你家的魚抑郁了嗎？

Can a fish be depressed? This question has been floating around my head ever since I spent a night in a hotel across from an excruciatingly sad-looking Siamese fighting fish. His name was Bruce Lee, according to a sign beneath his little bowl.

魚會(huì)抑郁嗎?自從我在酒店里與對(duì)面一條看起來極其悲傷的暹羅斗魚共處一夜之后，這個(gè)問題就一直縈繞在我的腦海中。根據(jù)他的小碗底下的標(biāo)簽來看，他叫布魯斯·李(Bruce Lee)。

There we were trying to enjoy a complimentary bloody mary on the last day of our honeymoon and there was Bruce Lee, totally still, his lower fin grazing the clear faux rocks on the bottom of his home. When he did finally move, just slightly, I got the sense that he would prefer to be dead.

那是我們蜜月的最后一天，正想好好享受一杯免費(fèi)贈(zèng)送的血腥瑪麗。布魯斯·李就那在那里，一動(dòng)不動(dòng)，他的下鰭擦過那明顯是人造的石塊，那是他家的底座。當(dāng)他終于有動(dòng)靜時(shí)，盡管輕微，我也能感覺到，他寧愿自己死掉。

The pleasant woman at the front desk assured me that he was well taken care of. Was I simply anthropomorphizing Bruce Lee, incorrectly assuming his lethargy was a sign of mental distress?

友善的前臺(tái)小姐向我保證，他被照料得很好。難道是我簡(jiǎn)單地把布魯斯·李人格化了，誤把他的昏睡當(dāng)做了精神痛苦?

When I sought answers from scientists, I assumed that they would find the question preposterous. But they did not. Not at all.

當(dāng)我向科學(xué)家尋求答案時(shí)，我以為他們會(huì)覺得這個(gè)問題荒謬。但他們并不這樣覺得，一點(diǎn)都不。

It turns out that not only can our gilled friends become depressed, but some scientists consider fish to be a promising animal model for developing anti-depressants. New research, I would learn, has been radically shifting the way that scientists think about fish cognition, building a case that pet and owner are not nearly as different as many assume.

結(jié)果證明，我們這位帶鰓的朋友不僅會(huì)抑郁，而且有一些科學(xué)家認(rèn)為魚是很有前途的研發(fā)抗抑郁劑的動(dòng)物模型。我得知，新的研究徹底改變了科學(xué)家對(duì)魚的認(rèn)知的理解，這建立起了一個(gè)實(shí)例，表明寵物和主人其實(shí)并沒有大多數(shù)人認(rèn)為的那樣不同。

“The neurochemistry is so similar that it’s scary,” said Julian Pittman, a professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Troy University in Alabama, where he is working to develop new medications to treat depression, with the help of tiny zebrafish. We tend to think of them as simple organisms, “but there is a lot we don’t give fish credit for.”

“其中的神經(jīng)化學(xué)太相像了，像得可怕。”阿拉巴馬州特洛伊大學(xué)生物與環(huán)境科學(xué)系的教授朱利安·皮特曼(Julian Pittman)說。在學(xué)校里，他用小斑馬魚研發(fā)治療抑郁癥的新藥物。我們通常會(huì)把它們當(dāng)做簡(jiǎn)單的有機(jī)體，“但魚類的價(jià)值遠(yuǎn)不止如此”。

Dr. Pittman likes working with fish, in part, because they are so obvious about their depression. He can reliably test the effectiveness of antidepressants with something called the “novel tank test.” A zebrafish gets dropped in a new tank. If after five minutes it is hanging out in the lower half, it’s depressed. If it’s swimming up top — its usual inclination when exploring a new environment — then it’s not.

皮特曼博士喜歡和魚一起工作，部分原因是它們的抑郁表現(xiàn)得非常明顯。通過一種“新魚缸實(shí)驗(yàn)”，他可以有效地測(cè)試抗抑郁藥物的有效性。在實(shí)驗(yàn)中，一條斑馬魚會(huì)被放入新魚缸中，如果在五分鐘后它仍在魚缸低處活動(dòng)，它就是抑郁的。按照它們探索新環(huán)境的通常習(xí)性，如果它向水面游動(dòng)，則沒有抑郁。

The severity of the depression, he says, can be measured by quantity of time at the top vs. the bottom all of which seemed to confirm my suspicions about Bruce Lee.

他說，抑郁的嚴(yán)重性可以用魚在水面與在底部游動(dòng)的時(shí)間長(zhǎng)短相比較來衡量，這似乎證實(shí)了我對(duì)布魯斯·李的懷疑。

All of this, of course, may sound fishy to any of the one in six people who has experienced clinical depression. How could a striped minnow relate to what you’ve been through? Is “depression” the right word?

當(dāng)然，所有這一切，對(duì)于那些每六個(gè)人中就有一個(gè)的、經(jīng)歷過臨床抑郁癥的人來說，都聽起來很可疑。一條帶條紋的小魚怎么會(huì)和自己有相同的經(jīng)歷?“抑郁”這個(gè)詞合適嗎?

While scientists have used animals, like mice, to study emotional problems for decades, the relevance of those models to human experience is sketchy at best.

盡管科學(xué)家使用如老鼠之類的動(dòng)物來研究情緒問題已有數(shù)十年，但這些模型與人類感受的相關(guān)性最多也只是一種粗略的估計(jì)。

There’s the obvious issue that “We cannot ask animals how they feel,” says Dr. Diego A. Pizzagalli, the director of the Center For Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research at Harvard Medical School. Though researchers may find parallels in serotonin and dopamine fluctuations, neither fish nor rat can “capture the entire spectrum of depression as we know it,” says Dr. Pizzagalli.

哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院抑郁、焦慮與壓力研究中心主任迪亞哥·A·俾薩格里(Diego A. Pizzagalli)認(rèn)為，一個(gè)顯然的問題是“我們無法問動(dòng)物它們有什么感覺。”盡管研究人員能找到對(duì)應(yīng)的血清素和多巴胺波動(dòng)，但魚類或鼠類都無法“完整涵蓋我們所知的抑郁的范圍”，俾薩格里博士說。

There is a heated debate in the fish research community about whether anxious or depressed is a more appropriate term.

關(guān)于“焦慮”和“抑郁”哪個(gè)術(shù)語更加適合這個(gè)問題，魚類研究界有著激烈的討論。

But what has convinced Dr. Pittman, and others, over the past ten years is watching the way the zebrafish lose interest in just about everything: food, toys, exploration — just like clinically depressed people.

但在過去十年中，使皮特曼博士以及其他人得到確信的，是他們看著斑馬魚如何對(duì)一切事物喪失興趣：食物、玩具、探索——就和臨床抑郁的人一樣。

“You can tell,” said Culum Brown, a behavioral biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney who has published more than 100 papers on fish cognition. “Depressed people are withdrawn. The same is true of fish.”

“你看得出來，”悉尼麥考瑞大學(xué)一位在魚類認(rèn)知方面發(fā)表過100多篇論文的行為生物學(xué)家?guī)靷?middot;布朗(Culum Brown)說，“抑郁的人是自閉的，魚類也是。”

The trigger for most domestic fish depression is likely lack of stimulation, said Victoria Braithwaite, a professor of fisheries and biology at Penn State University, who studies fish intelligence and fish preferences.

賓夕法尼亞州立大學(xué)研究魚類智力和偏好的漁業(yè)和生物學(xué)教授維多利亞·布賴斯韋特(Victoria Braithwaite)認(rèn)為，缺少刺激可能是觸發(fā)大多數(shù)家養(yǎng)魚類抑郁的原因。

Study after study shows how fish are defying aquatic stereotypes: some fish use tools, others can recognize individual faces.

不斷有研究表明，魚類的表現(xiàn)與對(duì)水生動(dòng)物的刻板印象不同：一些魚類會(huì)使用工具，還有一些能夠分辨面孔。

“One of the things we’re finding that fish are naturally curious and seek novel things out,” said Dr. Braithwaite. In other words, your goldfish is probably bored. To help ward off depression, she urges introducing new objects to the tank or switching up the location of items.

“我們的發(fā)現(xiàn)之一是魚類生性好奇，會(huì)探尋新的事物，”布賴斯韋特博士說。換句話說，你家的金魚可能會(huì)感到無聊。為了防止沮喪，她敦促人們?cè)隰~缸內(nèi)放置新的物品，或?qū)ξ锲返奈恢眠M(jìn)行變動(dòng)。

Dr. Brown agrees, pointing to an experiment he conducted, that showed that if you leave a fish in an enriched, physically complex environment — meaning lot of plants to nibble on and cages to swim through — it decreases stress and increases brain growth.

根據(jù)他進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)所顯示的，布朗博士同意，如果將魚養(yǎng)在豐富復(fù)雜的物理環(huán)境中，也就是有很多可以咬的植物和可以在其中穿游的籠子，可以減輕魚的壓力，促進(jìn)其大腦發(fā)育。

The problem with small tanks is not just the lack of space for exploration, said Dr. Brown, but also the water quality tends to be unstable and there may not be sufficient oxygen.

布朗博士表示，小魚缸的問題不光是缺乏供魚探索的空間，通常也無法保證穩(wěn)定的水質(zhì)，氧氣可能會(huì)不足。

“A goldfish bowl for example is the worst possible situation,” he said.

“舉例來說，金魚缸就是最糟的情況。”他說。

If you own fish, you might want to consider where Dr. Brown keeps his: an extensively-landscaped six-foot tank. He recommends a “two foot tank with lots of plants and stuff” for your average betta.

如果你養(yǎng)了魚，你或許可以參考布朗博士養(yǎng)魚的地方：一個(gè)6英尺(約1.8米)的精心構(gòu)造了景觀的魚缸。他建議，普通的斗魚可以用一個(gè)“有許多植物和物品的2英尺(約61厘米)魚缸”來養(yǎng)。

The last time a guest posted Bruce Lee to Instagram he was looking good and lively. Perhaps that new green leaf in his bowl had provided the enrichment he craved.

布魯斯·李的照片最后一次被客人發(fā)到Instagram時(shí)，他看起來健康而有活力?；蛟S魚缸里新的綠葉提供了他渴望的豐富環(huán)境。

But then, my heart sank. The internet produced photos of other Bruce Lees from the same hotel in several colors — red, blue and purplish. I wondered whether the monotony would eventually drive this replacement Bruce, to hover, immobile, near his transparent rocks.

但接著，我的心又沉了一下。在網(wǎng)上，同一間酒店內(nèi)還有許多其他不同顏色的布魯斯·李們的照片——紅的、藍(lán)的、紫的。我在想，那種單調(diào)乏味是否最終會(huì)使這條“替代品”布魯斯在它的透明巖石附近徘徊、停滯。