原文标题：NootropicsHard-working, but incompetentStudy drugs can make people worse at problem-solving, not better益智药勤奋而无用“学习特效药”会使人们解决问题的能力变得更差，而不是更好Brains in a pill药片中的大脑[Paragraph 1]

FOR MORE than six months Americans have been struggling to get their hands on medications like dextroamphetamine(better known as Adderall) and methylphenidate(Ritalin).

(资料图片仅供参考)

6个多月以来，美国人一直在努力获得右旋苯丙胺（俗称阿得拉）和哌醋甲酯（俗称利他林）等此类药物。

Officially, these stimulant drugsare used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

官方地说，这些刺激剂可用于治疗注意力缺陷多动症（ADHD）。

[Paragraph 2]Unofficially, the drugs are also popular with devoteesof “nootropics”—chemicals that supposedly boost brainpower. 非官方地说，这些药物受到“益智药”信徒的追捧。据称益智药是增强脑力的化学物质。Students and workers in industries from tech to finance take the medications in the hope they will improve their concentration and ability to get things done. 科技、金融等行业的学生和职员服用这些药物，希望这些药能提高注意力和完成工作的能力。But a new paper suggests that this may be ill-advised. The drugs seem to make people slightly worse at solving problems, not better. 但一篇新论文表明，服药可能不明智。这些药物似乎使人们解决问题的能力更差，而不是更好。[Paragraph 3]In the paper, published on June 14th in Science Advances, a group of researchers led by Peter Bossaerts, an economist at the University of Cambridge, tested how Adderall, Ritalin and another stimulant drug called modafinil (Provigil) affected 40 healthy people’s ability to perform optimisationproblems. 6月14日《科学进展》上发表了一篇论文，作者是剑桥大学经济学家彼得·博萨茨领导的一组研究者，他们测试了阿得拉、利他林和另一种名为莫达非尼的刺激剂对40名健康人优化能力的影响程度。They used the “knapsacktask”, in which participants had to work out which items to put into a idea was to maximise the value of the items without exceeding the carrying weight of the sack. 他们使用了“背包任务”，在这个任务中，参与者必须弄清楚将哪些物品放入包中。要求是在不超过背包重量的情况下使物品的价值最大化。The researchers used several trials of varying difficulty, each with different weight limits and lists of items.研究人员进行了多次不同难度的试验，每次都有不同的重量限制和物品清单。[Paragraph 4]The participants visited the lab on four separate days. On each day they were given either aplacebo pill or one of the drugs under study. 参与者在4天内分别到访实验室。每天，研究人员都会给他们服用安慰剂药片或研究中的一种药物。The study was double-blind, meaning neither the participants taking the pills nor the experimenters handing them out knew which had been administered on which day. 这是双盲研究，这意味着服用药物的参与者和分发药物的实验人员都不知道哪天服用了哪种药物。They found that participants achieved slightly worse end-results on the task after taking a drug. 他们发现，参与者服用药物后在背包任务中取得的最终结果略差。The drugs did not impair people’s ability to find an optimal managed this in around half of the trials, whether they took the drugs or the placebo pills. 这些药物不会损害人们寻找最佳解决方案的能力。无论服用药物还是安慰剂，参与者在一半左右的试验中都能找到最佳解决方案。But they did cause a small drop in the value of participants’ knapsacks across all trials, by making the non-optimal solutions worse.但是在全部试验中，药物确实导致参与者背包价值小幅下降，因为它们使非最优解决方案变得更糟。[Paragraph 5]Perhaps more striking was how drugs changed the way people attacked the task. 也许人们更关注的是，药物如何改变人们完成背包任务的方式。After taking Adderall or Ritalin (but not Provigil) the participants spent far longer working on their knapsacks than they did when they had taken the placebo pill. 服用阿得拉或利他林（但不是莫达非尼）后，参与者花在背包上的时间比服用安慰剂药品参与者用时要长得多。(Participants were given four minutes to complete each trial but could submit an answer earlier if they thought they had found a good solution). （参与者有4分钟的时间来完成每次试验，但如果他们认为自己找到了一个好的解决方案，可以提前提交答案）。When given Ritalin in particular, subjects were around 50% slower at completing trials.特别是当服用利他林时，参与者完成试验的速度要慢 50% 左右。That was roughly equivalent to the delay expected from going from the easiest to the most difficult trial in the placebo session.

这略等同于安慰剂组中从最简单的试验到最困难的试验所预期的延迟时间。

[Paragraph 6]This extra time was spent moving items in and out of the knapsack, somewhat erratically. 这些额外的时间用于将物品移进移出背包，时间不稳定。The authors assessed the productivity of each move by measuring how much it increased the value of a sack, and found that participants were about 9% less productive when they had taken one of the study drugs compared with a placebo pill. 研究者通过衡量每次动作为背包增加价值的程度来评估每次动作的生产率，结果发现，与服用安慰剂药片组相比，服用其中一种药物的参与者的生产率降低了约 9%。“It was like they were trying to solve ajigsaw puzzleby randomly throwing pieces in the air,” says Dr Bossaerts. “这就像他们试图通过随机地将碎片扔到空中来解决拼图游戏一样，”博萨茨博士说。[Paragraph 7]The authors argue that although the drugs made people more motivated and helped them put more effort into the task, this was more than cancelled out by the fact that the drugs decreased the quality of all that effort. 研究者认为，尽管药物使人们更有动力更有精力来完成任务，但药物使质量下降的坏处抵消了这些好处。In other words, although people tried harder, they became far less competent. 换句话说，尽管人们更加努力，但他们的能力却大大下降。Just how much the drugs hindered performance seemed to depend on how good a participant was without them. 药物对结果的干扰程度似乎取决于参与者在没有药物情况下的能力水平。（正常状态下能力越强，服药后干扰程度越大）Star performers during the placebo session fell to the bottom of the pack when they had taken the drugs. 在服用安慰剂期间结果出色的人，在服用药物后结果却垫底了。[Paragraph 8]Popping stimulants is commonplace in industries like software and finance. 软件和金融等从业者服用刺激剂已司空见惯。One survey of 6,500 American college students reported that 14% had used the drugs for non-medical reasons. 一项针对 6,500 名美国大学生的调查显示，有14% 的人出于非医疗目的使用过这些药物。This latest study adds to a growing pile of evidence suggesting that such drugs do little to improve cognitive performance in people who do not need them.

这项最新研究为不断增长的证据添砖加瓦，证据表明对非必需的人来说，这些药物对认知能力的提升几乎无效。

For tech bosses looking for efficient employees, and workers hoping to clock off at a reasonable hour, the stimulant shortage may be a good thing. 对于渴望找到高效员工的科技公司老板和渴望按时下班的的员工来说，刺激剂短缺可能是一件好事。（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量708左右）原文出自：2023年6月24日《The Economist》Science & technology版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）Study drugs学习药物这个术语通常指的是非处方药或处方药，被学生非法使用或滥用以增加注意力、提高学习能力和记忆力。尽管这些药物可能在短期内提供一些认知增强效果，但它们并不是真正的"特效药"，因为它们并没有被专门设计为提高学习和记忆能力。使用可能会有严重的副作用，包括心率加快、血压升高、焦虑、失眠、依赖和滥用等。Adderall阿得拉是一种包含两种药物的处方药，其中包括左旋甲基苯丙胺（L-安非他命）和右旋甲基苯丙胺（D-安非他命）。它是一种中枢神经系统兴奋剂，常用于治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）和嗜睡症。通过增加大脑中的多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素的释放来提高警觉性和注意力。这使得人们能够集中注意力、减少冲动行为并改善行为控制。因此，它被广泛用于帮助控制ADHD症状，包括注意力不集中、多动和冲动行为。同时也具有一定的副作用和风险，如睡眠问题、食欲减退、心脏问题等，因此必须在医生的指导下使用，并定期进行监测和评估。Ritalin利他林是一种常用的处方药，也称为哌酮定。它是一种中枢神经系统刺激剂，常用于治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）。作用于大脑中的多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素神经递质系统，从而改变神经传递的方式。常见副作用包括失眠、食欲减退、焦虑、头痛和肚子痛等。注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）是一种常见的神经发育性疾病。它通常在儿童时期开始，并可能持续到成年。病因尚不清楚，但研究表明遗传、环境和神经化学因素都可能与其发生有关。ADHD与神经递质多巴胺的不平衡有关，这导致大脑中的信息处理和调节困难。症状包括注意力不集中、易分散、记忆问题、组织困难、忘记性强、常常受干扰和冲动行为等。这些症状可能对学业、社交和家庭生活产生负面影响。【重点句子】（3个）Students and workers in industries from tech to finance take the medications in the hope they will improve their concentration and ability to get things done. 科技、金融等行业的学生和职员服用这些药物，希望这些药能提高注意力和完成工作的能力。They used the “knapsack task”, in which participants had to work out which items to put into a idea was to maximise the value of the items without exceeding the carrying weight of the sack. 他们使用了“背包任务”，在这个任务中，参与者必须弄清楚将哪些物品放入包中。要求是在不超过背包重量的情况下使物品的价值最大化。In other words, although people tried harder, they became far less competent. 换句话说，尽管人们更加努力，但他们的能力却大大下降。

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