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A couple stands at the embankment of the Volga River in Samara, about 1000 km (620 miles) southeast of Moscow May 18, 2007.
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It often seems a thin line between love and hate, and now scientists think they know why.
Brain scans of people shown images of individuals they hated revealed a pattern of brain activity that partly occurs in areas also activated by romantic love, Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya of University College London reported Tuesday.
"This linkage may account for why love and hate are so closely linked to each other in life," the researchers wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS One.
"Our results show that there is a unique pattern of activity in the brain in the context of hate."
In their study, the researchers showed 17 men and women pictures of someone the volunteers said they hated along with three familiar, neutral faces. The hated individuals were all former lovers or work rivals, except for one famous politician.
The brain scans identified a pattern of activity in different areas of the brain the researchers called a "hate circuit" that switched on when people saw faces they despised, the researchers said.
The so-called hate circuit includes structures in the cortex and the sub-cortex and represented a pattern distinct from emotions such as fear, threat and danger, Zeki said in a telephone interview.
The brain activity also occurred in the putamen and insula, two areas activated when people viewed the face of a loved person. Scientists have linked the regions to aggressive action and distressing situations, Zeki said.
But there were important differences as well. A bigger part of the cerebral cortex - an area linked to judgment and reasoning - de-activates with love compared to hate.
"It is more likely that in the context of hate the hater may want to exercise judgment in calculating moves to (cause) harm," Zeki said in a statement.
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(Agencies)
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人們常說：“愛恨只在一線間”，現在科學家找到了其中的原因。
倫敦大學學院的薩米爾?澤克和約翰?保羅?羅馬亞于本周二發布研究報告稱，他們通過人腦掃描發現，當研究對象看到自己憎恨的人時，大腦進行特定活動的部分區域同時也是“愛情激活區”。
研究人員在《公共科學圖書館-綜合》上發表的研究報告中指出：“這一關聯或許能解釋為什么在現實生活中愛恨總是緊密相連?！?/font>
“我們發現人在產生憎恨情緒時，大腦會發生一種特定的活動。”
研究人員向17名男女志愿者展示了他們所憎恨的一些人的照片，其中除一位是政界知名人士外，其他都是研究對象過去的戀人或工作上的死對頭。此外，研究對象還看了三張熟人的照片，他們對這幾個人既不愛也不恨。
通過對研究對象進行腦部掃描發現，當人們看到自己厭惡的面孔時，大腦中的幾個不同區域會發生某種特定的活動，研究人員將這幾個由“憎恨”啟動的腦區稱為“憎恨回路”。
澤克在電話采訪中稱，大腦“憎恨回路”包括大腦皮層和下皮層中的結構，它所反映的大腦活動形式與恐懼、威脅和危險等情緒截然不同。
“憎恨回路”中的殼核和腦島兩個區域在人們看到喜歡的人時也會活動。澤克說，此前已有科學家發現這兩個區域與攻擊行為和痛苦體驗有關。
但愛與恨畢竟不同，其中最重要的差別是，人在產生愛意時，大部分與判斷和推理相關的大腦皮層都處于不活躍狀態，而在產生恨意時只有一小部分不活躍。
澤克在聲明中說：“這可能是因為人在產生憎恨情緒時，要通過判斷來決定如何采取攻擊或報復行動。“
（實習生瞿漫 英語點津姍姍 編輯）
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