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Scientists have shown that there is a degree of truth in the old adage that love is blind.
They have found that feelings of love lead to a suppression of activity in the areas of the brain controlling critical thought.It seems that once we get close to a person, the brain decides the need to assess their character and personality is reduced.The study, by University College London, is published in NeuroImage.
The researchers found that both romantic love and maternal love produce the same effect on the brain.They suppress neural activity associated with critical social assessment of other people and negative emotions.The UCL team scanned the brains of 20 young mothers while they viewed pictures of their own children, children they were acquainted with, and adult friends.The team found that the patterns of brain activity were very similar to those identified in an earlier study looking at the effects of romantic love.Both studies recorded increased activity in parts of the brain's "reward system".When these areas are stimulated--as they can be by food and drink, or even monetary gain--they produce feelings of euphoria.But perhaps more surprisingly, both studies also showed reduced levels of activity in the systems necessary for making negative judgements.Lead researcher Dr Andreas Bartels said it was crucial that both romantic and maternal love were viewed by the brain in a highly positive way--because both were crucial to the perpetuation of the species.
參考譯文：
科學家們證明，那句古老的格言“愛是盲目的”有一定的道理。
他們發現愛的感覺會抑制大腦控制批判性思維區域的活躍性。似乎我們一旦接近一個人，大腦就會決定降低對他性格特征的評判需求。倫敦大學學院的這項研究發表在《神經成像》期刊上。
研究者們發現浪漫的愛情和母愛對大腦產生的影響是相同的。它們會抑制神經中樞中與對他人進行批判性社會評價和消極情緒有關的活動。當20位年輕母親在看自己的孩子，熟識的孩子和成年朋友的照片時，倫敦大學學院的研究小組對他們的大腦進行了掃描。 研究小組發現這種大腦活動的模式與他們先前研究愛情的作用時確定的模式非常相似。這兩項研究都記錄了大腦“回報機制”部分活躍性增強。這些區域受到刺激時會產生愉悅的感覺，食物、飲料、甚至金錢利潤都會刺激這些區域。但更令人驚訝的或許是，這兩項研究也顯示，用于做出消極判斷的系統的活躍性水平降低。
主任研究員安德里亞·巴特爾博士說，至關重要的是，大腦用一種非常積極的方式來看待浪漫的愛情和母愛，因為它們都對物種的永久延續十分重要。
