脸书分享控为什么停不下来？原因在大脑

We all have those friends, often they are mere acquaintances.

我们都有这样的朋友，他们一般只是点头之交。

Those people whose lives are played out on social media, every cough and spit of their intimate relationships littering your Facebook timeline.

他们把生活中的一举一动都放在社交媒体上，感情生活的小打小闹在你的脸书首页上到处都能看到。

From disgruntled digs at their partner to photographs of the latest item their little darling has decided to shove up their nose - logging on each day can prove frustrating.

对伴侣的不满、收到的惊喜礼物……每天登陆脸书看到这些简直无聊透顶。

But, while despairing and exclaiming 'who cares?' on a daily basis, take a moment, for a new study has revealed those friends might deserve a bit of a break.

不过，在你抓狂高呼“关我什么事？”之前，不妨先稳一稳，因为新的研究成果显示：这些朋友可能有理由这么做。

Scientists believe those who overshare on social media are hardwired to do so.

科学家认为，在社交媒体上过度分享自己的生活是他们的本能。

A new piece of research has suggested a person's brain can be 'programmed' to share information about themselves.

新研究表明，大脑里可能“有一套程序”致使他们分享自己的信息。

Experts at the Freie Universität in Berlin discovered those who do spill all on Facebook have heightened activity in the regions of the brain relating to self-cognition.

柏林自由大学的专家发现，在脸书分享控的大脑中，与自我认知相关的那块区域处于高度活跃状态。

Lead study author Dr Dar Meshi said: 'Our study reveals a network of brain regions involved in the sharing of self-related information on social media.'

研究组长达尔·梅什博士说：“我们研究发现：大脑中有一个区域网络与在社交媒体上分享个人信息相关。”

The study was the first to examine brain connectivity in relation to social media use.

此项研究第一次研究了脑功能区的连接状态与社交媒体使用情况之间的关系。

Researchers evaluated brain activity in 35 study participants.

研究人员评估了35位参与实验者的大脑活动。

They focused on two areas of the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex - the area responsible for personality expression, decision making and moderating social behavior. And secondly, the precuneus, which, among other things, affects a person's reflection of their self and aspects of consciousness.

他们主要关注大脑中的两个区域：内侧前额叶皮质——负责个性表达、决策和社交行为控制的部分，和楔前叶——影响人的自我反应和意识。

Dr Meshi said: 'Human beings like to share information about themselves.

梅什博士说：“人类喜欢和别人分享自己。”

'In today's world, the way we're able to share self-related information is by using social media platforms like Facebook.'

“当今世界，我们分享自己的方式就是利用脸书这样的社交媒体平台。”

Facebook is the world's biggest social media channel - with 1.5 billion monthly users.

脸书是世界最大的社交媒体平台，每月有15亿活跃用户。

The study focused on Facebook usage because it is a medium on which people post information about their thoughts, feelings and opinions - in addition to pictures and videos of themselves.

此项研究针对脸书的使用情况，因为脸书是人们发布个人想法、感觉、观点以及照片和视频的媒介。

Each of the participants completed a self-related sharing scale to determine how frequently they posted pictures of themselves, updated their personal information and updated their status.

实验的每个参与者都完成了一项个人分享测试，确定了自己上传照片、更新个人信息和状态的频繁程度。

Researchers specifically selected participants whose responses would vary greatly on the scale.They performed brain scans using neuroimaging technology to assess the volunteers' brain function as they 'let their mind wander'.

研究人员特别挑选出分享信息频繁程度极为不同的参与者，并通过神经成像技术对他们进行脑部扫描，评估他们“放松大脑”时的脑功能。

The scientists then analyzed the connectivity of each participants' brain to determine a relationship between brain networks and the sharing scale score.

然后，科学家们分析了每位参与者的脑连接，判断大脑网络和分享程度之间的关系。

Participants who share more information about themselves on Facebook had greater activity between both the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

在脸书分享个人信息较多的人群，他们大脑中的内侧前额叶皮质、楔前叶和背外侧前额叶皮质之间的活动则更为频繁。

Those people also had greater connectivity between the precuneus and lateral orbitofrontal cortex.

这些人大脑中楔前叶和侧眼窝前额皮质间的互动也会更为频繁。

Dr Meshi said: 'These findings extend our present knowledge of functional brain connectivity, specifically linking brain regions previously established to function in self-referential cognition to regions indicated in the cognitive process of self-disclosure.'

梅什博士说：“这些研究扩展了我们目前对脑功能连接的了解，尤其是将脑功能区中负责自我参照认知的部分与负责认知过程中自我表露的部分联系起来。”