When the World Seems to Shrink, or Grow╱让世界变小或变大的病症… 真的有！

  

By HELENE STAPINSKI╱陈世钦译

20140711纽时周报转载

  

My10-year-old daughter, Paulina, had a headache right before bedtime. After a fewminutes, she said, “Everything in the room looks really small.”

  

我10岁的女儿宝琳娜某日就寝前突然头疼。几分钟后，她说：「房间里的每一件东西看来都很小。」

I suddenly remembered: When I was young, I toowould sometimes see things as if they were at the wrong end of a telescope,usually when I had a fever or was nervous. The episodes could last from a fewminutes to an hour, but faded as I grew older.

我突然想起来。我小时候偶尔也会觉得好像每一件东西的大小都不对，而且通常在我发烧或紧张时。这些情形可能持续几分钟到一个小时，并随我年龄渐长而逐渐消失。

The condition, as I have since learned, is calledAlice in Wonderland Syndrome. Episodes usually include micropsia (objectsappear small) or macropsia (objects appear large). Some sufferers perceivetheir own body parts to be larger or smaller.

  

我此后得知，这种症状名为「艾丽斯梦游仙境症候群」，主要症状通常包括视物显小症与视物显大症。部分患者会觉得自己身体的某一部分变大或变小。

Dr. John Todd, a British psychiatrist, gave thedisorder its name in a 1955 paper, noting that the misperceptions resembleLewis Carroll’s descriptions of what happened to Alice. It’s also known asTodd’s Syndrome.

英国精神病学家托德在1955年发表的研究报告中为这种症状取了前述名称。他指出，这种错觉符合英国作家刘易斯‧卡罗对艾丽斯眼中所见景象的描述。它也称「托德症候群」。

  

Its possible triggers are infections, migraine,stress and drugs, particularly some cough medicines. Epilepsy and stroke weresometimes linked as well, the researchers said. Some even believe that LewisCarroll, who described his migraines in his journal, may have suffered from it.

可能的原因包括感染、偏头痛、压力与药物，尤其是某些咳嗽药。研究人员说，癫痫与中风有时也有关系。部分人士甚至认为，卡罗曾经在他的日记中描述自己的偏头痛，可能也曾经面临同样的困扰。

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is not an opticalproblem or a hallucination. Instead, it is most likely caused by a change inthe brain’s parietal lobe, which processes perceptions of the environment. Somespecialists consider it a type of aura, a sensory warning preceding a migraine.And the doctors confirmed that i t usually goes away by adulthood.

「艾丽斯梦游仙境症候群」不是视力问题或幻觉。它极可能是大脑的顶叶出现变化所引起。顶叶负责处理对周遭环境的感觉。部分专家认为，它是一种预兆，是偏头痛出现之前的一种感觉预警。医学界已经证实，它通常会在当事人成年后消失。

Several neurologists have done M.R.I.s on patientswith the condition, though once the bout has passed, there’s usually no sign ofunusual brain activity.

部分神经科专家曾对有这种症状的病人做磁振造影（MRI）扫描，可是症状消失后大脑通常不会出现活动异常的征兆。

Dr. Sheena Aurora, a neurologist and migrainespecialist at Stanford University in California, was the first to do an M.R.I.scan of the brain of someone — a 12-year-old girl — in the middle of anepisode.

席娜‧奥洛拉是加州史丹福大学的神经科医师兼偏头痛专家，是第一个对出现幻觉时的病患做大脑MRI扫描的专家，病患是个12岁的女孩。

According to Dr. Aurora’s 2008 report, electricalactivity caused abnormal blood flow in the parts of the brain that controlvision and process texture, shape and size.

奥洛拉在她2008年发表的报告中指出，电的活动足以使大脑一些部位血液流动异常，这些部位负责控制视觉并处理质地、形状及大小。

  

Dr. Grant Liu, a pediatric neuro- opthalmologist atthe Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said his research into the syndromeshows that even small changes to the brain can yield dramatic effects. Whenthose areas involved in determining size, shape and distance malfunction, hesaid, “the resulting visual experience can be extraordinary.”

费城儿童医院小儿神经眼科专家葛兰特‧刘表示，他对这种症状进行研究后发现，大脑的细微变化也可能产生很大的效应。他说，一旦涉及判断大小、形状与距离的大脑部位机能失常，可能就会产生「十分特别的视觉经验」。

  

Dr. Liu said 33 percent of 48 cases he studied weretraced to an infection, 6 percent to migraine and another 6 percent to headtrauma. Otherwise, no cause was found.

刘医师说，他研究的48个个案33%与感染有关，6%与偏头痛有关，6%与头部伤害有关。其他案例则查不到原因。

A quarter of the subjects eventually developedmigraines, Dr. Liu also found.

他还说，四分之一的病人最后出现偏头痛的问题。

  

Dr. Liu said it took time for family members ofthose studied to admit that they too had the syndrome, which leads him tobelieve that it may be more widespread than people think. Indeed, I soon discoveredmy 14-year-old son, Dean, had episodes for years — though he had nevermentioned it .

刘医师表示，必须花费相当时间才能让这些个案当事人的家人承认，他们自己也有同样的症状。他因此认为，这个问题可能比人们所想象的还要普遍。的确，我很快就发现，我14岁的儿子狄恩虽然从未提起，却曾经多年承受相同的困扰。

“Alot of family members didn’t own up to it on the first go-round,” said Dr. Liu.“They were almost too embarrassed. People want to be told that they’re notcrazy.”

  

他说：「许多病人的家属最初不承认。他们几乎感到太难为情。人们希望别人说，他们并未发狂。」