Dogs?have?been?man’s?best?friend?for?thousands?of?years,?a?source?of?companionship?and?loyalty?since?the?Stone?Age.
幾千年以來(lái)，狗狗都是人類最好的朋友，從石器時(shí)代開始就是人類忠誠(chéng)的陪伴。

Now?scientists?suspect?they?have?discovered?the?root?of?the?relationship?-?a?dog?really?does?understand?his?master’s?voice.
如今，科學(xué)家們猜測(cè)他們找到了友誼的根源——狗狗真的能聽懂他的主人在說(shuō)什么。

Researchers?have?found?that?pet?dogs?process?language?in?a?similar?way?to?humans.
研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)，寵物狗的語(yǔ)言處理和人類有一定相似度。

They?learn?to?recognise?the?words?that?are?spoken?-?the?groups?of?consonantsand?vowelsthat?make?up?spoken?commands.
他們會(huì)學(xué)著去辨認(rèn)主人的話——這些由一系列輔音和元音組成的口頭命令。

But?tests?suggest?they?also?notice?the?more?subtle?aspects?of?human?communication?-?the?emotional?tone,?intonation?and?volume?changes?that?influence?the?meaning?of?language.
不過試驗(yàn)表示，他們也發(fā)現(xiàn)了人類交流上一些微妙的方面——情緒基調(diào)、聲調(diào)和音量會(huì)對(duì)語(yǔ)言的意思產(chǎn)生影響。

Scientists?at?Sussex?University?think?this?is?because?dogs?process?language?in?the?same?way?as?we?do.
蘇塞克斯大學(xué)的研究者們認(rèn)為，狗狗的語(yǔ)言在某種意義上和我們是一樣的。

They?tested?the?way?different?aspects?of?language?seemed?to?go?through?different?parts?of?the?brain.
他們?cè)囼?yàn)后發(fā)現(xiàn)腦中不同的領(lǐng)域似乎掌管不同方面的語(yǔ)言。

Humans?have?a?‘hemispheric?bias’?when?it?comes?to?communication,?with?different?aspects?of?language?favouring?the?left?or?right?side?of?the?brain.
人類在交流時(shí)會(huì)有“半腦偏見”，不同方面的語(yǔ)言會(huì)有左右腦不同分工處理。

The?researchers’?tests?suggest?that?dogs?process?speech?in?the?same?way.
研究者的試驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)狗狗們也是如此。

A?group?of?25?dogs?were?placed?between?two?speakers?playing?recorded?commands?-?such?as?‘come?on?then’.
25只狗被放養(yǎng)在兩個(gè)發(fā)出命令的人身邊——比如發(fā)出“過來(lái)”這樣的命令。

When?the?command?was?delivered?in?a?flat,?emotionless?tone,?the?dogs?turned?right,?suggesting?the?animals?were?concentrating?on?the?words,?not?the?intonation.
當(dāng)命令以一種平的，不帶感情的語(yǔ)調(diào)說(shuō)出來(lái)時(shí)，狗狗馬上向右轉(zhuǎn)，這說(shuō)明動(dòng)物對(duì)詞語(yǔ)有反應(yīng)，而不糾結(jié)于聲調(diào)上。

But?when?the?commands?exaggerated?intonation?or?emotion,?the?animals?turned?left.
不過當(dāng)放大了聲調(diào)和情緒時(shí)，狗狗向左轉(zhuǎn)了。

The?results?suggest?that?like?us,?dogs?process?different?aspects?of?human?speech?in?different?parts?of?the?brain,?perhaps?indicating?why?they?can?be?trained?to?follow?people.
結(jié)果顯示，和我們一樣，狗狗腦中不同的區(qū)域掌管不同的語(yǔ)言，這也許是為何他們能被訓(xùn)練成人類好幫手的原因。

Researcher?Dr?David?Reby,?from?the?University?of?Sussex,?said:?‘This?is?particularly?interesting?because?our?results?suggest?that?the?processing?of?speech?components?in?the?dog’s?brain?is?divided?between?the?two?hemispheres?in?a?way?that?is?actually?very?similar?to?the?way?it?is?separated?in?the?human?brain.’
蘇塞克斯大學(xué)的大衛(wèi)·雷貝學(xué)者說(shuō)道：“這很有意思，因?yàn)槲覀兊难芯砍晒砻髁斯饭反竽X也有半球分區(qū)來(lái)掌管語(yǔ)言，這和人類大腦有著一定相似度。”

Victoria Ratcliffe, who co-wrote the paper, added: ‘Although we cannot say how much or in what way dogs understand information in speech from our study, we can say that dogs react to both verbal and speaker-related information and that these components appear to be processed in different areas of the dog’s brain.’
論文的第二作者維多利亞·拉克特里夫補(bǔ)充道：“雖然從研究中，我們不能說(shuō)明多大程度上狗狗明白語(yǔ)言中的信息，我們可以說(shuō)狗狗對(duì)口頭的或者說(shuō)說(shuō)出口的信息都會(huì)有反應(yīng)，而且這些似乎是由狗狗大腦中不同的區(qū)域在掌管?！?/div>

In?their?paper,?published?in?the?journal?Current?Biology,?the?scientists?wrote:?‘The?striking?correspondence?between?dogs’?and?humans’?hemispheric?biases?reported?here?may?reflect?convergent?evolution?if?dogs?have?been?selected?to?respond?to?human?vocal?signals?during?domestication.’
在他們的這篇刊登于《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)期刊》的論文中，學(xué)者們寫道：“狗狗和人類半腦偏好的驚人一致性也許反映了在馴化中，如果狗狗被選為對(duì)人類口頭信號(hào)作出反應(yīng)，他們就會(huì)擁有聚集性的進(jìn)化。”