How information is like snacks, money, and drugs -- to your brain

信息如何像零食、金钱和药物一样影响大脑

Researchers demonstrate common neural code for information and money; both act on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system

Can't stop checking your phone, even when you're not expecting any important messages? Blame your brain.

研究人员展示了大脑中对于信息和金钱共同的神经编码；信息和金钱都会影响大脑中产生多巴胺的奖励系统

即使知道没有任何重要的信息，也总是不停地看手机？要怪就怪你的大脑。

A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food.

一项由加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院的研究人员所开展的研究发现，信息对大脑中分泌多巴胺的奖励系统的作用方式和金钱或食物一样。

"To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it's useful," said Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist whose research employs functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), psychological theory, economic modeling, and machine learning. "And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful -- what some may call idle curiosity."

Ming Hsu，一位利用功能磁共振成像、心理学理论、经济模型和机器学习来进行研究的神经经济学家、助教表示：“对于大脑而言，信息本身就是一种奖励，无论这一信息是否有用。就像大脑喜欢垃圾食品中的无营养卡路里一样，我们的大脑会高估那些让我们感觉良好但可能并没有用的信息-也就是无聊好奇心。”

The paper, "Common neural code for reward and information value," was published this month by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Authored by Hsu and graduate student Kenji Kobayashi, now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, it demonstrates that the brain converts information into same common scale as it does for money. It also lays the groundwork for unraveling the neuroscience behind how we consume information -- and perhaps even digital addiction.

由Hsu和研究生Kenji Kobayashi，现为宾夕法尼亚大学博士后所共同完成的论文《奖励和信息价值的共同神经编码》于本月在《美国国家科学院月刊》中刊登。这篇论文证实，大脑会像处理金钱一样，将信息转化为同样的共同量表。这一结论也为阐释我们信息消费行为-也许还包括数字成瘾背后的神经科学奠定了基础。

"We were able to demonstrate for the first time the existence of a common neural code for information and money, which opens the door to a number of exciting questions about how people consume, and sometimes over-consume, information," Hsu said.

Hsu表示：“我们首次证实信息和金钱拥有共同的神经编码，这为了解人类如何消费以及偶尔过度消费信息等一系列问题打开了大门。”

The paper is rooted in the study of curiosity and what it looks like inside the brain. While economists have tended to view curiosity as a means to an end, valuable when it can help us get information to gain an edge in making decisions, psychologists have long seen curiosity as an innate motivation that can spur actions by itself. For example, sports fans might check the odds on a game even if they have no intention of ever betting.

论文扎根于研究好奇心以及好奇心在大脑内部的表现方式。经济学家倾向于将好奇心看作是实现目的的手段。当好奇心可以帮助我们获得信息并在制定决策时占据优势时，好奇心就具有价值。心理学家很早就将好奇心看作是内心可以激发我们行动的驱动力。举个例子，体育迷可能会在一场比赛中查看获胜的概率，即使他们并不想赌一把。

Sometimes, we want to know something, just to know.

有时，我们就是想知道一些事，仅仅是想知道而已。

"Our study tried to answer two questions. First, can we reconcile the economic and psychological views of curiosity, or why do people seek information? Second, what does curiosity look like inside the brain?" Hsu said.

Hsu表示：“我们的研究尝试回答两个问题。第一个，我们能否协调经济学意义上和心理学意义上的好奇心，或者为什么人们会寻求信息？第二，大脑内部的好奇心看上去是什么样的？”

To understand more about the neuroscience of curiosity, the researchers scanned the brains of people while they played a gambling game. Each participant was presented with a series of lotteries and needed to decide how much they were willing to pay to find out more about the odds of winning. In some lotteries, the information was valuable -- for example, when what seemed like a longshot was revealed to be a sure thing. In other cases, the information wasn't worth much, such as when little was at stake.

为了对好奇心背后的神经科学有更多的了解，研究人员扫描了正在玩赌博游戏的人们的大脑。每位参与者都会获得一系列彩票并需要决定他们愿意支付多少钱来进一步了解赢钱的几率。在某些彩票中，所提供的信息是有价值的-比如，看上去似乎胜算很小的彩票被证明中奖了。在另一些情况下，信息并没有太多价值，比如在什么时候风险会很小。

For the most part, the study subjects made rational choices based on the economic value of the information (i.e., how much money it could help them win). But that didn't explain all their choices: People tended to over-value information in general, and particularly in higher-valued lotteries. It appeared that the higher stakes increased people's curiosity in the information, even when the information had no effect on their decisions.

在绝大多数情况下，受试会根据信息的经济价值进行理性选择（比如花多少钱可以帮助自己赢钱）。但是，这些并不能对其所有选择做出解释：总体而言，人们倾向于高估信息，特别是在彩票价值更高的情况下。赌注增加似乎增加了人们对信息的好奇心，哪怕信息对其决定没有任何影响。

The researchers determined that this behavior could only be explained by a model that captured both economic and psychological motives for seeking information. People acquired information based not only on its actual benefit, but also on the anticipation of its benefit, whether or not it had use.

研究人员认为这一行为只能通过一个模型来解释。这个模型捕获了寻求信息的经济和心理动机。人们获得信息不仅是取决于信息的实际益处，还取决于人们对其益处的期待，无论信息是否有用。

Hsu said that's akin to wanting to know whether we received a great job offer, even if we have no intention of taking it. "Anticipation serves to amplify how good or bad something seems, and the anticipation of a more pleasurable reward makes the information appear even more valuable," he said.

Hsu表示，这和想要知道我们是否获得一个工作机会类似，即使我们并不打算接受它。期望会将一些事情的好处或坏处放大，而希望获得更愉悦的奖励会让信息看上去更有价值。

How does the brain respond to information? Analyzing the fMRI scans, the researchers found that the information about the games' odds activated the regions of the brain specifically known to be involved in valuation (the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex or VMPFC), which are the same dopamine-producing reward areas of the brain activated by food, money, and many drugs. This was the case whether the information was useful, and changed the person's original decision, or not.

大脑对信息是如何做出反应的？通过分析功能磁共振成像扫描，研究人员发现，有关输赢几率的信息会激活大脑中的某些区域。这些区域涉及价值评估（大脑纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮）。同样，这些区域也是可以被食物、钱和许多药物所激活的、可以分泌多巴胺的奖励区域。这就是信息是否有用以及是否改变人们最初决定的例子。

Next, the researchers were able to determine that the brain uses the same neural code for information about the lottery odds as it does for valuation or money by using a machine learning technique (called support vector regression). That allowed them to look at the neural code for how the brain responds to varying amounts of money, and then ask if the same code can be used to predict how much a person will pay for information. It can.

接下来，通过使用机器学习技巧（支持向量回归），研究人员可以判断出大脑在面对有关中奖概率的信息时，使用的神经编码和在面对价值或金钱所运用的代码一样。这就可以使研究人员观察大脑在面对各种数额的金钱时所运用的神经编码并且思考是否可以利用同样的代码来预测一个人会为获得信息支付多少钱。

In other words, just as we can convert such disparate things as a painting, a steak dinner, and a vacation into a dollar value, the brain converts curiosity about information into the same common code it uses for money and other concrete rewards, Hsu said.

Hsu表示，换句话说，就像我们可以将独立的事物，比如绘画、牛排和假期转换为金钱一样，大脑会将对信息的好奇心转换为它在面对金钱和其他具体奖励时所使用的同样的代码。

"We can look into the brain and tell how much someone wants a piece of information, and then translate that brain activity into monetary amounts," he said.

他表示：“我们可以研究大脑并判断一个人有多么渴望一条信息，并将大脑的活动转换为货币。”

While the research does not directly address overconsumption of digital information, the fact that information engages the brain's reward system is a necessary condition for the addiction cycle, he said. 

尽管研究并未直接解决数字信息过度消费的问题，但是信息会吸引大脑的奖励系统却是上瘾循环的一个必要条件。

"The way our brains respond to the anticipation of a pleasurable reward is an important reason why people are susceptible to clickbait," he said. 

他表示：“大脑对渴望获得快乐奖励的响应方式解释了为什么人们容易受到点击诱饵的诱惑。”

需要了解的词：

Dopamine：多巴胺

functional magnetic imaging：功能磁共振成像

empty calories：无营养卡路里

idle curiosity：无聊好奇心

Longshot：胜算很小

akin to：类似于

Striatum：大脑纹状体

ventromedial prefrontal cortex：腹内侧前额叶皮

Clickbait：点击诱饵

文章来源：科学日报   编辑：质控部Susan