Octopuses react to MDMA much like humans do. And not surprisingly, given their anatomy, the animals are excellent huggers. Annie Sneed reports.章魚對MDMA的反應(yīng)與人類很像。不出所料,基于其身體結(jié)構(gòu),章魚是擅長擁抱的動物。安妮·斯尼德報道。
? 安妮·斯尼德(Annie Sneed) 翻譯:張朵兒 審校:郭曉
? When humans take?the drug MDMA—best known as ecstasy—they feel a deeper connection to others—emotionally and physically. Because MDMA affects?serotonin, a nervous system chemical. ? 當(dāng)人類服用MDMA藥物,也就是常說的搖頭丸,他們會在情緒以及肢體層面上,感覺和他人有更深層次的聯(lián)系。因?yàn)?/span>MDMA會影響一種稱為血清素(又稱5-羥色胺)的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)化學(xué)物質(zhì)。 “Serotonin is one of the oldest neurotransmitters.” Gul Dolen, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University who studies social behaviors.? “血清素是最古老的神經(jīng)遞質(zhì)之一。”約翰霍普金斯大學(xué)研究社會行為的神經(jīng)科學(xué)助理教授古爾·多倫(Gul Dolen)說。 ?“It's been implicated in all kinds of functions, lots of them having nothing to do with social, and so we wanted to know, how long ago was serotonin's function really about encoding social behaviors?” So Dolen and her colleague did what any scientist would do: they gave MDMA to octopuses.? “它涉及到各種各樣的功能,大多數(shù)與社交無關(guān)。所以我們想探究,血清素的功能在多久以前是真的與編碼社會行為有關(guān)?”于是,多倫和她的同事做了科學(xué)家都會做的:他們給章魚喂MDMA。 Octopuses are asocial creatures, and their last common ancestor with us lived more than a half billion years ago. Which made them a good test subject for the question at hand. ? 章魚是一種不合群的生物,它們與人類最后的共同祖先生活在五億多年前。因此,它們成了該問題合適的測試對象。?? The researchers set up a simple test: “There’s a large chamber, which is basically an aquarium tank, divided it into three chambers. On one side, we put a little overturned flowerpot that's clear and plastic and has lots of holes in it. Underneath that overturned pot, we have a toy object, and on the other side, we have another overturned orchid pot, but this one has an octopus in it.”? 研究人員設(shè)計了一個簡單的測試:“現(xiàn)在有一個大房間,基本上是一個水族箱,將其分成三個房間。在其中一邊,我們放了一個翻倒的透明塑料花盆,并有很多洞。盆底下,放了一個玩具;另外一邊,我們放了另外一個翻倒的蘭花盆,但這個里面有一只章魚。“? The researchers put an octopus in the middle chamber and watched it swim around for thirty minutes. They measured how much it interacted with one side of the chamber—the one with the other octopus—versus the chamber with the toy. Then they soaked the test octopus in a beaker of MDMA , put it back? in the aquarium and watched it for another thirty minutes. And what the researchers saw was weirdly similar to a human on MDMA: 研究人員將一只章魚放在中間的房間,觀察它游了三十分鐘。他們測量了它對兩邊分別有玩具和章魚的房間的互動程度。然后他們將測試對象浸泡在含有MDMA的燒杯中,之后將其放回水族箱中再觀看三十分鐘。結(jié)果,研究人員看到的與服用MDMA的人類非常相似: “Before they received MDMA when they were interacting, they're very reserved, even when they're spending time in the social side, they are sort of mashing their bodies up against the side wall, and extending only one arm out to touch the flowerpot, and very tentatively touching with one arm…. ?After MDMA, all of the animals spent significantly more time in the side that had the other octopus in it.?What's more is that the quality of their social interactions—they were much more loose in their body posturing, they were allowing several arms to touch the sides of the flowerpot, sort of hugging around the flowerpot, and exposing the bottom part of their body to the other octopus which, the way they were doing that, was suggesting they were exploring rather than any kind of aggressive posturing.” “在接受MDMA之前,當(dāng)它們進(jìn)行互動時,它們非常保守。即使處于社交狀態(tài),它們只會將身體撞到側(cè)壁上,只伸出一條觸腕來觸摸花盆,非常試探性地用那一只觸腕來觸摸......服用MDMA之后,所有測試對象都明顯地在有章魚的一側(cè)花費(fèi)更多的時間。此外,它們的社交互動質(zhì)量明顯提高。它們的身體姿勢更放松,會伸出多個觸腕觸摸花盆的側(cè)面,有點(diǎn)像是在擁抱花盆,并將它們身體的底部部分暴露給另一只章魚,它們這樣做,意味著它們正在探索,而并不是任何侵略性的姿勢。“ These observations indicate that serotonin began playing a role in animals’ social behavior more than 500 million years ago. 這些觀察結(jié)果表明,血清素在5億多年前就開始在動物的社會行為中發(fā)揮作用。 Dolen says these findings could help scientists better understand social behavior, as well as give clues about possible treatments for serotonin-related human conditions like schizophrenia and PTSD.? 多倫提到,這些研究結(jié)果可以幫助科學(xué)家更好地了解社會行為,并為治療血清素相關(guān)人類疾?。ㄈ缇穹至寻Y和創(chuàng)傷后應(yīng)激障礙)提供線索。? Meanwhile, we’ve learned—not surprisingly, given their anatomy—that octopuses are excellent huggers. 同時,我們發(fā)現(xiàn),不出所料的是,基于其身體結(jié)構(gòu),章魚是擅長擁抱的動物。