是的，你的狗真的懂你！

Maitreyi Mantha 侯冬意

Most dog owners believed that their four-legged friends know exactly what they mean when they use certain words like sit， stay， or treat. However， researchers have always wondered whether canines1 really understand human speech or if they rely on other clues to deduce2 the meaning. For example， does the word “fetch” conjure3 up an image of a stick or ball in the dogs mind， or does the dog retrieve4 the object based on cues such as the owners tone or gesture？ A new study seems to indicate that “mans best friend” is not faking it——he/she does indeed know what the owner is saying.

大多數(shù)養(yǎng)狗的人相信，當(dāng)他們使用某些詞語，比如說“坐下”、“待著”、“吃”的時(shí)候，他們的四條腿的朋友能準(zhǔn)確地知道他們的意思。然而，研究人員一直想知道犬類是否真正理解人類的語言，或者它們是否依賴其他線索來推斷其含義。例如，“取過來”這個(gè)詞是不是會(huì)在狗的腦海中喚起棍子或球的形象，還是說狗會(huì)根據(jù)主人的語氣或手勢(shì)等線索來搜尋物體？一項(xiàng)新的研究似乎表明“人類最好的朋友”并非虛言——它們的確知道主人在說什么。

“Many dog owners think that their dogs know what some words mean， but there really isnt much scientific evidence to support that. We wanted to get data from the dogs themselves—not just owner reports，” said Ashley Prichard， a Ph.D. of psychology.

“許多養(yǎng)狗人認(rèn)為他們的狗知道某些詞的意思，但實(shí)際上沒有多少科學(xué)證據(jù)支持這種說法。我們想從狗身上獲得數(shù)據(jù)，而不僅僅只是通過狗主人的報(bào)告。”心理學(xué)博士阿什利·普里查德說。

The researchers began by asking the owners of twelve dogs of various breeds5 to train their pets to identify two toys with different textures6， such as a stuffed animal and a ball， by name. Once the dogs had mastered the task， they took turns inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） scanner7. The owners then tested their dogs by first calling out the names of the toys they had been trained to recognize and then saying meaningless words such as “bobbu” and “bodmick” while holding up random objects the dogs hadnt seen before.

研究人員首先要求12只不同品種的狗的主人訓(xùn)練他們的寵物通過名字識(shí)別兩種不同質(zhì)地的玩具，比如填充玩具動(dòng)物和球。一旦這些狗完成了這項(xiàng)任務(wù)，它們就輪流進(jìn)入功能磁共振成像儀。然后，狗的主人測(cè)試他們的狗，首先喊出它們被訓(xùn)練來識(shí)別的玩具的名字，然后說一些無意義的單詞，比如“bobbu”和“bodmick”，同時(shí)舉起狗以前從未見過的隨機(jī)擺放的物體。

The fMRI scans revealed that the regions of the dogs brains responsible for auditory8 processing showed different brain patterns when they heard words they were familiar with， compared with the ones they had never encountered9 before. The researchers believe this is an important step forward in understanding how dogs process language.

功能磁共振掃描顯示，狗的大腦負(fù)責(zé)處理聽覺的區(qū)域在聽到它們熟悉的單詞時(shí)，與聽到它們從未遇到過的單詞的時(shí)候相比，顯示出了不同的大腦模式。研究人員認(rèn)為這是理解狗如何處理語言的重要一步。

Even more interesting was that the dogs brains showed a higher level of neural10 activity at the sound of unknown words. This is the exact opposite of what happens in human brains， which get more active at the sound of familiar words. The researchers hypothesize11 the dogs may be perking12 up at the sound of new words to try to understand them in the hopes of delighting their masters.

更令人感興趣的是，狗的大腦在聽到未知單詞的聲音時(shí)表現(xiàn)出更高水平的神經(jīng)活動(dòng)。這與人腦中的情況恰恰相反，人腦在聽到熟悉的詞語時(shí)更加活躍。研究人員猜測(cè)，這些狗可能會(huì)因聽到新詞的聲音而提起精神，試圖理解它們，希望取悅它們的主人。

However， though your pet may understand human speech， the scientists recommend using visual and scent cues for training. When people want to teach their dog a trick， they often use a verbal command because thats what we humans prefer. From the dogs perspective13， however， a visual command might be more effective， helping the dog learn the trick faster.

然而，盡管你的寵物可能理解人類的語言，科學(xué)家仍建議使用視覺和氣味線索進(jìn)行訓(xùn)練。當(dāng)人們想教他們的狗一個(gè)把戲時(shí)，他們經(jīng)常使用口頭命令，因?yàn)檫@是我們?nèi)祟惛矚g使用的。然而，從狗的角度來看，視覺命令可能更有效，能幫助狗更快地學(xué)會(huì)這個(gè)技巧。