VOA慢速英语2017 观察狗狗睡觉的收获

 What We Can Learn By Watching Sleeping Dogs

There is an English proverb that says, "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie." It means to not bring up an old problem.

有个英语谚语是“让沉睡的狗继续睡。”意思是不要自找麻烦。 

Researchers in Hungary have found another reason to let dogs keep on sleeping.It seems the animals are learning while they sleep.

匈牙利科学家发现了另一个让狗狗继续沉睡的理由。狗狗睡觉的时候也在学习。 

The scientists placed wires on the dogs’ heads to measure electrical activity in the brain.The brain activity, called sleep spindles, takes place in human beings, and has been linked with learning.

科学家将线圈放在狗狗脑袋上，以测量其脑电活动。脑电活动，也称睡眠梭状波，一般发生在人类身上，并被认为与学习过程有关。

The Hungarian scientists hope to understand how the dogs’ ability to learn and remember changes as they get older.The study may help researchers understand how human brains change as we age.

这些匈牙利的科学家希望能理解狗狗的学习能力和记忆能力随着年龄增长而变化的情况。这项研究助力科学家理解人类随着年龄增长，脑部发生的变化情况。

Ivaylo Iotchey is a neuroscience researcher.He says that this is the first time dogs’ sleep spindles have been measured, and related to the dogs learning new things.

埃韦罗·艾欧奇是神经学家。他表示，这是人类第一次测量狗狗的睡眠梭状波，睡眠梭状波与狗狗学习新知识有关。

“From studies with humans and rodents¹, we know that they are extremely useful markers both of memory and cognition but also of aging and activity.In the dog, sleep spindles have only been described, they were never quantified², they were never related to function.This is the first time we were able to show that sleep spindles predict learning in the dog.”

“从对人和啮齿动物的研究我们得知，睡眠梭状波对人类和啮齿动物来说不仅与识记有关，还与年龄和活动情况有关。而对狗类睡眠梭状波的研究目前仅限于定性，从未定量过，也从未将其与功能联系在一起过。这是人类第一次能够证明睡眠梭状波可以预测狗类的学习情况。”

The scientists found differences between male and female dogs.Iotchey says the females appeared much better at learning new things.

这些科学家还发现了公狗与母狗之间的差别。艾欧奇表示，母狗在学习新知识方面更胜一筹。 

“Female dogs have approximately, on average, twice as many spindles per minute as male dogs,and they also happen to be the better learners, they memorize the task much better.”

“母狗平均每分钟用到的睡眠梭状波数量是公狗的近乎两倍。除此之外，母狗的学习能力更强，识记任务的能力也更强。”

But it was harder for all the older dogs to remember things, especially when several things were happening at the same time.

不过对所有年龄较大的狗狗而言，记东西都更难写，尤其是记几件同时发生的事情。 

Dora Szabo also studies sleep spindles.

朵拉·绍博也对睡眠梭状波进行了研究。 

Szabo is a neuroscientist with Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.She says the older dogs were easily tricked.

绍博是布达佩斯罗兰大学的一名神经系统科学家。她表示，年纪大的狗狗更容易骗。 

“If you first hide the reward into one pot, then in another and in another, they get confused after a while.So their performance is declining³, and they are getting less effective in solving novel problems and shifting from one task to another.”

“如果你先把奖励藏在一个容器里，然后再分别放在第二个和第三个容器里，狗狗不一会儿就会蒙圈。然后，他们的表现情况也越来越差，其解决异常问题以及转换任务的效率都会降低。”

Researchers hope the study will not only help understanding of cognitive⁴ ability and memory changes in dogs, but also the aging process in humans.

科学家们希望这项研究不仅能助力理解狗狗的认知能力和记忆变化情况，还能助力理解人类的老化进程。

Senior Researcher Eniko Kubinyi adds that the aging dogs suffer from the same problems as humans who are aging.

高级研究员艾尼克·库比尼补充道，年纪渐长的狗狗会与年纪渐长的人类遇到同样的问题。 

“Among very old dogs, up to two thirds of them show signs of dementia, and this dementia is really very similar in a lot of aspects to that of humans,so we could use dogs as a natural model of human aging.”

“而年纪很大的狗狗里，多达三分之二的狗狗有痴呆的迹象。而这种痴呆的迹象确实在很多方面跟人类非常相近，所以我们可以将狗狗作为人类老龄化的自然模型。”

The team collects tissue from dogs’ brains and shares diseased tissue samples with researchers around the world.

该小组收集了狗狗脑部的组织，并与全球各地的科学家分享病变的组织样本。 

Words in This Story

proverb – n. a popular saying

sleep spindles – n. a burst of brain activity that signals the beginning of deeper sleep

quantify⁵ – v. to find or calculate the quantity or amount of (something)

confused – adj. unable to understand or think clearly

decline⁶ – v. to become worse in condition or quality

novel – n. new and different from what has been known before

senior – adj. of or related to a higher rating or education

1 rodents   

n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Rodents carry diseases and are generally regarded as pests. 啮齿目动物传播疾病，常被当作害虫对待。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some wild rodents in Africa also harbor the virus. 在非洲，有些野生啮齿动物也是储毒者。 来自辞典例句

2 quantified   

确定…的数量( quantify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• An "irreducible" element is one that can not be quantified. “不可折算的”因素是一种不能数量化的因素。
• This was first quantified by Block in his temperature flash theory. 这已首先由Blok在其温度瞬现理论中给予定量。

3 declining   

adj.下降的，衰落的

参考例句：

• The nub of the matter is that business is declining. 事情的实质是工商业在萎缩。
• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining. 从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。

4 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

5 quantify   

v.定量，表示份量，称量，量化

参考例句：

• The cost of the fire damage is impossible to quantify.这次火灾的损失是无法计算的。
• It's difficult to quantify the value of space exploration.把太空探索的价值进行量化是很困难的。

6 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。