為什麼接吻的時候我們要閉上眼睛？

The real reason people close their eyes when they kiss is because the brain can't deal with more than two things at once.接吻時閉眼的真正原因是大腦無法同時處理兩件以上的事。

That is the finding of academics who have explored one of the great mysteries of the human psyche.探索人類心靈奧秘的學者們給出了這一結論。

When people pucker up the brain finds it difficult to process the sensation if cognitive power is also being used to analyze what we see, said psychologists from Royal Holloway, University of London.倫敦大學皇家霍洛威學院的心理學家們表示，當人們撅起嘴唇接吻的時候，他們的大腦在這個過程中很難同時用於分析另外一個感官——視覺——看到了什麼。

'Tactile awareness depends on the level of perceptual load in a concurrent visual task,' said Polly Dalton and Sandra Murphy, from the university, in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.波莉·道爾頓和桑德拉·墨菲在《實驗心理學雜誌》上發表了一篇名為《人類感知與表現》的文章。文中寫道：「人們的觸覺感知取決於他們在同時發生的視覺感知中的感知負荷。」

The cognitive psychologists reached their conclusion without studying people actually kissing.認知心理學家的此項研究沒有以真正接吻的人為研究對象。

Instead people were asked do visual tests while their response to something touching their hands was measured.研究人員對受試者進行了視覺測試，同時用東西觸碰他們的手，觀察記錄他們的反應。

The academics found that the visual field overrides tactile responses - meaning people would struggle to continue kissing if what they were looking at became more difficult to process.研究人員發現，視覺反應凌駕於觸覺反應之上，也就是說，如果大腦處理接吻時所見之物的處理難度加大，接吻就很難持續。

Dr Dalton told The Sunday Times: 'If we are focusing strongly on a visual task, this will reduce our awareness of stimuli in other senses.道爾頓博士告訴《星期日泰晤士報》：「如果我們的注意力都集中在視覺任務處理上，對其他感知的感覺能力就會減弱。」

'It is important for designers to be aware of these effects, because auditory and tactile alerts are often used in situations of high visual demand, such as driving a car or flying an aircraft.'「對實驗設計人員來說，認識到這類影響非常重要，因為對視覺注意力要求較高的情景經常會用到聽覺和觸覺感知，比如駕駛汽車或飛機。」

The findings could also explain why people often shut their eyes whilst reading Braille or when dancing.這一發現也解釋了為什麼人們在閱讀盲文或跳舞時通常都會閉著眼睛。

Dr Dalton added: 'These results could explain why we close our eyes when we want to focus attention on another sense. Shutting out the visual input leaves more mental resources to focus on other aspects of our experience.'道爾頓博士還說：「這項結果能夠解釋人們為什麼將注意力集中在另一感知時會閉眼。關閉視覺輸入能夠為其他感知留出更多精力。」

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