210 Fear Mechanism
210 恐惧机制
In a purely biological sense, fear begins with the body's system for reacting to things that can harm us -- the so-called fight-or-flight response. "An animal that can't detect danger can't stay alive," says Joseph LeDoux. Like animals, humans evolved with an elaborate mechanism for processing information about potential threats. At its core is a cluster of neurons deep in the brain known as the amygdala .
从纯粹的生物学角度来看，恐惧是从我们身体系统对可能伤害我们的事情做出反应开始，即使所谓“战斗或是逃跑”的反应。“一个无法觉察出危险的动物是不可能存活的。”约瑟夫·李窦说。和动物一样，人类也拥有一个用来处理关于潜在威胁信息的精细机制。它的中心是大脑深处被为扁桃腺的一束神经元。
LeDoux studies the way animals and humans respond to threats to understand how we form memories of significant events in our lives. The amygdala receives input from many parts of the brain, including regions responsible for retrieving memories. Using this information, the amygdala appraises a situation - I think this charging dog wants to bite me - and triggers a response by radiating nerve signals throughout the body. These signals produce the familiar signs of distress: trembling, perspiration and fast-moving feet, just to name three.
为了了解我们是如何对我们生命中的重大事情形成记忆的，李窦研究了动物和人类应对威胁的反应方式。扁桃腺从大脑的很多不同部分接收信息，其中包括控制回忆功能的大脑区域。用这些信息，扁桃腺就推断出了一种情境一比如说，我认为这条冲过来的狗想咬我一并通过向全身传导神经信号来激发一个反应。这些信号会产生我们所熟悉的焦虑症状，如颤抖，出汗和双脚迅速移动．这里只列举这三种症状。
This fear mechanism is critical to the survival of all animals, but no one can say for sure whether beasts other than humans know they're afraid. That is, as LeDoux says, "if you put that system into a brain that has consciousness, then you get the feeling of fear."
这种恐惧机制对所有动物的生存都是至关重要的，不过没人能够断言除了人类之外的动物是否“知道“它们在害怕。也就正如李窦所说，”如果你把那个恐惧系统放入有意识的大脑内，然后你才会有恐惧的感觉。”
Humans, says Edward M. Hallowell, have the ability to call up images of bad things that happened in the past and to anticipate future events. Combine these higher thought processes with our hardwired danger-detection systems, and you get a near-universal human phenomenon: worry.
霍华德·M·汉龙威尔说，人类有能力回想起过去发生的不良事件的情形，并用之来预期未来事件。把这些高级的思维过程和我们天生的危险检测系统想结合，你就可以发现一种人群中普遍存在的现象：焦虑。
That's not necessarily a bad thing, says Hallowell, "When used properly, worry is an incredible device," he says. After all, a little healthy worrying is okay if it leads to constructive action -- like having a doctor look at that weird spot on your back.
汉龙威尔说那（焦虑）未必是件坏事。“如果利用得当，焦虑可以是一种有利机制。”他说。毕竟，轻微的健康焦虑如果能够引发积极的行动（比如让医生看看你背上的—个奇怪斑点）就很好。
Hallowell insists, though, that there's a right way to worry. "Never do it alone, get the facts and then make a plan," he says. Most of us have survived a recession, so we're familiar with the belt-tightening strategies needed to survive a slump.
但是汉龙威尔坚持说，焦虑要有正确的方式。“不要一味：地焦虑，而要弄清楚事实，然后制定出一个计划。”他说，我们大部分人都曾经经历过一段经济萧条朝，所以对于经济不景气时所需的勒紧裤腰带的策略我们都很熟悉。
Unfortunately, few of us have much experience dealing with the threat of terrorism, so it's been difficult to get facts about how we should respond. That's why Hallowell believes it was okay for people to indulge some extreme worries last fall by asking doctors for Cipro and buying gas masks.
不幸的是，很少有人有应对恐怖主义威胁的经历，因此很难弄清我们该怎样应对恐怖威胁。这就是为什么汉龙威尔认为去年秋天人们陷于一些极端焦虑的现象是可以理解的，当时，他们让医生开抗炭疽菌的药物，并争相购买防毒面罩。