每日英语一讲,助力四六级—— 总有一首歌,能瞬间带你回到17岁

The music we listen to in our teens—particularly around the ages of 16–17—carries the most emotional resonance. This is the conclusion of a team of international researchers, led from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, who surveyed nearly 2,000 people from across 84 countries about music that held profound personal meaning. The team have described the phenomenon they identified as the “reminiscence bump.”

人们在青少年时期——特别是16到17岁——听过的音乐，最能引起一生的情感共鸣。这是由芬兰于韦斯屈莱大学牵头的一支国际研究团队得出的结论。研究人员调查了来自84个国家的近2000名受访者，了解哪些音乐对他们具有特别深刻的个人意义。研究团队将他们发现的这一现象称为“怀旧性记忆高峰”（reminiscence bump）。

According to paper author and neuroscientist Iballa Burunat, the teenage brain is uniquely wired to absorb emotionally charged experiences, including music, due to its heightened sensitivity and ongoing state of development. “Think of the adolescent brain as a sponge, supercharged by curiosity and a craving for reward, but without a fully developed filter,” she said in a statement. “And it's because it’s still maturing that our strong emotional experiences, such as the songs we love, get absorbed more deeply and vividly, and leave a lasting impression. "The persistence of this reminiscence effect just shows how fundamental music is in identity formation.”

该论文作者之一、神经科学家伊巴拉·布鲁纳特表示，青少年时期，大脑仍处于发育阶段，具有高度的敏感性，其独特的神经机制使人们更容易记住那些情感强烈的经历，特别是音乐。她在一份声明中解释道：“可以将青少年的大脑想象成一块海绵，被好奇心和对奖励的渴求所激发，但又缺乏完全发育成熟的过滤机制。也正因为大脑仍在发育，那些强烈的情感体验，比如我们爱听的歌曲，才会被更深刻、更鲜明地记住，并留下持久的印象。这种怀旧性记忆高峰效应的持续存在，也说明音乐在自我认同的形成过程中具有根本性的作用。”

The study also revealed a notable gender divide in musical memory. For men, the reminiscence bump peaked earlier, around age 16, while for women it occurred later, after age 19. Though the research lacked qualitative data to explain this difference, Burunat points to existing psychological research that may offer an explaination. Men often form musical identities earlier, driven by independence and peer bonding. For women, musical connections tend to develop more gradually, shaped by emotional relationships and social milestones. 

这项研究还发现，音乐记忆在性别之间存在显著差异。男性的怀旧性音乐记忆高峰出现得更早，大约在16岁左右；女性则较晚，通常在19岁之后才达到这一阶段。尽管研究本身缺乏定性数据来解释这种差异，但布鲁纳特指出，现有的心理学研究或许能提供一些线索。男性往往更早建立与音乐相关的身份认同，这可能与他们对独立性的追求和同伴间的联系有关。而女性与音乐的情感联系则发展得更为缓慢，其过程主要受到情感关系和社交经历的影响。

This could also be due by genre preferences. According to the researchers, teenage men tend to favor intense, rebellious genres that fuel identity and independence in a phase that peaks early. Women, on the other hand, engage with a wider range of genres—from pop to soul to classic—often using music as a tool for strengthening social bonds. These varied uses may contribute to a later peak in musical memory.

这种差异也可能与音乐类型的偏好有关。研究人员指出，青春期的男性往往更喜欢风格强烈、具有叛逆色彩的音乐类型，这类音乐能激发他们的自我认同感和独立意识，因此其“怀旧性记忆高峰”出现得更早。相比之下，女性通常接触的音乐类型更为广泛——从流行、灵魂乐到古典音乐不等——并常将音乐作为维系社交关系的媒介。这种多样化的音乐体验，可能导致女性的怀旧性音乐记忆高峰出现得稍晚。

Another key finding of the study was that our connection to music continues to evolve across our lifespan. For men, music from adolescence becomes a lasting anchor for personal meaning, while for women it shifts over time, particularly from the mid-forties onward. “This may explain why their most meaningful musical connections often shift to recent songs tied to current relationships, personal growth, or new experiences, sometimes even holding more emotional weight than the music from their youth”, Burunat added. 

这项研究的另一项重要发现是，我们与音乐的情感联系会在一生之中不断变化。男性往往会将青春期听过的音乐作为长期的个人情感锚点；而女性与音乐之间的情感联系会随着时间推移而变化，在四十岁以后更为明显。布鲁纳特补充说：“这也许可以解释，为什么对女性来说，那些与当前情感关系、个人成长或新经历相关的近年歌曲，往往能成为最具意义的音乐联系，有时甚至比她们年轻时听过的音乐承载着更深的情感重量。”

However, there’s an unexpected twist that defies gender and generational boundaries. Both men and woman often form strong emotional ties to music released decades before they were born—typically from about 25 years earlier. Researchers call this phenomenon the "cascading reminiscence bump," and they believe it reflects strong cross-generational influence, likely shaped by music introduced by parents, family or enduring cultural icons from earlier eras. 

不过，研究还发现了一个跨越性别与世代界限的意外现象。无论男女，人们常常会对早于自己出生几十年的音乐产生深厚的情感联系——通常是比出生时间早约25年的作品。研究人员将这一现象称为“层叠式怀旧性记忆高峰”（cascading reminiscence bump）。他们认为，这反映出强烈的跨世代影响力，可能源自父母或家人传唱的音乐，也可能是早期那些经久不衰的文化偶像所带来的影响。

“I think it helps to think of music like a scent: it bypasses our brain’s language centers and brings a past moment to life in a non-verbal, immediate way,” Burunat explained. “But unlike a smell, music unfolds over time. Its rhythm, melody, and structure provide a kind of sequential framework, a timeline. And it’s this extraordinary combination that allows music to act as both a time machine and a storyteller, helping us recall not just a feeling but the entire context of an event. What our findings make clear is that music is far more than just entertainment.” 

布鲁纳特解释说：“我认为，把音乐比作一种气味会很贴切：它能绕过大脑的语言中枢，以一种非语言、直接而瞬间的方式，让过去的时刻重新鲜活起来。但与气味不同的是，音乐是随着时间展开的。它的节奏、旋律和结构共同构成了一种顺序性的框架，也是一条记忆的时间线。正是这种独特的结合，让音乐既像一台时光机，又像一位讲述者，帮助我们唤起的不仅是情感本身，还有当时的完整情境。我们的研究清楚地表明，音乐的意义远不只是娱乐。”

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文章来源：学习强国

编辑：张 圣

审核：王旭波

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