Thomas' Tagebuch

Tagebuch 10.09.06

  因為要寫有關於嗅覺的論文，所以看了Gabrielle Glaser的Nose一書。書中提到不少相關的知識。

鼻子

1.關於鼻子的回憶

1.1.在成長期間，我很早就明白自己擁有一種對氣味超乎尋常的敏銳反應：我能在電線著火前就聞出焦味，預測天氣的轉變，在食物將行腐化之際就察覺不妥。可這第五感官也逼得我先他人之憂而憂，甚至在正常的警訊出現以前，我的鼻子就能感受到危機或懼怕。(P.4)

When I was growing up, I learned very early that I had an unusually acute sense of smell. I was able to sniff out hot wires before they caught fire, predict weather changes, and detect food on the verge of going bad. But my fifth sense also predisposed me to worry. Even before normal cues told me things had gone astray, my nose sensed danger, or fear.(原文P.1)

1.2.二十多年來，我一直躲著風信子，因為那是我祖父過世的痛苦紀念。(P.10)

Formore than twenty years I had advoided hyacinths as a painful souvenir of my grandfather’s death.(原文P.8)

5.什麼是氣味

5.1鼻子裡的每一個嗅覺神經元有一條長纖維(或稱軸突)，會穿透其頂上稱為篩狀版骨頭裡的小縫隙。它在那裡和嗅球裡的其他神經元連接，嗅球即是位於眉毛間距後方，兩個具有鉛筆寬度的圓柱體。嗅球就像電話的轉接站，是關鍵性連繫的所在點；信號脈衝從那裡被傳送到腦中掌管情緒、性慾和驅動力的邊緣系統，以及負責將資訊編入記憶的海馬迴。嗅球和腦子中負責思想、語言和行為的新皮質之間的連結則比較迂迴。(P.100-1)

Each olfactory neuron in the nose has a long fiber, or axon, that pushes through a tiny space in the bone about it, the cribriform plate. There it makes a connection with other neurons in the olfactory bulbs, two cylinders about the width of a pencil that rest behind the gap in the eyebrows. Like a telephone switch point, the olfactory bulbs are the site of key connections; from there, impulse are relayed to the brain’s limbic system, which governs emotions, sexuality, and drive, and the hippocampus, which is thought to encode the information into memory. Connections between the olfactory bulb and the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for thoughts, language, and behaviors, are thought to be more circuitous.(原文P.98)

5.2對於嗅覺的研究當然不是僅限於研究氣味。據研究，偵測氣味的受體其實和腦子裡用來認識血清胺和多巴胺等神經傳導物質的蛋白質受體關係十分密切，一般相信，與氣味受體基因十分類似的基因可能控制其他類型的化學知覺，例如精子尋找卵的能力。類似的受體可能也在鼻子中稱為犁鼻器的特別結構中運作。這些受體有助於偵測稱為費洛蒙的特殊化學信號，費洛蒙會調節動物的荷爾蒙分泌，還有交媾和社交的功能。(P.105-6)

Research on smell is, of course, far from simply research on smell. As it turns out, the receptors used to detect odors are closely related to the protein receptors in our brains that recognize neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine – those responsible for our emotional well-being. Genes much like those for odor receptors may, it is thought, control other types of chemical sensing, such as the ability of sperm to locate an egg. Similar receptors also may function in a special structure in the nose called the vomeronasal organ. They help to detect special chemical signal called pheromones, which regulate hormone release, mating, and social functions in animal – and possibly in humans.(原文 P.103)

5.3.偵測氣味的能力，是人類最古老的感官能力。…假想頭腦是一個一個分成三個的考古遺址。最老的部分是腦幹，起始於脊髓，然後向上連接到下一層，也就是邊緣系統，系統內包含著兩個杏仁大小班，叫做杏仁核體，專司感情和情緒的器官。因其與嗅覺的緊密關連，邊緣系統原來的名稱是「菱腦」，字面上就是「鼻腦」的意思。(P.106)

Our ability to detect scent is the most ancient sense….Imagine the brain as an archeological site, with three layers. The oldest part, the brain stem… Built like a thick stalk, the brain stem originates in the spinal cord and reaches up to the next layer, the limbic system, which encases the amygdala, two almond-sized organs largely responsible for feelings and temperament. In a bow to its close connection to smell, the limbic system was originally called the “rhinencephalon”, literally, the “nose-brain.” (原文 P.104)

5.4他們認為這是腦子辨認氣味的部分和處理語言的部分，兩者之間缺乏「線路」的結果。另一個普遍的看法是，因為嗅皮質與邊緣系統的緊連性，所以比起其他知覺，氣味便對情緒具有較大的影響力。(P.107)

Scientists attributed this to the lack of “writing” between the part of the brain that recognizes odor and that which processes language. Another commen belief was that smell had a greater influence on emotions than other senses because of the olfactory cortex’s proximity to the limbic system.(原文P.104)

5.5[嗅覺被貶低]我們從小就得到這樣的訊息，認為嗅覺是很原始的-對禮教社會太原始了。(P.110)

Somehow, we get the message early on that our sense of smell is primal – too primal for polite society.(原文P.107)

5.6所以他萃取一些皮膚細胞，將之放在溶劑裡面。怪的是，如果把一些裝在打開的試管裡的萃取物留在實驗室，同事之間的感情便突然融洽起來。平常，大家互相看不順眼，各自在自個兒的小工作間裡邊讀報告邊吃三明治然而當皮膚萃取液暴露在實驗室裡時，柏林納的同事們突然會在一起歡談、說笑、吃午飯、玩橋牌。柏林納觀察這群人，心想，這可怪了。幾個月以後，他把容器拿走，這群人又恢復當初惡劣的態度。(P.116)

So he leached some of the cells and put them in solvents. To his surprise, when he left some of the extracts in open vials around the lab, he noticed a sudden – and puzzling – rise in carmaraderie among a group of coworkers. Normally, they snapped at each other, and ate their sandwiches hunched over papers in their cubicles. Yet when the liquid skin extracts were left out in the open, Berliner’s colleagues suddenly laughed, joked, ate lunch together, and even played bridge. Strange, Berliner thought, as he observed the group. Some months later, he put the containers away, and the group became churlish again.(原文P.114)

5.7.[嗅覺治療焦慮]強生公司最近同意提供經費給兩項抗焦慮藥劑的試驗-一項針對女性，一項針對男性，柏林納說，這種抗焦慮藥劑是簡單的預防藥。「如果你必須要做一個演講，可是害怕面對群眾，那麼吸一下這個藥，馬上就可以讓你覺得好多了。」他說。「慌亂的心情立刻就會消失無蹤。」合成費洛蒙是藉鼻噴劑來服用，將訊號送到下視丘，使人放鬆。它的劑量很小-只有幾個微微克，而且因為不會被胃腸消化，所以不會有中毒之虞。(P.121)

Johnson & Johnson recently agreed to find trials for two antianxiety agents- one for women, one for men. Berliner says the antianxiety agent works as a simple prophylactic. “If you have to give a speech , and are terrified of facing crowds, you sniff the drug and immediately feel better,” he says. “The panic dissipates immediately.” The synthetic pheromone is delivered in a nasal spray, sending signals to the hypothalamus to relax. Dosages are minute- mere picograms(one- billionth of a milligram)- and, because they are not ingested, have no toxic effects, Berliner says.(原文P.120)

5.8.布朗大學一位研究氣味對行為影響的實驗心理學家赫茲問一六六名女性。是什麼使一個男人具有足夠的吸引力，能夠讓她們考慮和他共寢。這些女人說，外表當然有關係，此外還有男人的聲音和皮膚的觸感，但是氣味是被擺在重要的位置，特別是在拒絕和某人上床的時候。(P.125)

Rachel Herz, an experimental psychologist at Brown University who researches the effects of odors on behavio, asked 166 women what makes a man attractive enough to consider sleeping with. The women said that appearance mattered, of course, as well as the sound of a man’s voice and the touch of his skin, but scent was ranked as the most important, particularly in deciding whom not to sleep with.(原文P.125)

5.9.即使在邏輯與抽象思考的年代，鼻子這個「嗅覺的原始器官，知覺的最根本」，仍能以費解的方式掌控著無上的權力。「香水」則連續數月高距國際暢銷書排行榜，顯示即使只是對於氣味力量之想像，仍能蠱惑人心。(P.126)(突然想到，「香水」會受歡迎，因為嗅覺與性的關係？我們還是對這個神秘的力量感到興趣。)

Even in the age of logic and abstract thinking, the nose, this “primitive organ  of smell, the basest of senses,” as a priest ib the book put it, held sway in inexplicable ways. Perfume ,which topped international best-seller lists for months, shows that even the thought of scent’s powers captivates us still.(原文 P.126)

7.過去的芬芳：氣味的記憶

7.1[伍德的嗅覺喪失症 Wood’s Anosmia]失去嗅覺使伍德十分懊惱，她覺得「像在一顆密封的泡沫裡過日子。」…「氣味對我的生命有很重大的意義。少女時代的我，淘汰男朋友的辦法常常就是看他們是不是能夠接受我滿身的馬廄味。」她說。如今，生命有一個面向完全消失了。馬匹冥頑的氣味不再縈繞她的靴子和頭髮。爬上了乾淨床單的床，不再有舒適放鬆的感覺。「我在哪兒，可是我也不在那兒。如果你就全面來看-我會走路、會呼吸，還可以生活。這樣還要抱怨，好像不應該。可是事情就是這樣。我只是還能生活而已。」(P.136)

The loss has devastated Wood. She feels, as she put it, “like I go through the day in a sealed bubble.”… “Smells have such meaning in my life. As a young girl, I could always weed out boyfriends by whether or not it was OK with them that I smelled like a barn,” she says. Now, a dimension is gone from everything. The heady odor of the horses no longer lingers on her boots and hair. Climbing into a bed with clean linens isn’t comforting anymore. “I’m ther but I’m not,” she says. “It sounds crazy to complain when you dd it up- I’m walking, breathing, functioning. But that’s just it. I’m just functioning.”(原文P.136)