汪星人的小腦袋裡在想什麼

Inside a dog』s mind

汪星人的小腦袋裡在想什麼

原文BY Chris Baraniuk

翻譯：鳳梨是只胖柯基

校閱：PC

狗狗模特： 鳳梨酥、COOKIE、豆五花、KIMI、六六、柒柒、小炮、MORNING、貢丸、雞翅、辛巴（排名不分先後）

先來張鳳梨照片鎮樓：

We have had a sneak peek into a dog』s mind. Scientists can now work out what a dog is looking at, just by examining a scan of its brain.In recent years, researchers have shown what dog owners claimed:our furry friends can recognise human facial expressions. A 2015 study showed that dogs can tell a happy face from an angry face (Current Biology, doi.org/f64zrj).

我們偷看了一下狗狗的想法：科學家現在可以通過掃描狗狗的大腦來知道狗狗在看什麼。近年來，研究人員已經證明了犬主人的聲稱：我們毛茸茸的汪星人朋友是可以辨認人的表情的。2015年的一項研究表明，狗可以辨認兩腳獸是在開心還是在生氣（當代生物學，doi.org/f64zrj）。

（COOKIE)

Now Laura Verónica Cuaya at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and her colleagues have studied how dogs do it. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains offour border collies, who were trained to sit still in the scanner. The dogs were shown four facial expressions – happy, sad, angry or fearful – made by humans they didn』t know, and the fMRI recorded their brain activity.

墨西哥城墨西哥國立自治大學的勞拉·維羅尼卡·誇亞和她的同事們正在研究狗狗是如何做到的。他們使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）掃描了四隻邊境牧羊犬（四隻柯基可能會拆了整個實驗室）的大腦。這四隻邊牧訓練有素，在掃描大腦的過程中會保持坐著不動。科學家們向這些狗狗展示四種面部表情——快樂、悲傷、憤怒和恐懼，由這些狗狗不認識的兩腳獸做出的，同時用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）記錄了他們的大腦活動。

(豆五花）

By looking at patterns of activity across the whole brain, the team could tell what facial expression each dog had seen.A computer algorithm found small sites of activity –clusters of firing neurons– that appeared in certain locations, depending on what human emotion the dogs had seen. It was therefore possible to predict what emotion the dogs had seen just by looking at this brain activity (bioRxiv, doi.org/cmwr).

通過觀察整個大腦的活動模式，誇亞教授的團隊可以分辨每隻狗看到不同的面部表情的反應。計算機演算法發現腦部的小部分活動區域——放電神經元集群——出現在什麼位置，取決於狗狗所看到的人類的表情。 所以可以通過觀察這種大腦活動來預測狗狗所看到的人類情緒（生物學前沿，doi.org/cmwr）。

（KIMI）

The findings mirror a recent study of the human brain. Earlier this year, researchers revealed an AI that could tell what image a person was looking at, just by examining a scan of their brain.

這些發現也印證了一些最近對人類大腦的研究。今年早些時候，研究人員研究出一個可以通過檢查他們的大腦掃描來分辨某人正在看什麼圖像的人工智慧。

（六六）

Cuaya』s team found that seeinga happy face produced a highly distinctive pattern of activity, mainly in the temporal cortex on the side of the brain. This region is thought to handle complex visual information, such as faces, in humans and animals including dogs, primates and sheep.

誇亞教授的研究團隊還發現，狗狗看到一個開心的表情時大腦會產生一種獨特的活動模式，主要是在大腦側面的顳葉皮層。該區域被認為可以處理人類和動物（包括狗，靈長類動物和綿羊）等複雜的視覺信息，如臉部表情識別。

（柒柒）

「This is a really similar activity to human processing of emotions in general,」 says Cuaya.

「這與人類處理情緒的腦活動過程非常類似。」誇亞教授說。

（小炮）

What』s going on inside thatadorable little head?

這些可愛的小腦袋瓜子里到底發生了什麼呢？

（MORNING）

However, it washarder to differentiate between the more negative emotions, especially anger and sadness.

其實，汪星人很難區分比較負面的情緒，特別是憤怒和悲傷。

（雞翅）

The work is more evidence that dogs acquired the ability to read human facial expressions as they adapted to live with us, says Alexandra Horowitz at Columbia University in New York.

紐約哥倫比亞大學的亞歷山大·霍羅維茨教授說，「很多的證據表明，狗在與人類的長時間生活中，獲得了識別人類面部表情的能力。」

（貢丸）

「I like to think of dogs as 』canine anthropologists』 among us, carefully noting our behaviour patterns.」

「我喜歡把狗稱為"犬型人類學家"，即『兩腳獸行為研究專家』，他們會仔細地觀察我們人類的行為模式。」

（辛巴）

The findings 「demonstrate thehigh sensitivity of the dog brain to human emotions」, says Márta Gácsi at Eotvos Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. However, she says the sample size is too small to draw strong conclusions about how all dogs process faces and emotions.

「匈牙利布達佩斯羅蘭大學的瑪塔·加西說，這些發現」證明了狗狗大腦對人類情緒的高度敏感性「。不過，她也表示，由於樣本數量太少，無法得出關於所有狗如何處理面部和情緒的強有力的結論。

原文刊載自：NEW SCIENTIST，2018年4月7日刊

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