摘要：People often hunt for new, engaging information—we are curious by nature. Our curiosity can guide us in many ways, such as learnin

Can States of Curiosity Keep Your Brain Sharp?

好奇心能让你保持大脑敏锐吗？

Finding states of curiosity may keep your memory sharp and help you age well.

保持好奇心的状态可能会让你的记忆力保持敏锐，并帮助你延年益寿。

Posted September 10, 2025 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

发布于 2025 年 9 月 10 日 | Lybi Ma 审阅

People often hunt for new, engaging information—we are curious by nature. Our curiosity can guide us in many ways, such as learning new things, starting a hobby, sleuthing for answers (and sometimes seeking out gossip), and even leading us to follow our passions. Curiosity is triggered by the awareness of a gap in our knowledge, engaging a strong motivational drive to close this gap, which can keep our brain sharp. As we get older, curiosity may wane for things that we don’t care about, but curiosity may be critical to maintain in older age to stimulate our brain and prevent Alzheimer’s disease by triggering the production of new brain cells in older age.

人们总是追寻新鲜有趣的信息——我们天生好奇。好奇心可以引导我们很多方面，例如学习新事物、培养爱好、探寻答案（有时还会打探八卦），甚至引导我们追随自己的热情。好奇心源于我们对知识缺口的认识，它会激发我们强烈的动力去弥补这一缺口，从而保持我们的大脑敏锐。随着年龄的增长，我们对不感兴趣的事物的好奇心可能会逐渐减弱，但保持好奇心在老年时期可能至关重要，它可以刺激大脑，并通过在老年时期刺激新脑细胞的生成来预防阿尔茨海默病。

Curiosity can be divided into two different types: state and trait curiosity. Trait curiosity is a characteristic of a person who has a desire to explore, learn new things, and is open to new ideas. Some research shows that as we get older, our trait curiosity may decline. State curiosity is a momentary feeling of interest or engagement that people experience when asked about specific topics. While the two types of curiosity are related, state curiosity can be stimulated when we encounter something that piques our interest. For example, certain trivia questions can trigger a state of curiosity.

好奇心可以分为两种：状态好奇心和特质好奇心。特质好奇心是指一个人渴望探索、学习新事物，并乐于接受新想法。一些研究表明，随着年龄的增长，我们的特质好奇心可能会下降。状态好奇心是指人们在被问及特定时产生的一种短暂的兴趣或投入感。虽然这两种好奇心相互关联，但当我们遇到引起我们兴趣的事物时，状态好奇心就会被激发。例如，某些琐碎的问题就能引发好奇心。

Try to answer these questions to see if they lead to some state curiosity:

尝试回答这些问题，看看它们是否会引起一些好奇心：

How many teaspoons of sugar does the average American consume?What was the first country to grant women the right to vote?What is a flock of flamingos called?

美国人平均消耗多少茶匙的糖？第一个赋予妇女权的国家是哪个国家？一群火烈鸟叫什么？

Some of these questions may lead to a momentary state of curiosity, while other questions may not be engaging, and this differs from person to person. Some people feel the persistent need to know these answers right now, and will want to Google them to satisfy these states! (To save you the search time, the answers are: 15-20 teaspoons of sugar, New Zealand in 1893, a flamboyance)

有些问题可能会引发一时的好奇心，而有些问题可能没什么吸引力，而且每个人的情况都不一样。有些人会一直渴望立刻知道这些问题的答案，甚至会想用谷歌搜索来满足他们的好奇心！（为了节省你的搜索时间，答案如下：15-20茶匙糖，1893年的新西兰，华丽的）

A new study that we recently completed examined how trait and state curiosity may change across the adult lifespan. We tested over 1,000 adults between the ages of 20 to 84 years, asking these types of trivia questions, and having people rate how interested they were to learn the answers, to measure levels of state curiosity. We also then administered a short survey that measured trait curiosity, which included questions such as “I enjoy exploring new ideas” and “I spend hours on a problem because I can’t rest without the answer.”

我们最近完成的一项新研究考察了特质和状态好奇心在成年人生命周期中如何变化。我们测试了1000多名年龄在20岁至84岁之间的成年人，询问他们一些这类琐碎问题，并让他们评估自己对答案的兴趣程度，以衡量状态好奇心的水平。之后，我们还进行了一项简短的调查，以衡量特质好奇心，其中包括“我喜欢探索新想法”和“我会花几个小时研究一个问题，因为没有答案我就无法休息”等问题。

Consistent with prior research, we found that trait curiosity tended to decline with age, as it was highest in the 20-year-old adults, and gradually decreased after that age, but state curiosity showed a much different pattern. State curiosity was fairly high in the 20 to 30 age group, but there was a drop-off in midlife (40-50) and then a steady increase in the healthy older adults (after the age of 60)! Older people remembered what engaged state curiosity. This suggests that older adults are interested in learning things that are of real interest, may forget what isn’t important, and can engage in state curiosity to fuel lifelong learning.

与先前的研究一致，我们发现特质好奇心会随着年龄的增长而下降，因为它在20岁左右的成年人中最高，之后逐渐下降，但状态好奇心却呈现出截然不同的模式。状态好奇心在20至30岁年龄段中相当高，但在中年时期（40-50岁）有所下降，然后在健康的老年人（60岁以后）中稳步上升！老年人记得那些引发状态好奇心的内容。这表明老年人对学习真正感兴趣的事物感兴趣，可能会忘记那些不重要的事物，并且能够通过状态好奇心来促进终身学习。

Curiosity may help keep our brain sharp in older age, allowing us to explore topics that we find of interest, and this stimulates neurogenesis, which allows brain cells to develop even in older age. This engagement of the brain may help to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. There may also be a social component to curiosity—we often want to share what we have learned with other interested people and parties (and at parties!).

好奇心或许有助于我们在老年时保持大脑敏锐，让我们探索感兴趣的，并刺激神经发生，从而使脑细胞即使在老年也能正常发育。这种大脑活动或许有助于预防阿尔茨海默病。好奇心也可能具有社交性——我们常常想与其他感兴趣的人、在聚会上（甚至在聚会上！）分享我们所学到的知识。

Curiosity can be a double-edged sword, as curiosity can sometimes be a time sink, and as illustrated by Pandora’s box in Greek mythology, it can lead to some negative outcomes. Thus, there can be some costs to curiosity. Clickbait can take us down dangerous paths on the Internet, opening spam emails can be risky, and curiosity about who is calling on the phone can lead to scams and fraud, something that has great consequences for people of any age, and especially for older adults. Keep your guard up, and use your curiosity to keep your brain sharp!

好奇心是一把双刃剑，它有时会浪费时间，而且正如希腊神话中的潘多拉魔盒所示，它可能会导致一些负面后果。因此，好奇心也需要付出代价。点击诱饵会让我们走上互联网上的危险道路，打开垃圾邮件也会带来风险，而对来电者的好奇心则可能导致诈骗和欺诈，这对任何年龄段的人，尤其是老年人，都可能造成严重后果。保持警惕，利用好奇心保持头脑敏锐！

来源：左右图史