太可怕了，以后都不敢照鏡子了！

Here’s a fun exercise, though you might not want to do it alone. Stare into a mirror for several minutes and you may notice your face begin to distort. It could even morph into something downright scary.

一個(gè)有趣的練習(xí)，盡管你可能不太想一個(gè)人做。盯著鏡子看幾分鐘，你可能會(huì)注意到你的臉開始扭曲變形。甚至變成完全可怕的東西。

Seeing monsters in mirrors has long been an effective horror movie device and grist for urban legends. It might sound like a bunch of superstitious hooey, but scientific research now says that seeing altered images in a mirror is a real thing, most likely due in part to a type of optical illusion called "peripheral fading" or the Troxler Effect.

在鏡子里看到怪物一直是恐怖電影和都市傳奇的標(biāo)配。這聽起來像是某種迷信的胡言亂語，但科學(xué)研究表明，在鏡子里確實(shí)能看到變形的圖像，最有可能是因?yàn)槟撤N視覺錯(cuò)覺引起的，也被稱為特克斯勒消逝效應(yīng)。

The discovery that mirror-gazing leads people to see things comes from Giovanni Caputo at the University of Urbino in Italy. In 2010, he published an article in Perceptions describing his otherworldly research findings. Fifty participants were asked to stare into a mirror for 10 minutes in a dimly lit space. Most of them saw far more than they bargained for. Some 66 percent witnessed huge deformations of their face, 18 percent saw an animal such as a pig or cat, 28 percent observed an unknown person and 48 percent beheld monstrous or fantastical beings.

意大利烏爾比諾大學(xué)喬瓦尼·卡普托的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，凝視鏡子確實(shí)會(huì)讓人們看到新的事物。2010年，他發(fā)表了一篇關(guān)于他研究成果的文章。他們要求50名參與者在昏暗的空間里盯著鏡子看10分鐘。大多數(shù)人看到了超出期待的東西。大約66%的人看到他們臉部發(fā)生了巨大的變形。18%的人看到了像貓或豬這樣的動(dòng)物，28%的人看到了一個(gè)陌生的人，48%的人看到了怪物或者是幻想的生物。

If you were into ghoulish folklore games like Bloody Mary as a kid, these findings may help explain a few things. No one knows exactly how that slumber-party staple got started, but it involves staring into a mirror in a darkened room and saying Bloody Mary’s name repeatedly until she appears as a ghost or witch behind you. The idea is to give participants the fright of their lives.

如果你喜歡關(guān)于血腥瑪麗之類的民間傳說游戲，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)可能會(huì)解釋一些事情。這個(gè)游戲包括在黑暗的房間里盯著一面鏡子，不停地念著血腥瑪麗的名字，她可能就會(huì)以鬼魂或是女巫的形式出現(xiàn)在你后面。這種游戲通常會(huì)給參與者帶來很大的恐懼。

One possible explanation for Caputo’s "strange-face illusion" is the Troxler Effect (or Troxler’s Fading). In 1804, Swiss philosopher and physician Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler noticed that if someone stared at a fixed point for even a short time, peripheral images started fading away.

1804年，瑞士的哲學(xué)家兼內(nèi)科醫(yī)生特克斯勒注意到，如果人在短時(shí)間內(nèi)一直盯著某一個(gè)固定的點(diǎn)，外圍的圖像就會(huì)逐漸消失。

Troxler explained peripheral fading as visual neurons adapting to unimportant stimuli. At first you see everything in front of you, but then your eyes begin to ignore what isn’t necessary or within their central focus. This presumably frees up processing power and enhances perceptual efficiency.

特克斯勒解釋說，隨著視覺神經(jīng)適應(yīng)不重要的刺激，邊緣的事物就會(huì)逐漸消散。一開始，你的眼睛會(huì)注意到眼前的一切，但漸漸你的眼睛會(huì)開始忽視那些不重要的東西。這會(huì)釋放處理能力同時(shí)提高感知效率。

Peripheral fading also may be at play in your body’s other neural systems. Think of putting on a watch. At first you’re aware of its weight on your wrist and the cool metal against your skin, but within minutes the sensation has faded. The watch is still there, but you no longer feel it. In the same way you may hear birds singing outside, but as soon as you begin reading your email, the sounds slip out of consciousness.

周圍事物的消失也可能是你身體里的其他神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)在發(fā)揮作用。就好像戴手表，一開始你能感覺到它壓在你手腕上的重量和冰冷的金屬貼在皮膚上，但幾分鐘內(nèi)這種感覺就會(huì)消失。手表還在那兒，但你可能已經(jīng)感覺不到了。

In the case of the strange-face illusion, as you stare at yourself in a mirror, peripheral areas of your face begin fusing or dissolving like objects in a Salvador Dali painting. Your mouth may stretch to one side, your forehead might meld into your cheeks and your eyebrows may droop to your chin.

你盯著鏡子中的自己看也是同樣的道理，臉上的邊緣區(qū)域會(huì)漸漸消失，你的嘴巴可能會(huì)伸到另一邊，你的前額可能會(huì)融合進(jìn)臉頰上，你的眉毛甚至?xí)麓沟较掳蜕稀?/p>

Peripheral fading seems to explain the shape-shifting that Caputo’s research subjects witnessed in their own faces. But what about those who saw fantastical beings, animals and unknown people? The theory doesn’t fully account for these full-on hallucinations or the sense of otherness some participants felt when staring at them face-to-face. A few even reported beings with malevolent expressions that filled them with fear and anxiety.

這就能解釋為什么卡普托研究的參與者會(huì)在自己的臉上看到變形了。但那些看到動(dòng)物和陌生的人又如何解釋呢?這一理論并不能完全解釋這些幻象，或是參與者認(rèn)為有人面對(duì)面盯著自己在看的感覺。一些人甚至?xí)蟹浅憾镜谋砬椋麄兂錆M了恐懼和焦慮。

 

Caputo argues that something else may be going on, a form of the "dissociative identity effect." Perhaps the brain scrambles and then actively fills in new facial features (even really scary ones) in ways that science doesn’t yet understand.

卡普托認(rèn)為大腦可能會(huì)以一種科學(xué)未知的方式打亂并塑造新的、甚至是可怕的面部特征。

So next time you crave a fear fix, forget hair-raising Hollywood blockbusters and frightful fun house rides. All you need is a mirror and your own brain.

當(dāng)你下次渴望得到恐懼的時(shí)候，忘掉那些讓人毛骨悚然的好萊塢大片吧。你只需要一面鏡子和你的大腦便能獲得恐懼體驗(yàn)。