我们当然不能直接问动物它们是否做梦,但我们至少可以观察到它们可能做梦的证据。对于这个看似不可能的任务,科学家们已经尝试了两种方法。一种是观察动物在睡眠周期各个阶段中的身体行为,另一种是观测动物和人类在睡眠时的大脑状态是否相似。
The story of how we worked out how to peer into the minds of sleeping animals begins in the 1960s. Back then, scattered reports began to appear in medical journals describing people acting out movements in their dreams. This was curious, because during so-called REM sleep (rapid eye movement), our muscles are usually paralysed.
人们从上世纪60年代开始研究如何窥探动物睡眠时的大脑活动。那时,医学杂志上开始零星出现描述人在睡梦中“表演”动作的报告。这在当时是很新奇的,因为在所谓的REM(rapid eye movement快速眼球运动)* 睡眠中,我们的肌肉通常是处于麻痹状态的。
Researchers realised that inducing a similar state in animals could allow them to probe how they dream. In 1965, French scientists Michel Jouvet and J F Delorme found that removing a part of the brainstem, called the pons, from a cat's brain prevented it becoming paralysed when in REM. The researchers called the condition "REM without atonia" or REM-A. Instead of lying still, the cats walked around and behaved aggressively.
研究者们意识到,如果能引导动物产生和人类相似的状态,那么他们就可以探查动物是如何做梦的了。在1965年,法国科学家米歇尔·朱费(Michel Jouvet)和J·F·德罗尔姆(J F Delorme)发现,如果把猫脑中脑干的脑桥部分移除,就可以防止其在REM睡眠中出现麻痹状态。研究者把这种情况称作“REM肌张力缺失现象消失(REM without atonia)”或REM-A。在这种情况下,猫不会静静地躺着,反而会四处走动并表现出攻击性。
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