1.I'm thinking hard

我在努力思考

Look into my eyes and ask me to name the cigar-smoking founder¹ of psychoanalysis and you won't see much change in my pupil size. The name Sigmund Freud comes easily to my lips.

假如你盯着我的眼睛问道：那个爱抽雪茄的心理分析奠基人叫啥？我会不假思索地答道：弗洛伊德。与此同时，我的瞳孔和先前相比，不会有太大变化。

But ask me to explain the laws of cricket and watch my pupils expand.

但假如你问的是：板球规则是什么？与此同时，你会看到：我的瞳孔扩大了。

That's because research has shown that the harder your brain works, the more your pupils dilate². When Hess and Polt gave participants more and more difficult tasks to complete, their pupils got bigger and bigger.

这是因为：研究表明，当人思考得越努力，瞳孔就会变得越大。当Hess和Polt(译注：1960年研究瞳孔大小与心智历程的两位主要研究者)接连给出受试者越来越难的任务时，他们观察到，受试者的瞳孔变得越来越大了。

2.My brain is overloaded³

我的脑子负荷太大了

Keep watching my eyes closely and you'll spot the point when explaining the laws of cricket gets too much.

仔细看着我的眼睛，你会注意到，在和我详细解释板球规则的某个时刻，我的瞳孔有了变化，它正在向你传递这样一个信息：我脑子不够用了。

Poock reported that when participants' minds were loaded to 125% of their capacity, their pupils constricted⁴.

Poock的研究显示：当人们接受的信息达到了最大负荷的125%时，他们的瞳孔会缩小。

It'll be trying to explain a googly that will do it. (Don't ask).

估计话题换成曲棍球规则后，结果也一样。(所以还是别问了吧)3. I'm brain damaged

脑损伤

The reason doctors and paramedics flash a light in patients' eyes is to check their brains are working normally (and because it's such an easy test to do). They use the acronym⁵ PERRL: the Pupils should be Equal, Round and Reactive to Light.

为什么医生和护理人员们会用一个手电筒照眼睛？为了检查脑功能是否正常。它操作起来非常简便易行。他们用PERRL的缩写来表示：即，瞳孔(Pupil)应该双侧等大(Equal)，等圆(Round)，对光反射存在(Reactive to Light)。

If my brain is broken, say, because I've had a bump on the noggin, you won't see PERRL. There may well be other extremely subtle clues, like the blood pouring from my head.

若大脑受到损伤，比如我醉酒后脑子被撞了一下，那么我的PERRL便不存在了。其他的征象也能提示脑损伤，比如头部出血。

4. You're holding my interest

你激起了我的兴趣

The size of my pupils can also signal whether I'm interested in what you're saying.

瞳孔的大小同样能提示我对你的言论是否有兴趣。

White and Maltzman had participants listening to excerpts⁶ from three books: one was erotic, another involved mutilation while a third was neutral.

White和Maltzman让受试者聆听三本不同的书本章节：分别为色情、伤残和不痛不痒的三种内容。

Their pupils widened at first for all three. But they only remained wide for the passages that were erotic or involved mutilation.

受试者的瞳孔起初都放大了。但只有聆听色情和伤残部分的受试者瞳孔持续在扩大状态。

I'm likely to be interested in anything new, so my pupils will dilate a bit at first, but they'll only stay dilated⁷ if I continue to be interested.

人们在接触感兴趣的新事物时瞳孔会放大，但除非你一直很感兴趣，否则瞳孔就会缩小。

5. You're turning me on

你让我有欲望

If things take a sexual turn then our eyes are also involved. Both men and women's pupils expand when they are sexually aroused.

扯上一个“性”字，我们的眼睛也会变化。无论男女，只要他们感到“有欲望了”，那么瞳孔便会扩大。

However, not everyone agrees big pupils are a signal of sexual arousal. It tends to get tested by showing nude⁸ pictures to people and some argue that we're just really interested in the nude form.

然而，并不是所有人都同意这个观点。因为该结论是通过给受试者放裸体图片得到的，因此有些人认为，我们的瞳孔会放大，只不过是因为我们对裸体图片感兴趣罢了。