蒙娜麗莎到底是在微笑還是在苦笑？長久以來，不同的人都有不同的理解。如今科學家的一項最新研究認為，這其實和人們當時的情緒有很大關系。

Scientists have discovered why the Mona Lisa's expression looks so different to different people and at different times.

不同的人在不同的時間觀察蒙娜麗莎的表情會得到完全不同的印象，對于這一點，科學家們已經找到其中的原因。

For centuries, art lovers and critics have been perplexed by and debated the Leonardo Da Vinci paintings gaze and slight smile - or is it a grimace?

幾百年來，藝術愛好者和評論家一直對萊奧納多?達芬奇這幅畫中人物的目光和她的微笑（或是苦相？）感到困惑，并對此進行爭論。

But new research from the University of California, San Francisco has shed new light on the luminous and seemingly changing face of the Mona Lisa.

不過，美國舊金山加利福尼亞大學的一項新研究讓人們對蒙娜麗莎明亮且似乎在不斷變化的表情有了新的理解。

Through experiments on visual perception and neurology, they discovered that our emotions really do alter how we see a neutral face.

通過視覺和神經學實驗，科學家們發現，我們的情緒確實可以改變我們看待一個中性的臉部表情的方式。

Dr Erika Siegel and her colleagues study how our emotions change our perceptions of the world around us - even when we aren't aware that something has changed our feelings.

來自該大學的埃麗卡?西格爾博士及其同事研究情緒如何改變我們對周圍世界的理解，即使我們不知道某些事情已經改變了自己的情緒。

This relies on the modern theory of 'the brain as a predictive organ, instead of a reactive one,' says Dr Siegel.

西格爾說，這基于“大腦是一種預測性器官而非反應性器官”的現代理論。

In other words, 'we have a lifetime of experience and we use those experiences to predict what we are going to experience next. '

西格爾解釋說，換言之，“我們積累了一生的經驗，并使用這些經驗來預測接下來將要經歷的事情。”

'Incoming information is actually just used to correct the predictions if they turn out to be wrong,' Dr Siegel explains.

“如果這種預測被證明是錯誤的，新的信息實際上只是用于糾正預測。”

So, she and her team predicted that how we perceive a new face - as happy, sad, friendly, neutral - actually has a lot more to do with the feelings we are carrying around when we greet it than the expression on that face.

因此，西格爾及其團隊預測，人們對一張新面孔——究竟是愉快、悲傷、友好，還是中性——的理解，實際上會更多地與我們遇見這張面孔時自身的情緒有關，而不是這張面孔的實際情況。

Dr Siegel and he team can actually simulate that subconscious experience of our feelings thanks to a trick our vision plays on us.

實際上，西格爾的團隊利用視覺可能欺騙我們的原理模擬出了人類情感的潛意識經驗。

We all have one dominant eye and one more passive non-dominant one.

每個人都有一個主視眼和一個更加被動的非主視眼。

If each eye is receiving different information, we only consciously perceive what dominant one sees. But non-dominant sights can still seep into our subconcscious.

如果兩個眼睛接收到的信息不同，那么我們下意識地只接受主視眼所看到的情景。但非主視眼所看到的信息仍然會留在我們的潛意識中。

Dr Siegel and her team use this to gently and prime their study participants to feel one way or another.

西格爾的團隊利用這一點小心地引導，讓研究參與者產生不同的感覺。

They showed 43 people two sets of flashing images simultaneously, so that the dominant eye saw and registered neutral expressions, while the non-dominant eye 'saw' flashes of neutral, grimacing or smiling faces, that they would only subconsciously be aware of.

他們向43人同時展示兩組一閃而過的照片，以便讓主視眼看到并記下中性表情，同時讓非主視眼“看到”中性、苦笑或微笑的面孔，而參與者只能下意識地明白這一點。

After viewing the flashing faces, the researchers showed the participants options of faces and asked pick out which ones they had seen.

在看過這些一閃而過的面孔后，研究人員讓參與者看面孔圖片，并讓他們挑選出哪些是曾經看到過的。

When their non-dominant eyes had seen a happy face, they were more likely to think the neutral face had actually been smiling, and the same was true for grimaces and neutral faces.

當參與者中非主視眼看過的是笑臉時，他們更傾向于認為中性面孔實際上是在微笑。而對于看到了痛苦和中性表情的面孔的參與者，他們也有同樣看法。

This means that 'if you see the Mona Lisa after you have just had a screaming fight with your husband, you're going to see [the painting] differently,' says Dr Siegel.

西格爾說，這意味著“如果一個人剛剛同丈夫大吵一架，那么在她看到蒙娜麗莎這幅畫后會有不同的理解”。

'But if you're having the time of your life at the Louvre, you're going to see the enigmatic smile,' she adds.

她補充說：“但如果你正在享受盧浮宮的美好時光的話，那你便會看到蒙娜麗莎神秘的微笑。”

'We are the architects of our own experience. Our brain makes predictions about what it expects to see and uses information from the world to update its expectations,' Dr Siegel says.

西格爾說：“我們是我們自身經歷的建造師。我們的大腦對即將看到的場面做出預測，同時用外部世界的信息更新預測。”

所以，你看到的蒙娜麗莎是什么表情呢？

來源：每日郵報、參考消息網

翻譯&編輯：yaning