鼻用喷雾装置帮助精神疾病患者改善其社交技巧

To test the nasal spray device, scientists at the University of Oslo worked with Optinose, a Norwegian biotechnology company.

为了测试鼻腔喷雾器的性能，来自奥斯陆大学的科学家和挪威生物科技公司Optinose一起进行了研究。

"The patient inserts the device into the mouth and into one nostril. The patient takes a deep breath, closes the lips around the mouthpiece, and exhales into the device. The airflow carries the drug particles deep into the nose."

"病人把喷雾器一端插入嘴里，一端插入一个鼻孔中。然后深呼吸，闭上嘴，用嘴唇固定吹口，然后向内部吹气。气流就会把药物带入鼻子内部。"

This means the oxytocin can get into the central nervous system faster, making it more effective.

这意味着催产素可以更快的到达中枢神经系统，大大的提高了效率。

"A lot of mental illnesses are characterized by deficits in social dysfunction, such as autism and schizophrenia. But there aren't any actual treatments which specifically target social dysfunction. So oxytocin has actually generated a lot of interests in its potential to treat social dysfunction."

"社交方面存在缺陷是许多精神病，例如自闭症和精神分裂症的特征。但是目前并没有任何专门针对性治疗社交缺陷的药物。因此，催产素因其具有改善社交障碍的功效而引起了人们对它的极大兴趣。"

Previous research shows that even with just a single dose of oxytocin, people are more likely to look directly at someone, rather than avoid their gaze.

以往的研究表明，即便是使用了一剂量的催产素，人们也更倾向于直视某人而非回避别人的目光。

"And this is really important as most information, when it comes to how others are thinking and feeling, is transmitted through this eye region. So by improving gaze to the eye region, you improve your ability to understand how others are thinking and feeling."

"这是十分重要的。尤其是当试图了解别人的想法和感受时，大多数的信息都是通过眼部交流来传递的。因此，当人们提高了眼神交流能力时，他们便能更好的了解对方的思维和感受。"

The scientists in Oslo showed volunteer patients photos of people's faces to see how they would react.

奥斯陆的科学家向志愿患者展示了一些人类面部的照片，观察他们的反应。

"Some of these faces were angry, some of them are happy or some of them had neutral expressions. And in our experiment, we asked people to write how angry or how happy these people were. In our experiment, we found that people who were administered a low dose of intranasal ocytocin rated the neutral faces as less angry, compared to when they were given the placebo spray."

"有些是愤怒的表情照，有些是高兴的，还有些是自然的中性表情。实验中，我们要求志愿患者写下这些表情照中人们的的愤怒或者高兴的程度。通过实验我们发现，那些注射了微量鼻内催产素的志愿者会认为那些中性表情图片中人的生气程度比较低。而与之相比，那些注射了无效对照剂的志愿者则会认为中性表情的人更加生气。"

The team will be continuing the research by giving people with autism a low dose of ocytocin twice a day.

研究团队会每天给那些自闭症患者注射两次微量的催产素，以此继续其研究。