Drinking water may boost brain power：study 研究：喝水或能提升腦力

Drinking water may boost brain power：study
研究：喝水或能提升腦力
2013-08-12◎管淑平

A new small study finds that quenching your thirst with water may give your brain a boost.
一份新的小規模研究發現，喝水解渴或許能增進你的腦力。


Results showed that subjects who drank about three cups of water （775 milliliters） before taking a battery of cognitive tests performed better on a test measuring reaction time than subjects who didn’t drink water.
研究結果顯示，先喝約3杯水（775毫升）再做一系列認知測驗的人，測量反應時間的測試表現，比測驗前沒喝水的人好。


This difference was especially noticeable when the subjects were especially thirsty, with researchers speculating that being thirsty may take attention away from the task at hand, slowing response time.
這種差異在受測者特別渴時尤其明顯，研究人員揣測，感到口渴或許會分散人對手邊工作的注意力，延緩反應時間。


Still, in one test, on rule-learning, thirsty subjects actually fared better, but researchers aren’t clear why.
然而，在學習規範這項測驗上，口渴的人確實表現比較好，但研究人員不清楚為什麼。


"It might be that physiological processes [of drinking or not drinking water] affect performance on different tasks in different ways," study researcher Caroline Edmonds, of the University of East London School of Psychology told LiveScience.
「或許是（喝水或不喝水的）生理過程，以不同方式影響不同工作的表現」，進行這份研究的東倫敦大學心理學院研究人員卡洛琳．艾德蒙向「生活科學」網站表示。


In the study, 34 adult subjects were asked to abstain from food and drink starting at 9pm before coming into the lab for testing the next morning. In some cases, subjects were offered a cereal bar with water for breakfast. On another day, they were offered a cereal bar with no water.
在這份研究中，34名成年受測者被要求在測驗前一晚9時起不要進食，然後次日上午到實驗室受測，受測前提供部分受測者穀物棒配水當早餐。另一天只提供穀物棒，沒有搭配水。


Prior research has found that water consumption can improve memory in children, LiveScience reports.
此前的研究已發現，喝水能提升兒童的記憶力，生活科學網站報導。


新聞辭典
boost：動詞，提振、提升。
battery：名詞，一套、一組；一系列。例句：President Obama has outlined a battery of measures to boost the economy.（總統歐巴馬勾勒出一套提振經濟的措施。）
quench：動詞，熄滅；壓抑、解渴。例句：Your harsh criticism will only quench his enthusiasm for writing.（你苛刻批評只會澆熄他對寫作的熱情。）