Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the Bard and other classical writers has a beneficial effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and triggers moments of self-reflection.
　　來自利物浦大學的科學家、心理學家和英文教授發現，閱讀莎士比亞及其他古典作家的作品對心智發展大有裨益，這些作品能夠抓住讀者的注意力，引發讀者的自我反思。

　　Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S Eliot and others.
　　They then “translated” the texts into more “straightforward”, modern language and again monitored the readers’ brains as they read the words.
　　Scans showed that the more “challenging” prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions.
　　經掃描發現，散文和詩歌越“具挑戰性”，大腦中的電流活動就愈加頻繁，而那些通俗化的版本則達不到這種效果。

　　Scientists were able to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and record how it “lit up” as the readers encountered unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentence structure.
　　This “lighting up” of the mind lasts longer than the initial electrical spark, shifting the brain to a higher gear, encouraging further reading.
　　科學家們能夠研究大腦對每一個詞語做出反應時的活動，並記錄下讀者在遇到生僻詞語、新奇短語或複雜的句子結構時大腦如何“被啟動”。
　　大腦的這一“啟動”狀態比最初的電火花持續時間更長，讓大腦的轉動更高速，鼓勵讀者繼續往下閱讀。

　　The research also found that reading poetry, in particular, increases activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with “autobiographical memory”, helping the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read. The academics said this meant the classics were more useful than self-help books.
　　研究還發現，閱讀書籍，尤其是詩歌，可以增加與“自傳體記憶”有關的大腦右半球的活動頻率，有助於讀者根據閱讀內容對個人經歷進行反思和重新評價。該研究認為，經典文學著作比勵志圖書用途更大。

　　Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study with the university’s magnetic resonance centre, will tell a conference this week: “Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain.
　　"The research shows the power of literature to shift mental pathways, to create new thoughts, shapes and connections in the young and the staid alike.”
　　和利物浦大學的磁共振中心一同致力於此項研究的英文教授 Davis本周將在一次會議上宣稱：“嚴肅文學的作用相當於大腦的火箭助推器。

　　In the first part of the research, the brain activity of 30 volunteers was monitored as they read passages from Shakespeare plays, including King Lear, Othello, Coriolanus and Macbeth, and again as they read the text rewritten in simpler form.
　　While reading the plain text, normal levels of electrical activity were displayed in their brains. When they read Shakespeare, however, the levels of activity “jumped” because of his use of words which were unfamiliar to the readers.

　　In one example, volunteers read a line from King Lear: “A father and a gracious aged man: him have you madded”. They then read a simpler version: “A father and a gracious aged man: him you have enraged.”
　　Shakespeare’s use of the adjective “mad” as a verb sparked a higher level of brain activity than the straightforward prose.
　　結果發現，莎士比亞把形容詞mad當作動詞使用，這罕見的用法很特別，讀者對這個字的腦部反應，遠比閱讀現代文體時的反應更大。

　　The study went on to test how long the effect lasted. It found that the “peak” triggered by the unfamiliar word was sustained onto the following phrases, suggesting the striking word had hooked the reader, with their mind “primed for more attention”.
　　研究人員記錄受測試者閱讀每個艱澀文字、絕妙好辭與困難句子的腦波，發現困難的內容，讓腦部思考時間更持久，腦波反應甚至可達高峰值，腦部活動也會升級，鼓勵受試者繼續閱讀。

　　Working with psychologists at the university, the next phase of the research is looking at the extent to which poetry can provide therapeutic benefit, using the work of, among others William Wordsworth, Henry Vaughan, John Donne, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes.

　　Volunteers brains have been scanned while reading four lines by Wordsworth: “She lived unknown and few could know, when Lucy ceased to be. But she is in her grave and oh, the difference to me.”
　　Four “translated” lines were also provided: “She lived a lonely life in the country, and nobody seems to know or care, but now she is dead, and I feel her loss.”
　　The first version caused a greater degree of brain activity, lighting up not only the left part of the brain concerned with language, but also the right hemisphere that relates to autobiographical memory and emotion.
　　讀詩不僅刺激掌管語言的左腦，還特別能刺激右腦提取「傳記式記憶」（autobiographical memory）區域的活動，幫助讀者根據閱讀的內容，回憶並反思自身相關經歷。

　　Intense activity is this area of the brain suggests that the poetry triggers “reappraisal mechanisms” causing the reader to reflect and rethink their own experiences in light of what they read.

　　“Poetry is not just a matter of style. It is a matter of deep versions of experience that add the emotional and biographical to the cognitive,” said Professor Davis, who will present the findings at the North of England education conference in Sheffield next week.
　　“This is the argument for serious language in serious literature for serious human situations, instead of self-help books or the easy reads that merely reinforce predictable opinions and conventional self-images.”

　　Professor Davis hopes to scan the brains of volunteers reading Charles Dickens to test if revisions the writer made to his prose spark greater brain activity than the original text.
　　He is now working with the charity The Reader Organisation to establish reading aloud groups in GP drop-in centres, care homes, prisons, libraries, schools and mother and toddler groups.

　　Joint research with University College London will also study the effects of reading in dementia sufferers.
　　學者稱這些經典文學好比「腦子的火箭推進器」，比勵志圖書療效更好！