特定于猫的音乐能让宠物平静下来

特定于猫的音乐能让宠物平静下来

Earlier this year, Spotify announced their “Pet Playlists” – a collection of songs tailored to your pet’s personality. According to Spotify’s algorithm (which also takes into consideration your music tastes), my shy, apathetic cat would apparently enjoy listening to Miley Cyrus and Franz Ferdinand. However, a scientific study may provide an alternative tune to help relax your feline, particularly during stressful visits to the vets.

今年早些时候，Spotify宣布了他们的“宠物播放列表”——根据宠物的个性量身定制的歌曲集。根据Spotify的算法(它也会考虑你的音乐品味)，我那只害羞、冷漠的猫显然会喜欢听麦莉•塞勒斯和弗朗茨•斐迪南的歌。然而，一项科学研究可能会为你的猫咪提供另一种放松方式，尤其是在去看兽医的时候。

Inspired by the increased use of music in human medicine to provide a range of benefits, the impact of music on animals has also been studied. From dogs to tamarins, calmer behavior and reduced stress have been observed in response to music. Previous studies on cats have also noted a relaxing effect, notably when exposed to classical music, compared with pop and heavy metal.

在人类医学中越来越多地使用音乐来提供一系列益处，受此启发，人们还研究了音乐对动物的影响。从狗到绢毛猴，人们观察到它们对音乐的反应更平静，压力也更小。之前对猫的研究也发现了放松的效果，特别是当与流行音乐和重金属音乐相比，接触古典音乐时更放松。

However, scientists at Louisiana State University have added a new dimension to these studies, by measuring the effect music composed specifically for cats, has on them. Published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, the authors measured stress indicators of 20 cats who experienced different soundscapes in three fortnightly trip to the vets. Prior to, and during, physical examinations, the cats either listened to silence, Gabriel Fauré’s Élégie, or the feline-specific banger, Scooter Bere’s Aria by David Teie.

然而，路易斯安那州立大学的科学家们为这些研究增加了一个新的维度，他们测量了专门为猫咪创作的音乐对它们的影响。这项研究发表在本月的《猫科医学与外科杂志》上。在体检之前和期间，猫咪们要么听《沉默》，加布里埃尔·福尔的《挽歌》，要么听大卫·泰伊的《司库特·贝尔的咏叹调)，这两首歌都是针对猫科动物的。

Many musical pieces that are pleasing to humans have a beat similar to the human resting pulse (around 66 beats per minute), and contain frequencies from the human vocal range. Applying these principles to the world of cats has resulted in this undeniably hypnotic track.

许多令人愉悦的音乐作品的节拍与人类的静息脉搏相似(大约每分钟66拍)，并且包含了来自人类音域的频率。将这些原则应用到猫的世界中，就产生了这种不可否认的催眠效果。

Katy Pallister

“This music contains purrs and suckling sounds made to sound like real cats and frequencies similar to cat vocal ranges, which are two octaves higher than human vocal ranges (55–200 Hz) and were found to be pleasing to cats,” the authors wrote in their paper.

研究人员在论文中写道:“这种音乐包含了猫发出的呼噜声和吮吸声，听起来就像真的猫发出的声音，其频率与猫的音域相似，比人类的音域(55-200赫兹)高两个八度，猫听了很高兴。”

Stress indicators of the cat were observed through video recordings of the examinations. This included a cat stress score, based on the behavior and body posture of the cats, as well as a handling scale score, based on the cats’ reactions to the handler. The researchers also measured the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, a biological marker of stress, in blood samples from the cat.

通过录像观察猫的应激指标。这包括一个基于猫的行为和身体姿势的猫压力评分，以及一个基于猫对处理者的反应的处理量表评分。研究人员还测量了猫血液样本中的中性粒细胞-淋巴细胞比率，这是一种应激的生物标记。

Both the cat stress scores and handling scale scores were significantly lower when the cats were exposed to the cat-specific music, compared to silence and Fauré’s Élégie, indicating a decreased stress level. However, the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio did not echo this trend, as the feline music appeared to have no effect on the cats’ physiological stress response. On reflection, the authors suggest that the exposure time of 20 minutes wasn’t long enough to allow music to affect this measure. Further studies to evaluate the effect of cat-specific music on felines over longer periods of time is recommended.

与安静和福雷的挽歌相比，当猫接触特定于猫的音乐时，猫的压力得分和处理量表得分都显著降低，这表明压力水平降低了。然而，中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞的比例并没有顺应这一趋势，因为猫的音乐似乎对猫的生理应激反应没有影响。经过反思，作者认为20分钟的暴露时间不足以让音乐影响这种测量。建议进行更深入的研究，以评估特定于猫的音乐在更长的时间内对猫的影响。

“The study has shown that cat-specific music can significantly lower stress-related behaviors in cats visiting the veterinary clinic for wellness examinations,” the authors concluded. “Adding cat-specific music to veterinary offices as environmental enrichment could provide great value to the cat’s welfare in the clinic, to the client’s comfort and confidence in the veterinary team and the veterinary team’s ability to accurately assess the patient.”

作者总结道:“研究表明，特定于猫的音乐可以显著降低去兽医诊所进行健康检查的猫的压力相关行为。”“为兽医诊所添加特定于猫的音乐作为丰富环境，可以为诊所内猫的福利、客户对兽医团队的舒适和信心，以及兽医团队准确评估病人的能力提供巨大的价值。”

Good news for cat-owners if you enjoyed the music. If not, there’s always Miley Cyrus.

如果你喜欢这首歌，这对养猫的人来说是个好消息。如果不喜欢，那麦莉·赛勒斯总没错。