Researchers believe the study could improve the way dogs are selected to help war veterans and disabled people |
If your dog looks pleased to see you – it is probably because it loves the particular way you smell. The odour of a familiar human apparently lingers like perfume in the animal’s brain – where it triggers an instinctive emotional response, research published yesterday reveals. Our scent acts on a part of the canine brain associated with reward and the strongest reactions are produced by humans that pets know best, say scientists in America. Gregory Berns, of Emory University in Atlanta, said: ‘While we might expect that dogs should be highly tuned to the smell of other dogs, it seems that the “reward response” is reserved for their humans. 'When humans smell the perfume or cologne of someone they love, they may have an immediate, emotional reaction that's not necessarily cognitive. 'Our experiment may be showing the same process in dogs. But since dogs are so much more olfactory than humans, their responses would likely be even more powerful than the ones we might have. 'It's one thing when you come home and your dog sees you and jumps on you and licks you and knows that good things are about to happen. 'In our experiment, however, the scent donors were not physically present. Why do animals avoid pylons? Because they emit terrifying flashes of light that are INVISIBLE to humans Dolphins use sponges to protect their sensitive noses while foraging for food on the sea floor 'That means the canine brain responses were being triggered by something distant in space and time. It shows that dogs' brains have these mental representations of us that persist when we're not there.' The university’s experiment - the first of its type - involved 12 dogs of various breeds who underwent brain scans while five different scents were placed in front of them. The scent samples came from the subject itself, a dog the subject had never met, a dog that lived in the subject's household, a human the dog had never met, and a human that lived in the subject's household. The familiar human scent samples were taken from someone else from the house other than the handlers during the experiment, so that none of the scent donors were physically present. The results showed that all five scents elicited a similar response in parts of the dogs' brains involved in detecting smells. Responses were significantly stronger for the scents of familiar humans, followed by that of familiar dogs. The findings, which were published in the journal Behavioural Processes, showed that dogs reacted strongest to the scent of a familiar human even when they were not there. Pets trained as help or therapy dogs showed greater brain activity than the other dogs in the test. Researchers say the findings could improve the way animals who assist wounded veterans or disabled people are selected. |
如果你的狗一見到你就顯得很開心的話,有可能是因?yàn)樗矚g你散發(fā)出的獨(dú)特氣味。 根據(jù)近日公布的一份研究顯示,熟悉的人所散發(fā)的氣味會(huì)如同香水一般深深地存在于動(dòng)物的腦海里。這些氣味會(huì)觸發(fā)大腦內(nèi)部本能的情緒反應(yīng)。 美國科學(xué)家聲稱,犬類的大腦中有一塊負(fù)責(zé)“獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)”的區(qū)域,與寵物狗最親密的人身上的氣味能夠激起該區(qū)最強(qiáng)烈的反應(yīng)。 埃默里大學(xué)的格里高利· 伯恩斯(Gregory Berns)說:“我們原以為這種反應(yīng)是適用于狗之間的。目前看來這種‘獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)反應(yīng)’只適用于狗的主人?!?/p> “當(dāng)人們嗅到愛人身上的香水或古龍水時(shí),會(huì)立刻出現(xiàn)情緒上的反應(yīng),這種反應(yīng)并不一定能被察覺到?!?/p> “我們的實(shí)驗(yàn)或許可以表明,狗對氣味的應(yīng)激過程是相同的。不過鑒于狗的嗅覺比人類靈敏,因此它們對于氣味的反應(yīng)會(huì)比人類強(qiáng)烈得多。” “當(dāng)你回到家時(shí),你的狗一見到你就會(huì)撲到你懷里,不停地舔你,它知道有好事要降臨了?!?/p> “但是在我們的實(shí)驗(yàn)中,氣味樣本的源體(狗主人)并不在場?!?/p> “這意味著,犬類的大腦反應(yīng)是由過去某處發(fā)生過的事所觸發(fā)的。同時(shí)也表明,當(dāng)我們不在狗身邊的時(shí)候,我們的精神意識形態(tài)會(huì)留存在它們的大腦中。” 埃默里大學(xué)這項(xiàng)開拓性的實(shí)驗(yàn)利用了十二只不同品種的狗作為實(shí)驗(yàn)對象,通過對這些狗的大腦進(jìn)行掃描,來研究它們對五種氣味的反應(yīng)有何不同。 氣味樣本有五個(gè)來源,分別是:被測狗自己、被測狗從未見過的另一只狗、居住在被測狗家中的另一只狗、被測狗從未見過的一個(gè)人,以及被測狗的家人。 在實(shí)驗(yàn)中,氣味樣本來自被測狗的家人,但他并不參與到實(shí)驗(yàn)中來。因此,所有氣味樣本的源體都沒有出現(xiàn)在實(shí)驗(yàn)現(xiàn)場。 實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果顯示,狗腦內(nèi)負(fù)責(zé)嗅覺的區(qū)域?qū)@五種氣味都產(chǎn)生了類似的反應(yīng)。對于熟人的反應(yīng)尤其強(qiáng)烈,對于熟悉的狗次之。 這項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)被刊登在《行為學(xué)過程》雜志上,文中寫道,即使熟悉的人沒在狗身邊,他們的氣味也會(huì)激發(fā)狗最強(qiáng)烈的反應(yīng)。 在實(shí)驗(yàn)中還發(fā)現(xiàn),相比其他種類的狗而言,輔助犬和治療犬的大腦對氣味的反應(yīng)更為明顯。 研究者聲稱,這些發(fā)現(xiàn)對于如何為受傷老兵和殘障人士選擇合適的輔助犬大有裨益。 相關(guān)閱讀 (譯者 Leedish 編輯 齊磊) |