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　　一位研究人员认为，他通过进行一项非传统实验发现了时间为何在濒死体验时看起来变慢的原因。

　　全国公共电台报道了贝勒医学院神经学家戴维-伊戈曼的研究工作，他在过去数年一直在研究这一现象。他的研究方法？一种名为“悬停空中接力下潜”的极限运动，志愿者将在不带绳索的情况坠落至150英尺下的网里。伊戈曼说：“我们询问所有人这一运动的惊险程度(从1至10分)，所有人都给出10分的评价。”

　　不过，人们的恐惧也引发了神经方面的反应，几乎所有的志愿者都报告称感觉到时间变慢了。伊戈曼给所有志愿者的手腕上带上了计时装置，要求他们在下坠时观察计时装置。尽管计时装置的数字在“正常”时间内由于太快而无法被读出，但志愿者报告称，在他们坠落时，时间“变慢了”。

　　伊戈曼就此给出的解释？大脑在创伤体验时记录更多的感官信息，时间并没有变慢，但是超记忆使时间看起来变快了，超记忆在处理和存储所有额外的信息。或者正如全国公共电台报道的那样：“你所接收的图像、气味、思维信息达到了最大值，这些东西通常只是在经过你的大脑后消失，被永远忘记。”

　　Why Time Slows Down in Near-Death Experiences

　　Using an unorthodox experiment, a researcher thinks he has discovered why time seems to drag in moments where the body thinks it is experiencing extreme danger。

　　NPR reports on the research of neuroscientist David Eagleman, a Baylor College of Medicine professor who has been studying the phenomenon for the past several years. His methodology? An extreme sport called SCAD (suspended catch air device) diving, which drops volunteers (sans cord) some 150 feet into a waiting net below. "We asked everyone how scary it was, on a scale from 1 to 10, and everyone said 10," Eagleman told NPR。

　　But their fear provoked a neurological response as well - nearly all subjects reported feeling like time dragged. Eagleman made it easy to gauge their response by strapping a chronometer to each volunteer's wrist and asking them to observe it as they fell. While the numbers would move too fast to be noticed in "normal" time, subjects reported that the time "moved slower" as they fell。

　　Eagleman's theory? The brain records more sensory information in traumatic experiences. Time isn't slowing down, but the hyper-memory makes it seem like it is by processing and storing all this additional information. Or, as NPR puts it, "you're getting a peek into all the pictures and smells and thoughts that usually just pass through your brain and float away, forgotten forever."

　　(时代周刊)

　　(解雨)