狗狗知道我们是“小狗眼睛”的粉丝

狗狗知道我们是“小狗眼睛”的粉丝

Dogs may have evolved new muscles around their eyes to capitalize on our preference for big-eyed, child-like faces and to better communicate with people, according to new research.

一项最新研究表明，狗狗的眼睛周围可能进化出了新的肌肉，这可能是为了利用我们对大眼睛、儿童脸的偏爱，为了更好地与人交流。

(Photo: Tasha Karidis/Shutterstock)

Researchers compared the anatomy and behavior of dogs to wolves over thousands of years and found that muscles in the face were similar except for one small thing. Unlike wolves, dogs have a very small muscle that allows them to dramatically raise their inner eyebrow.

研究人员对比了数千年来狗和狼的解剖结构和行为，发现狗和狼的面部肌肉是相似的，唯一不同的是，与狼相比，狗有非常小的肌肉，可以让它们戏剧性地扬起眉毛。

The researchers suggest that when dogs raise their inner eyebrow, it prompts a nurturing response in humans because it makes the dogs' eyes seem larger and more infant like. It also mimics the expressions humans make when they're sad.

研究人员表示，当狗抬起它们的内眉时，会引起人类的抚育反应，因为这会让狗的眼睛看起来更大，更像婴儿，它还模仿人类悲伤时的表情。

"The findings suggest that expressive eyebrows in dogs may be a result of humans' unconscious preferences that influenced selection during domestication," said lead researcher and comparative psychologist Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, in a statement. "When dogs make the movement, it seems to elicit a strong desire in humans to look after them. This would give dogs, that move their eyebrows more, a selection advantage over others and reinforce the 'puppy dog eyes' trait for future generations."

朴茨茅斯大学的首席研究员、比较心理学家朱利安·卡明斯基在一份声明中说：“研究结果表明，狗狗的眉毛表情丰富可能是人类在驯化过程中无意识的偏好影响了选择的结果。当狗做这个动作时，似乎会引起人类照顾它们的强烈欲望。这将使眉毛动得更多的狗在选择上比其他狗更有优势，并为后代强化‘小狗眼睛’的特征。”

The study research team included behavioral and anatomical experts in the U.S. and U.K. and was published in the journal PNAS.

该研究团队包括美国和英国的行为和解剖学专家，研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》(PNAS)上。

Co-author and anatomist Anne Burrows of Duquesne University said the evolution of the eyebrow muscle changes was "remarkably fast" and "can be directly linked to dogs' enhanced social interaction with humans."

研究报告的撰写者之一、杜肯大学的解剖学家安妮·巴罗斯说，眉肌变化的进化速度“非常快”，而且“可以直接与狗狗与人类更强的社交互动联系起来”。

The team's previous research shows that dogs raise their eyebrows more when people are looking at them than when they're not.

该团队之前的研究表明，当人们看着狗狗时，狗狗扬起眉毛的次数要多于人们不看它们时。

For the study published in PLOS One, researchers observed 27 shelter dogs and counted the number of times each animal raised its inner brows and widened its eyes when a person approached. The dogs were all Staffordshire bull terriers and mastiffs between the ages of 7 months and 8 years old, and the ones that raised their brows were consistently adopted faster than those that didn't.

在发表于《公共科学图书馆·综合》的研究中，研究人员观察了27只收容所里的狗，并计算了当有人走近时，每只狗竖起内眉、睁大眼睛的次数。这些狗都是7个月到8岁的斯塔福德郡斗牛梗和獒犬，那些扬起眉毛的狗总是比那些没有扬起眉毛的狗被收养的更快。

(Photo: Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock)

"The results of this research suggest that wolves which produced child-like expressions may have been more tolerated by humans, and so modern dogs have inherited these features," said head researcher, evolutionary psychologist Bridget Waller.

研究负责人、进化心理学家布里奇特·沃勒说:“这项研究的结果表明，人类可能更能容忍会产生儿童表情的狼，所以现代狗继承了这些特征。”

"We might have automatically opted for dogs which produced facial movements that enhanced their baby-like faces. Raised inner brows are also closely associated with sadness in humans and so another possibility is that humans are responding to a perceived sadness in the dog."

“我们可能会自动选择那些能做出面部表情的狗，因为它们的脸看起来更像婴儿。”竖起内眉也与人类的悲伤紧密相关，所以另一种可能性是，人类对狗狗感知到的悲伤做出了反应。”

Previous research suggested that the domestication of wolves was simply a byproduct of people avoiding aggressive animals. However, these new studies indicate that dogs' child-like expressions are a result of indirect selection by humans.

之前的研究表明，驯化狼只是人们躲避攻击性动物的副产品。然而，这些新的研究表明，狗的儿童表情是人类间接选择的结果。