Seeking to capture the sensation of courage in real time, Yadin Dudai, a neurobiologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and his colleagues scanned the brains of people with a known phobia toward snakes as they were confronted with a live, large, harmless but indubitably serpentine corn snake.
为了能实时捕捉到勇敢的体验，以色列雷霍沃特魏茨曼科学研究所的也丁·杜代（Yadin Dudai）及其同事，在一个放有一条大型的、活体的、无害的但是的确是蛇无疑的玉米锦蛇的现场扫描了一位已知对蛇有恐惧感的人的大脑。
Lying in the scanner, the subjects could choose either to allow a box holding the snake to come closer, or to keep it away. As reported last June in the journal Neuron, the participants who squelched their terror and pressed the "snake approach" button showed activation of a brain region called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex.
躺在扫描仪里，受试者可以选择让装有蛇的箱体靠近自己，或把它拿开。根据去年6月《神经元》杂志的报导，克服了自己恐惧感、按下"让蛇靠近"按钮的受试者，在一个被称为亚属前扣带皮质的大脑区域发现有活动。
Located toward the front of the brain, the structure has been implicated in depression and, intriguingly, altruistic behavior, and is thought to help negotiate between emotion and cognition, impulse and calculation.
该结构位于大脑的前部，与抑郁、魅力及利他行为有关联，被认为是在情感和认知、冲动和考量之间起到帮助的部分。
The thumb-size bundle of neurons acknowledges the yellow belly within but then moves to stanch its quivering power. And it does this in large part by dialing down the activity of the amygdala, long known as the brain's central headquarters of fear.
这个拇指大小的神经元束能认知内在的懦弱，但是随后会转移到平息颤抖的能量。它会在很大程度上降低黄杏体的活动，长久以来那都被认为是恐惧的中枢。