英語聽力文摘487 小猴子如何表達(dá)愛

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小猴子表達(dá)如何愛

狨猴(Marmoset)，又稱指猴，是生活在在南美洲亞馬遜河流域的森林中的一種世界上最小的猴子。這種猴長(zhǎng)大后身高僅10—12厘米，重80—100克。新生猴只有蠶豆般大小，重13克。這種猴子喜歡捉虱子吃，且性格溫和，因此飼養(yǎng)它們便成了當(dāng)?shù)赜〉诎踩说氖群谩?/p>

Marmosets are small primates. Think of a monkey with huge fuzzy ears. Primatologists have often wondered whether nonhuman males evaluated their potential mates, or whether their sex drive was more like an on/off switch.

We may think of animals as just responding to sexual invitations without thinking, but a study conducted in both the U.S. and Germany shows this isn’t necessarily so. Male marmosets having their brains scanned were given sniffs of genital-gland secretions from ovulating females.

That’s a scent that should trigger a mating response in the brain, and it did! But guess what else happened? Many other brain areas lit up as well, such as memory formation, information integration–in other words, areas associated with decision-making.

Researchers are still studying the effect, but apparently a lot more happens in a marmoset brain than a simple “have sex now” program. The specific areas of brain activity suggest that the males are evaluating potential mates before agreeing to a sexual union.

This makes special sense for marmosets, because they are monogamous and both partners raise the offspring. Under those circumstances you wouldn’t want to enter into a relationship without any thought.

絨猴是很小的靈長(zhǎng)類。試想一下，猴子長(zhǎng)者一對(duì)大大的毛絨絨的耳朵。動(dòng)物學(xué)家時(shí)常有這樣的疑惑：雄性動(dòng)物選擇“另一半”或者控制性欲是否更像是一個(gè)開關(guān)鍵。

我們也許會(huì)認(rèn)為動(dòng)物對(duì)于性邀請(qǐng)基本是不假思索的，但最近美國(guó)和德國(guó)有研究稱事實(shí)并非如此。雄性絨猴用它們的大腦掃描，聞?wù)谂怕训拇判詣?dòng)物生殖腺的分泌物。

有一種氣味會(huì)引起大腦里的交配反應(yīng)，這樣它們才會(huì)進(jìn)行交配。但你猜還會(huì)發(fā)生什么情況?很多其它的大腦葉都會(huì)被“激活”，像信息形成，信息整合，也就是說，所有和決策相關(guān)的區(qū)域。

研究人員還在觀察其影響，但很顯然，絨猴的腦部有很多活動(dòng)而不是一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的“性行為”指定。特定區(qū)域的大腦活動(dòng)暗示雄性絨猴

在性結(jié)合之前會(huì)評(píng)估潛在的交配對(duì)象。

這對(duì)于絨猴有特殊的意義，因?yàn)樗鼈兪菃闻渲疲⑶夜餐瑩狃B(yǎng)后代。在這種情況下，就不會(huì)不假思索地介入這段關(guān)系了。