可你的眼睛却看不到这个状态，

but your eyes don't see it, especially when glued to a book.

尤其是当你的注意力停留在书本上的时候。

相反的情况也可能出现。

The opposite can happen.

譬如说，你坐在电影院里

You're at the movies, and the camera makes a sweeping move.

电影有个镜头是快速横扫整个场景的。

这次，是你的眼睛

This time, your eyes think you're moving

认为你在移动

而你的耳朵则知道你其实稳坐不动。

while your ear knows you're sitting still.

可为什么这种相互矛盾的咨询

But why does this conflicting information make us feel so terrible?

会让我们如此不适？

科学家其实也没有一个确定的答案，

Scientists aren't sure,

但是他们认为这个现象 可以跟人类进化问题有关。

but they think there's an evolutionary explanation.

我们知道， 快速移动的交通工具和拍摄录影

Fast moving vehicles and video recordings

都只在最后两个世纪才出现，

have only existed in the last couple of centuries,

从宏观来讲其实跟 眨一下眼没有分别。

a blink in evolutionary time.

在人类的历史上，

For most of our history, there wasn't that much

也没有那么多情况

that could cause this sensory mix-up,

导致这种感官混淆的问题发生

except for poisons.

除了毒药外。

And because poisons are not the best thing for survival,

而因为毒药

对生存不利，

我们的身体演化出一种直接

our bodies evolved a direct but unpleasant way

但不怎么让人舒服的方法

来让我们摆脱我们可能吃进去

to get rid of what we ate that was causing the confusion.

而造成冲突的东西。

It's a pretty reasonable theory, but it leaves things unexplained,

这个理论看起来挺合理，

但它留下很多部分没有解释

譬如，为什么女人比男人

like why women are more affected by motion sickness than men,

更受晕动病影响呢？

再譬如，为什么乘客比司机

or why passengers get more nauseous than drivers.

会更容易噁心不适？

另一个理论解释说

Another theory suggests that the cause is more about

背后的原因可能跟

the way some unfamiliar situations

不熟悉的环境

使身体更难

make it harder to maintain our natural body posture.

保持自然的姿势有关。

Studies show that being immersed in water or just changing your stance

研究显示

沉浸在水中

或单纯改变站姿

可以大大降低

can greatly reduce the effects of motion sickness.

晕动症的不适。

But we don't really know what's going on.

不过就像我刚刚说的， 我们不是很清楚真正原因。

We know the more common remedies for car queasiness --

我们知道的是晕车

最常见的舒缓措施有--

looking at the horizon, over-the-counter pills, chewing gum,

往地平线看，

嚼香口胶，

服用成药--

但这些方法并不完全可靠

but none are totally reliable

nor can they handle intense motion sickness

也无法处理

非常强烈的晕动症

and sometimes the stakes are far higher than just not being bored

而这方面的研究比

是否会在長途車上 因为不能读书覺得无聊

意义来得更重要。

during a long car ride.

在美国国家宇航局， 宇航员以每小时

At NASA, where astronauts are hurled into space at 17,000 miles per hour,

17000英里的高速进入太空，

motion sickness is a serious problem.

晕动症对他们来讲 是一个严重的问题。

In addition to researching the latest space-age technologies,

因此，除了研究

最新的太空科技，

NASA also spends a lot of time

美国国家宇航局也花了大量时间

figuring out how to keep astronauts from vomiting up their space rations.

尝试寻求方法

不让宇航员吐在

他们小心准备的太空配给上。

Like understanding the mysteries of sleep or curing the common cold,

跟了解睡眠之谜

和治愈普通感冒一样，

motion sickness is one of those seemingly simple problems that,

尽管科学进步神速

但晕动症仍然是其中一个，

despite amazing scientific progress, we still know very little about.

看见来很简单，但是

我们却了解很少的难题。

Perhaps one day the exact cause of motion sickness will be found,

可能終有一天

我们会发掘晕动症的确切起因。

and with it, a completely effective way to prevent it,

而因为它，

有效避免这个问题的方法也会出现，

but that day is still on the horizon.

但那一天仍在遥远的未来。