读者文摘:幽默能让我们更聪明(1)（在线收听）

By day, Ori Amir is a mild-mannered 30-something college professor.

白天的时候，30多岁的奥里·阿米尔是个举止温和的大学教授。

He teaches undergraduate psychology and neuro-science classes, conducts research into how the brain functions,

他教授心理学和神经科学的本科教程，做关于大脑是如何运行的研究，

and holds regular office hours on the leafy campus of Pomona College in South-ern California. But his students aren't fooled.

并在加州南部的波莫纳学院绿树成荫的校园里有固定的办公时间。但他的学生不傻。

They've seen the YouTube videos, the ones that document his not-so-secret other life.

他们看过那些油管视频，那些记录他并不隐秘的其他的生活的视频。

In one of them, Amir is gripping a micro-phone and standing center stage at the 1,400-seat Alex Theater in Glendale, California,

在其中一个视频中，阿米尔身穿条纹橄榄球衫，褪色的蓝色牛仔裤，破旧的施工靴，还有一件蓬松得可笑的白色毛皮大衣，

wearing a striped rugby shirt, faded blue jeans, battered construction boots—and a ridiculously shaggy white fur coat.

他拿着一个微型电话，站在加州格兰岱尔市有1400个座位的亚历克斯剧院的中央舞台上。

It's the second night of the Glendale Laughs Comedy Festival,

这是格伦代尔喜剧节的第二晚，

and Amir is grinning broadly at the audience through his ample beard, looking like a crazed six-foot-two red-headed Fozzie Bear.

阿米尔正透过他的大胡子对观众咧着嘴笑，看起来像一只疯狂的六英尺二英寸红头发的熊。

"As you can tell by my accent, I'm a neuroscientist," says Amir, who grew up in Israel.

在以色列长大的阿米尔说道，“你可以从我的口音上辨别出来，我是个神经学家。”

"They tell the professors at the university where I work to dress ‘business casual.' This is pretty much the best I can do.

“他们告诉我就职的大学的教授们要穿商务休闲装。这是我能做到的最好的了。

My wardrobe ranges from very casual to inappropriate." Tonight, he's wearing the full spectrum.

我衣柜里都是从非常随意到不恰当的衣服。”今晚，他将全面亮相。

Amir likes to tell his audiences—and occasionally his students—that his dream is to become a "professional comedian and an amateur neurosurgeon."

阿米尔喜欢告诉他的听众-有时告诉他的学生-他的梦想是成为一名“专业的喜剧演员和业余的神经外科医生。”

("That way I could cut up brains for fun!") In fact, he has already managed to combine these seemingly unrelated passions.

（“这样的话我就能开开心心地切开脑子了！”）实际上，他已经将这两个似乎不同的兴趣结合在了一起。

Amir is one of the leading researchers studying the way the brain creates and understands humor.

阿米尔是研究大脑创造和理解幽默的方式的主要研究人员之一。

Unless you happen to be a neuroscientist who moonlights as a stand-up, that specialty might seem trivial compared with other fields of cognition.

除非你是一名兼职单口相声演员的神经科学家，否则与其他认知领域相比，这个专业可能显得微不足道。

But the question of why we find things funny has fascinated philosophers for centuries.

但是几个世纪以来，我们为什么会觉得事物好笑这个问题一直让哲学家们着迷。

This is a particularly exciting time for Amir and his fellow humor researchers.

这对阿米尔和他的同事们来说是一个特别激动人心的时刻。

It has been only in the past few years that scanning technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),

直到最近的几年，扫描技术，像功能性磁共振成像技术，

have let us see how the brain works when it is processing information:

才让我们看到大脑在处理信息时是如何工作的：

which parts do what and what benefits might accrue from exercising different areas.

各个部分的功能和锻炼不同的区域会有什么好处。

It turns out that joking, long dismissed by some as a frivolous diversion from the serious business of reality, may make us smarter and healthier.

原来，开玩笑可能会让我们更聪明、更健康，尽管它长期被一些人视为对严肃现实的无聊消遣。

There is even some evidence that a sense of humor helps the human species survive.

甚至还有一些证据证明幽默感能帮助人类生存。

To understand why humor is a kind of superfood for the brain, it helps to know what our brains crave in the first place.

为了理解为什么幽默是一种大脑的超级食物，首先要知道我们的大脑渴望什么。

You might think they'd prefer when we sit alone in a room and stare at a blank wall—we don't burn up much energy doing that.

你可能会认为他们更喜欢我们独自坐在房间里，盯着空白的墙壁——这样做不会消耗太多能量。

But the brain is like a muscle, and it needs exercise.

但是大脑就像是肌肉，它需要锻炼。