人類好夥伴 狗狗真能聽懂你的話

Dogs have been man’s best friend for thousands of years, a source of companionship and loyalty since the Stone Age.
幾千年以來，狗狗都是人類最好的朋友，從石器時代開始就是人類忠誠的陪伴。

Now scientists suspect they have discovered the root of the relationship - a dog really does understand his master’s voice.
如今，科學家們猜測他們找到了友誼的根源——狗狗真的能聽懂他的主人在說什麼。

Researchers have found that pet dogs process language in a similar way to humans.
研究者發現，寵物狗的語言處理和人類有一定相似度。

They learn to recognise the words that are spoken - the groups of consonantsand vowelsthat make up spoken commands.
他們會學着去辨認主人的話——這些由一系列輔音和元音組成的口頭命令。

But tests suggest they also notice the more subtle aspects of human communication - the emotional tone, intonation and volume changes that influence the meaning of language.
不過試驗表示，他們也發現了人類交流上一些微妙的方面——情緒基調、聲調和音量會對語言的意思產生影響。

Scientists at Sussex University think this is because dogs process language in the same way as we do.
蘇塞克斯大學的研究者們認爲，狗狗的語言在某種意義上和我們是一樣的。

They tested the way different aspects of language seemed to go through different parts of the brain.
他們試驗後發現腦中不同的領域似乎掌管不同方面的語言。

Humans have a ‘hemispheric bias’ when it comes to communication, with different aspects of language favouring the left or right side of the brain.
人類在交流時會有“半腦偏見”，不同方面的語言會有左右腦不同分工處理。

The researchers’ tests suggest that dogs process speech in the same way.
研究者的試驗發現狗狗們也是如此。

A group of 25 dogs were placed between two speakers playing recorded commands - such as ‘come on then’.
25只狗被放養在兩個發出命令的人身邊——比如發出“過來”這樣的命令。

When the command was delivered in a flat, emotionless tone, the dogs turned right, suggesting the animals were concentrating on the words, not the intonation.
當命令以一種平的，不帶感情的語調說出來時，狗狗馬上向右轉，這說明動物對詞語有反應，而不糾結於聲調上。

But when the commands exaggerated intonation or emotion, the animals turned left.
不過當放大了聲調和情緒時，狗狗向左轉了。

The results suggest that like us, dogs process different aspects of human speech in different parts of the brain, perhaps indicating why they can be trained to follow people.
結果顯示，和我們一樣，狗狗腦中不同的區域掌管不同的語言，這也許是爲何他們能被訓練成人類好幫手的原因。

Researcher Dr David Reby, from the University of Sussex, said: ‘This is particularly interesting because our results suggest that the processing of speech components in the dog’s brain is divided between the two hemispheres in a way that is actually very similar to the way it is separated in the human brain.’
蘇塞克斯大學的大衛·雷貝學者說道：“這很有意思，因爲我們的研究成果表明了狗狗大腦也有半球分區來掌管語言，這和人類大腦有着一定相似度。”

Victoria Ratcliffe, who co-wrote the paper, added: ‘Although we cannot say how much or in what way dogs understand information in speech from our study, we can say that dogs react to both verbal and speaker-related information and that these components appear to be processed in different areas of the dog’s brain.’
論文的第二作者維多利亞·拉克特里夫補充道：“雖然從研究中，我們不能說明多大程度上狗狗明白語言中的信息，我們可以說狗狗對口頭的或者說說出口的信息都會有反應，而且這些似乎是由狗狗大腦中不同的區域在掌管。”

In their paper, published in the journal Current Biology, the scientists wrote: ‘The striking correspondence between dogs’ and humans’ hemispheric biases reported here may reflect convergent evolution if dogs have been selected to respond to human vocal signals during domestication.’
在他們的這篇刊登於《當代生物學期刊》的論文中，學者們寫道：“狗狗和人類半腦偏好的驚人一致性也許反映了在馴化中，如果狗狗被選爲對人類口頭信號作出反應，他們就會擁有聚集性的進化。”