研究:抑郁者的世界真的是"灰色"的

    The world literally¹ fades to grey when we feel depressed², scientists have discovered。
    To investigate links between mood disorders³ and vision, Emanuel Bubl at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and colleagues ran an electrode along one eye in each of 40 people with depression, and 40 people without. The electrodes measured activity in the nerves connecting photoreceptors to the optic nerve, but not the brain。
    Participants sat in a dimly lit room and watched a black and white chequered screen which became greyer in six distinct stages, reducing the contrast between each square. Each stage was presented for 10 seconds。
    The team found that electrical signals to the optic nerve were lower in people with depression. For example, when viewing the stage containing black and white squares, healthy volunteers had three times the nerve activity of those with depression, indicating that depression diminishes the ability to detect contrast. The more severe a person's depression, the worse their perception of contrast。
    Bubl believes that a similar technique could be used to aid diagnosis⁴ of clinical depression。
    据《新科学家》杂志报道，科学家近日发现，人们抑郁时，眼中的世界确实会变得灰暗无光。
    为了研究情绪失调和视觉的关系，德国弗莱堡大学的伊曼纽尔-巴布和同事们利用电极测量感光细胞和视神经连接神经的活动，受试对象中，40个有抑郁情绪，而另外40个没有。
    受试者在暗房内观察带有不同颜色方格图样的屏幕，该屏幕在六个不同的颜色背景下逐渐变暗，变暗过程中颜色差异减小。每个背景保留10秒钟。
    研究发现，到达抑郁群体视神经的电流信号更弱。例如，在观察布满黑白方块的屏幕时，健康受试者的神经活动强度是有抑郁情绪受试者的3倍，这就意味着抑郁让辨别颜色差异的能力下降了。且一个人的抑郁情况越严重，其差异感知能力就越低。
    巴布认为相似技术可用于临床抑郁症的诊断。

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

3 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。