机灵兔变呆呆兔？驯化带来改变
Why does a wild rabbit flee when a person approaches it, but a domestic rabbit sticks around for a treat?
为什么野生的兔子当有人靠近时会逃走，而一只驯化过的兔子面临威胁时却不动呢？
A new study finds that domestication may have triggered changes in the brains of these—and perhaps other—animals that have helped them adapt to their new, human-dominated environment.
一项新的研究显示驯化可能导致了这些—可能还有其他—动物脑部的变化，这会帮助它们适应新的，人类掌控的环境。
The new study provides “specific and new insights” into the ongoing debate over the physiological factors shaping domestication and evolution, says Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra, a professor of paleobiology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland who was not involved with the work.
这项新研究为一直以来的关于驯化和进化的生理因素变化的讨论提供了“特别而新颖的视角”，马塞洛.桑切斯-维拉格拉说道，他是一名瑞典的苏黎世大学的病理学教授，并未参与此次研究。
The leader of the research team, animal geneticist Leif Andersson of Uppsala University in Sweden and Texas A&M University in College Station, thinks the process of domestication has led to changes in brain structure that allow the rabbit to be less nervous around humans.
这次研究团队的带头人，动物遗传学家安德森，来自瑞典的乌普萨拉大学以及德克萨斯州农工大学流动站，他认为驯化的过程导致了脑结构的改变，从而使得兔子在人周围时不会那么紧张。
To find out, he and colleagues took MRI scans of the brains of eight wild and eight domestic rabbits and compared the results.
为了确认，他和同事们对八只野生兔子和八只驯养兔子进行了脑部的核磁共振成像扫描来对比结果。
The team found that the amygdala, a region of the brain that processes fear and anxiety, is 10% smaller in domesticated rabbits than in wild rabbits.
这只团队发现处理恐惧和焦虑的脑部区域杏仁核，在驯养兔子中比野生兔子要小10%。
Meanwhile, the medial prefrontal cortex, which controls responses to aggressive behavior and fear, is 11% larger in domesticated rabbits.
同时，内侧前额叶皮质，控制的是对攻击行为和害怕的反应，在驯化兔子中要大11%。
The researchers also found that the brains of domesticated rabbits are less able to process information related to fight-or-flight responses because they have less white matter than their feral cousins do.
研究员们还发现驯养兔子的大脑对进攻或逃跑反应相关的信息处理得更差，因为它们跟野生的亲戚相比白质更少。
White matter handles information processing.
白质控制的是信息处理过程。
When a wild rabbit is in danger, more white matter is needed for faster reflexes and for learning what to be afraid of.
当野生兔子面临危险时，它们需要更多的白质来迅速反应，并学会什么是敌人。
Any study that compares wild and domesticated animals suffers from the fact that the first wild and domesticated populations are no longer around, Sánchez-Villagra notes.
任何比较野生和驯养动物的研究都面临一个困难就是首批野生和驯养的兔子种群都已经不在了，桑切斯-维拉格拉提醒道。
But he says that what Andersson’s team did is “a good approximation of what occurred when the first domestication happened and is an important subject in evolutionary studies.”
不过他还是说安德森团队做的研究是“关于驯养最初开始后发生了什么的一次很好的探究，在进化研究课题上也是很重要的。”
感谢关注
跟amber一起看世界
确定不关注一波吗