VOA常速英语2014--Study: Dogs Understand How We're Feeling 研究证明狗懂得人的情感

Study: Dogs Understand How We're Feeling 研究证明狗懂得人的情感

Researchers in Hungary have confirmed something many dog owners have long suspected: that canines 2 understand our feelings.

匈牙利的研究人员证实，很多养狗的人长期怀疑的情况，那就是狗能理解人的情感。

Using a Magnetic Resonance 3 Scanner, or MRI, scientists found that when it comes to emotions, dogs' brains are similar to those of humans.

科学家使用核磁共振扫描仪测试狗狗后发现，狗的大脑在理解情感方面和人脑类似。

Dogs are usually not relaxed in a lab environment, but with a little petting and lots of treats they can be trained to sit still even in an MRI scanner. That’s how researchers in Hungary’s ELTE University were able to get images of their brains at work.

通常情况下，狗在实验室里会比较紧张。但在抚摸之后，再多给狗一些爱吃的东西，狗就能静止的躺在核磁共振扫描仪上。匈牙利的ELTE大学的研究人员就是这样获得了狗的大脑工作的图像。

Research fellow Attila Andics says it helped them better understand the dogs’ relationship with humans.

研究员安迪克斯说，这帮助他们更好的理解狗跟人的关系。

“We have known for a long time that dogs and humans share similar social environment, but now our results show that dogs and humans also have similar brain mechanisms 4 to process social information," said Andics.

“我们早就知道，狗和人都能感受类似的社会环境。但是我们的研究结果显示，狗和人的大脑机制也类似，能够处理社交信息。”

After training 11 dogs to stay motionless while their brains were scanned, the researchers checked their neurological responses to about 200 emotionally significant sounds, from whining 5 and crying to playful barking and laughing. They then compared the responses from human subjects. They found striking similarities. Andics says it opens new possibilities for research.

研究人员训练11只狗静止不动。把它们的大脑图像记录下来。然后测试狗对大约200种情感声音的神经反应。这些声音包括哀嚎，吼叫，嬉戏声和笑声。然后再比对这些狗的反应和人的反应。最后发现惊人的相似。安迪克斯说，这些结果开启了研究的新的可能性。

“It establishes a foundation of a new branch of comparative neuroscience, because until now it was not possible to measure the brain activities of a non-primate 6 and the primate brain in a single experiment," said Andics.

“它奠定了新的比较神经研究的领域的基础。因为迄今为止，还不可能在同一个实验中测量灵长类和非灵长类动物的大脑活动。”

The canine 1 mind is also being studied at Duke University, in North Carolina. Co-Director of the school's Canine Cognition Center, Evan MacLean, says that the Hungarian results are an important step forward.

美国北卡罗莱纳的杜克大学也研究了狗科动物的大脑。该校狗科动物研究中心的主管麦克利恩说，匈牙利的研究结果是重要的进展。

“We’ve known for a long time that dogs have a lot of behavioral similarities compared to humans.  But we don’t know anything or very little at least about whether some of these behaviors are represented similarly inside the brain of the dog, so this research is providing a first glimpses to whether these behavioral similarities are underlined by similar neural 7 processes," said MacLean.

“我们早就知道，狗的很多行为和人类很相似。但是这些行为是否代表狗的大脑内部是否也跟人类相似，我们知道的很少。匈牙利的研究让我们首次看到，这些行为上的类似是否跟类似的神经过程有关。”

And what that tells ordinary dog owners, the Hungarian scientists say, is to treat your canine companions as friends, not mere 8 animals, because they evidently understand human feelings.

那么这些研究能告诉狗的主人什么呢？匈牙利的科学家们说，那就是，对狗要像对朋友一样，而不要把狗当作动物。因为很明显，狗能理解人类的情感。