Health
Mind
Standing in Someone Else’s Shoes, Almost for Real
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: December 1, 2008
From the outside, psychotherapy can look like an exercise in self-absorption. In fact, though, therapists often work to pull people out of themselves: to see their behavior from the perspective of a loved one, for example, or to observe their own thinking habits from a neutral distance.
Marriage counselors have couples role-play, each one taking the other spouse’s part. Psychologists have rapists and other criminals describe their crime from the point of view of the victim. Like novelists or moviemakers, their purpose is to transport people, mentally, into the mind of another.
Now, neuroscientists have shown that they can make this experience physical, creating a “body swapping” illusion that could have a profound effect on a range of therapeutic techniques. At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last month, Swedish researchers presented evidence that the brain, when tricked by optical and sensory illusions, can quickly adopt any other human form, no matter how different, as its own.
“You can see the possibilities, putting a male in a female body, young in old, white in black and vice versa,” said Dr. Henrik Ehrsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who with his colleague Valeria Petkova described the work to other scientists at the meeting. Their full study is to appear online this week in the journal PLoS One. .
The technique is simple. A subject stands or sits opposite the scientist, as if engaged in an interview.. Both are wearing headsets, with special goggles, the scientist’s containing small film cameras. The goggles are rigged so the subject sees what the scientist sees: to the right and left are the scientist’s arms, and below is the scientist’s body.
To add a physical element, the researchers have each person squeeze the other’s hand, as if in a handshake. Now the subject can see and “feel” the new body. In a matter of seconds, the illusion is complete. In a series of studies, using mannequins and stroking both bodies’ bellies simultaneously, the Karolinska researchers have found that men and women say they not only feel they have taken on the new body, but also unconsciously cringe when it is poked or threatened.
In previous work, neuroscientists have induced various kinds of out-of-body experiences using similar techniques. The brain is so easily tricked, they say, precisely because it has spent a lifetime in its own body. It builds models of the world instantaneously, based on lived experience and using split-second assumptions — namely, that the eyes are attached to the skull.
Therapists say the body-swapping effect is so odd that it could be risky for anyone in real mental distress. People suffering from the delusions of schizophrenia or the grandiose mania of bipolar disorder are not likely to benefit from more disorientation, no matter the intent.
But those who seek help for relationship problems, in particular, often begin to moderate their behavior only after they have worked to see the encounters in their daily life from others’ point of view.
“This is especially true for adolescents, who are so self-involved, and also for people who come in with anger problems and are more interested in changing everyone else in their life than themselves,” said Kristene Doyle, director of clinical services at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York.
One important goal of therapy in such cases, Dr. Doyle said, is to get people to generate alternative explanations for others’ behavior — before they themselves react.
The evidence that inhabiting another’s perspective can change behavior comes in part from virtual-reality experiments. In these studies, researchers create avatars that mimic a person’s every movement. After watching their “reflection” in a virtual mirror, people mentally inhabit this avatar at some level, regardless of its sex, race or appearance. In several studies, for instance, researchers have shown that white people who spend time interacting virtually as black avatars become less anxious about racial differences.
Jeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, and his colleague Nick Yee call this the Proteus effect, after the Greek god who can embody many different self-representations.
In one experiment, the Stanford team found that people inhabiting physically attractive avatars were far more socially intimate in virtual interactions than those who had less appealing ones. The effect was subconscious: the study participants were not aware that they were especially good-looking, or that in virtual conversations they moved three feet closer to virtual conversation partners and revealed more about themselves than others did. This confidence lingered even after the experiment was over, when the virtual lookers picked more attractive partners as matches for a date.
Similar studies have found that people agree to contribute more to retirement accounts when they are virtually “age-morphed” to look older; and that they will exercise more after inhabiting an avatar that works out and loses weight.
Adding a physical body-swapping element, as the Swedish team did, is likely to amplify such changes. “It has video quality, it looks and feels more realistic than what we can do in virtual environments, so is likely to be much more persuasive,” Dr. Bailenson said in a telephone interview.
Perhaps too persuasive for some purposes. “It may be like the difference between a good book, where you can project yourself into a character by filling in with your imagination, and a movie, where the specific actor gets in the way of identifying strongly,” he went on.
And above and beyond any therapeutic purposes, the sensation is downright strange. In the experiments, said Dr. Ehrsson, the Swedish researcher, “even the feeling from the squeezing hand is felt in the scientist’s hand and not in your own; this is perhaps the strangest aspect of the experience.”
译文:
为别人设身处地地考虑，几可以假乱真
健康专栏
思维
为别人设身处地地考虑，几可以假乱真
--BENEDICT CAREY著文，发表于2008年12月1日
在外人看来，心理治疗似乎只是在训练如何自我怜悯。尽管事实却是心理医师通常是努力将人们从自我沉溺中走出来：比如，让他们从自己所爱人的角度来看看自己的行为，或者从一个与己无关的局外中立角度来观察自己的思维习惯。
婚姻调理员们就有让夫妻互换角色的游戏，夫妻俩都将自己假设成是对方。心理学家让强奸犯和其他罪犯从受害者角度来描述罪犯们自己的所犯之罪。就如作家和电影制片者的目的一样，让人们身体力行去体会别人所思。
现在，神经学专家们已展示了他们可以让人们从身体上去真正体会到这种感受，创造一个“交换身体”的幻觉可以对一系列治疗技术有深远的影响。上个月，在一个神经学的年例会上，瑞典研究者用脑子做了展示，当脑子受到视觉和感觉上幻像的作弄，会以为自己是其他人，不管那人实际上与自己有怎样的差别，会认为自己就是那个人。
“你会看到种种的可能，把男人放入女人的身体，把年轻人放入老年人体内，把白人放入黑人的，或者倒过来也可以。”斯德哥尔摩的卡洛林斯基研究院的亨利克. 俄森博士说，他与他的同事娃勒莉娅. 派特考娃在会议上向其他科学家们详细解说了他们的这个研究工作。他们所有的研究将会于本星期出现在网络的PLoS One这份杂志上。
那项技术是简单的。被实验者在科学家对面站着或坐着，就像面晤那样。双方头上都戴着设备，这设备带有个特殊的眼罩，科学家的那个里还带有个小型照相机。那眼罩让被实验者产生错觉，以为所看到的就是那科学家所看到的：右边和左边是科学家的手臂，那以下是科学家的身体。
为了让人感觉到身体实际体验，研究者让实验中的双方使劲拽紧对方的手，就像是握手那般。现在那被实验者可以看到，甚至可以“感觉到”新的身体了。几秒钟后，那个幻像就完成了。在一系列的研究中，同时使用人体模特，触摸双方身体上的腹部，卡洛林斯基研究者已发现被实验的男人们和女人们说他们不仅感觉到新身体上发生了什么，而且当（实验中的）对方被戳或受到威胁时他们会不自觉地萎缩起来。
在过去的工作中，神经学家们已用类似的技术使用了各种身体外体验实验。脑子很容易中计，他们说，严密来说，是因为它已一辈子习惯了自己的身体。它可以用已知经验迅速形成世界的模样，也可以很快假设，换句话说，它的眼睛是与脑壳相联接的。
治疗专家们说交换身体的效果是如此奇怪，以至于精神不太正常者使用的话是个冒险。受到幻想之害的精神病人或罹有极度的两极感情紊乱症的患者不可能从更多的迷惑中能得到什么益处，不管人们如何热望。
但对于那些在人际关系上有问题的人，特别来说，日日相处、关系出现问题的人们的确在体验了从对方角度看待（他们）后行为会有所改进。
“这对于青春期发育的沉溺于自我的年轻人尤其有好处，对于经常愤怒、只希望改变自己生活中的别人、不想改变自己的有问题的来者也很有益。”柯里斯汀娜. 多尔说，她是纽约阿尔伯特. 埃里斯研究院诊所的理事。
在这些病例的治疗中有个重要的目的，多尔医生说，是为了让人们能对别人的举止有另一些解释----在这些人做出反应前。
以别人的观点来生活可以改变行为的证据是几乎为真实体验的一部分。在这些研究中，研究者制造了一个可以一模一样仿效一个人的一举一动的神般之物。当人们在镜子里看到自己的“反像”，人们在不同程度上会在内心过着那个影像的生活，不论性别、种族或者长相为何。举例说，在一些研究中，研究者发现白种人如果受到黑人的相互影响，会在种族问题上变得不再焦虑不安。
斯坦福特大学世纪人类互相影响实验室的理事杰罗米. 白棱森和他的同事尼克. 李把这叫做“普洛透斯效应”，普洛透斯是形象变换无穷的希腊海神。
在某个实验中，斯塔福特组发现模仿心中崇拜的性感人物的人比其他不模仿者更具有亲和力。那效果是在人的潜意识中的：参加研究的被实验者并不知道自己相貌特别迷人，或者在实际的交谈中，他们会尽量向对方靠近许多，并比其他人更会坦述他们自己。甚至在实验结束后他们还一直保留着这种自信，而他们也会挑选相貌更吸引人的人做约会对象。
类似的研究中发现那些同意给退休账户多贡献点钱的人会故意显得老态一些，他们在模仿某个所崇拜的锻炼身体减了肥的偶像时也会做更多的体育锻炼。
增加一项实际交换身体的要素，就如瑞典组所作那样，即有可能会增加这种变化。“这有着录像般质量，那感觉和看来都比在实际环境中更现实，所以它更有说服力。”白棱森博士在一次电话采访中说。
也许对某些意图来说过于具有说服力了。“这可能像一本好书与一部电影的区别，读一本好书时，你可以用你的想象力将你自己投射到某个人物身上，而在电影中，一个特别的演员会使得你很难辨别他的真实身份。”他继续说。
而为了任何治疗以外的目的，那种感觉却又是明显很奇怪了。“在实验中，”瑞典的研究人员俄森博士说道，“即使是捏紧手儿的感觉也是感觉是在握科学家的手，而不是自己的，这也许是在这一经历中最奇怪的部分了吧。”
* 译者注：
1. bipolar disorder：两极感情紊乱症，即狂躁抑郁精神病，患者通常很平静，但忽然会陷入极度的狂躁，继而又陷入一度的抑郁，一般发作时间为一个星期左右。bi-二，两；polar,极地。
2. avatars [
] : 原意是“n. 化身, 天神下凡, 具体化”，但我认为此字的真意应该根据句子的不同而不同，应是灵活多变的，不仅仅是哪几个意思。