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It's possible to become a more compassionate person by training your brain, according to a new study.
通过训练你的大脑可以使你成为一个更富有同情心的人，根据一项新的研究。
Researchers found that engaging in compassion meditation -- where you practice feeling compassion for different groups of people, including yourself -- seemed to increase a sense of altruism.
研究人员发现进行慈悲冥想——在那你练习为不同群体的人感到怜悯，包括你自己——似乎增添了利他主义的感觉。
"It's kind of like weight training," study researcher Helen Weng, a graduate student in clinical psychology at the university, said in a statement. "Using this systematic approach, we found that people can actually build up their compassion 'muscle' and respond to others' suffering with care and a desire to help."
“这就好像是举重训练，”参与这项研究的翁海伦，大学临床心理学的一名研究生，在一份声明中说。“使用该系统的方法，我们发现人们可以建立他们的同情肌，用关心和渴望提供帮助来回应他人的苦难。”
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, involved having study participants engage in a compassion meditation where they thought about when others have helped them to relieve their own suffering. They repeated compassion mantras, such as "May you be free from suffering. May you have joy and ease." And they also completed an exercise where they practiced compassion for groups of people including friends, "difficult people" and themselves.
这项研究发表在《心理科学》杂志上，研究的参与者进行了慈悲冥想，在那他们想到其他人帮助他们缓解自己痛苦的时候。他们重复慈悲咒语，比如“愿你从痛苦中解脱出来。愿你拥有欢乐和轻松。”他们还完成了一项练习，他们练习为一群人包括朋友、“敌人”以及自己祈祷。
Meanwhile, another group of study participants serving as the control group just learned a technique called cognitive reappraisal, which is when you reappraise your thoughts so that they are less negative.
与此同时，另一组参与者作为对照组，只是学习了认知重评技术，就是当你重新评估你的想法这样它们就不那么消极。
Researchers conducted brain scans of both these groups, before and after their trainings.
研究人员在训练前后对这两组人进行了脑部扫描。
Then, they compared the altruism of the cognitive reappraisal group with the compassion meditation group by having them all play a game that involved donating money to people in need.
然后，通过让其玩一个捐钱给需要的人的游戏，他们比较了利他主义的认知重评组与慈悲冥想组。
The researchers found that the people who did the compassion training and who had the highest levels of altruism were also the ones who experienced the most brain changes in the inferior parietal cortex (involved in empathy) when exposed to others' suffering.
研究人员发现，那些做了同情训练的人和拥有最高水平利他主义的人在感受他人痛苦时也成为了那些在顶叶皮质(参与移情)方面经历大脑变化最多的人。
"The fact that alterations in brain function were observed after just a total of seven hours of training is remarkable," study researcher Richard J. Davidson, who is a professor at the university and the founder and chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, said in a statement.
“大脑功能的改变仅在七个小时的训练之后被观察到的事实是引人注目的，”大学教授和调查健康心智中心的创始人及主席，即研究人员理查德•j•戴维森在一份声明中说。
Of course, it shouldn't be all too surprising that meditation boosts compassion in the brain. Past research -- including a study published earlier this year by Harvard and Northeastern university researchers -- shows that meditation can help to boost do-good behavior.
当然，这不应该太奇怪，冥想增加了大脑中的同情。过去的研究，包括今年早些时候由哈佛大学和东北大学的研究人员发表的一项研究——显示冥想可以帮助促进公益行为。
