松鼠更喜歡用哪個(gè)爪子？

A study at the University of Exeter in January 2020 found that squirrels that strongly favored a paw – whether right or left – perform less well at learning tasks. Ah ... OK. So. Many. Questions.

埃克塞特大學(xué)(University of Exeter)在2020年1月進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，非常喜歡爪子的松鼠——無(wú)論是右撇子還是左撇子——在學(xué)習(xí)任務(wù)中的表現(xiàn)都不太好。啊…好吧。所以，有很多問題。

The first? How did the researchers discover that squirrels favored a side (known as lateralization) in the first place? Moreover, once they knew which paw the squirrel preferred, how did they know the information was an intelligence or performance indicator? Finally, what does it all mean? Can researchers really draw substantive conclusions between lateralization and learning in squirrels and/or humans? Let's see.

第一：研究人員是如何發(fā)現(xiàn)松鼠首先喜歡一個(gè)側(cè)面(稱為側(cè)化)的?此外，一旦他們知道松鼠更喜歡哪只爪子，他們又如何知道這些信息是智力或表現(xiàn)指標(biāo)呢?最后，這一切意味著什么?研究人員真的能在松鼠和/或人類的偏側(cè)化和學(xué)習(xí)之間得出實(shí)質(zhì)性結(jié)論嗎?我們一起來(lái)看看。

Like humans, other animals often favor one side of their body for certain tasks. For example, if you ask your dog to shake hands, he may always offer his left (or right.) The frequency of his offer varies according to the degree of lateralization in the animal.

和人類一樣，其他動(dòng)物也經(jīng)常喜歡用身體的一側(cè)來(lái)完成某些任務(wù)。例如，如果你讓你的狗握手，他可能總是向你伸出它的左手(或右手)。伸出左右手的頻率根據(jù)動(dòng)物的偏側(cè)程度而不同。

Dr. Lisa Leaver is the program director of the Master Science Exeter Animal Behavior program. She says some studies suggest that lateralization makes brains more efficient because each brain hemisphere is focusing on particular tasks.

Lisa Leaver博士是?？巳貏?dòng)物行為碩士項(xiàng)目的項(xiàng)目主任。她說，一些研究表明，側(cè)化使大腦更有效率，因?yàn)槊總€(gè)大腦半球都專注于特定的任務(wù)。

"This could help animals survive," said Leaver in a news release, "Which would explain the evolution of laterality across the animal kingdom."

“這可以有助于動(dòng)物生存，”利弗在新聞稿中說，“這將解釋整個(gè)動(dòng)物王國(guó)的偏側(cè)性進(jìn)化。”

She explained that in fish and birds there was evidence that being strongly lateralized meant for better brain function, but that "limited data from studies of mammals suggest a weak or even negative relationship."

她解釋說，在魚類和鳥類中，有證據(jù)表明，強(qiáng)烈的側(cè)化意味著更好的大腦功能，但“來(lái)自哺乳動(dòng)物研究的有限數(shù)據(jù)表明，這種關(guān)系很弱，甚至是負(fù)面的。”

Leaver and her colleagues were looking for whether there was a correlation between strong lateralization and poor cognitive performance, and they used the gray squirrels at Exeter's Streatham Campus as their subjects.

利弗和她的同事們正在尋找強(qiáng)偏側(cè)化和認(rèn)知能力差之間是否存在相關(guān)性，他們將?？巳卮髮W(xué)斯特雷瑟姆校區(qū)的灰松鼠作為研究對(duì)象。

In the study, the squirrels had to finagle peanuts out of a transparent tube. Typically, squirrels grab food with their mouths but there was a problem: The tube was too narrow for the squirrel's mouth. It had to use a paw. Researchers watched more than 30 squirrels, collecting enough data from 12 of the subjects for their report. They wanted to see how quickly each squirrel figured out the problem (assessing learning) and whether they favored one paw over the other (determining lateralization).

在這項(xiàng)研究中，松鼠們不得不用透明的管子取得花生。一般情況下，松鼠是用嘴獲取食物，但現(xiàn)在有一個(gè)問題：管子太窄，不適合松鼠的嘴。所以它必須用爪子。研究人員觀察了30多只松鼠，從其中12只松鼠身上收集了足夠的數(shù)據(jù)用于他們的報(bào)告。他們想看看每只松鼠有多快發(fā)現(xiàn)問題(評(píng)估學(xué)習(xí)能力)，以及它們是否偏愛一只爪子而不是另一只爪子(確定側(cè)化能力)。

Their conclusion? They say that strongly lateralized squirrels are not as good at learning (which seems counterintuitive considering the problem the squirrel just had to solve). Interestingly, some research also suggests that ambidextrous people (those who favor neither right nor left hand) may be more creative. Again, squirrels may beg to differ.

他們的結(jié)論怎樣?他們說，高度偏側(cè)化的松鼠不善于學(xué)習(xí)(考慮到松鼠必須解決的問題，這似乎違反直覺)。有趣的是，一些研究還表明，雙靈巧的人(那些既不偏右手也不偏左手的人)可能更有創(chuàng)造力。同樣，松鼠可能會(huì)求同存異。