埃克塞特大学(University of Exeter)在2020年1月进行的一项研究发现，非常喜欢爪子的松鼠——无论是右撇子还是左撇子——在学习任务中的表现都不太好。啊…好吧。所以，有很多问题。
The first? How did the researchers discover that squirrels favored a side (known as lateralization) in the first place? Moreover, once they knew which paw the squirrel preferred, how did they know the information was an intelligence or performance indicator? Finally, what does it all mean? Can researchers really draw substantive conclusions between lateralization and learning in squirrels and/or humans? Let's see.
第一：研究人员是如何发现松鼠首先喜欢一个侧面(称为侧化)的?此外，一旦他们知道松鼠更喜欢哪只爪子，他们又如何知道这些信息是智力或表现指标呢?最后，这一切意味着什么?研究人员真的能在松鼠和/或人类的偏侧化和学习之间得出实质性结论吗?我们一起来看看。
Like humans, other animals often favor one side of their body for certain tasks. For example, if you ask your dog to shake hands, he may always offer his left (or right.) The frequency of his offer varies according to the degree of lateralization in the animal.
和人类一样，其他动物也经常喜欢用身体的一侧来完成某些任务。例如，如果你让你的狗握手，他可能总是向你伸出它的左手(或右手)。伸出左右手的频率根据动物的偏侧程度而不同。
Dr. Lisa Leaver is the program director of the Master Science Exeter Animal Behavior program. She says some studies suggest that lateralization makes brains more efficient because each brain hemisphere is focusing on particular tasks.
Lisa Leaver博士是埃克塞特动物行为硕士项目的项目主任。她说，一些研究表明，侧化使大脑更有效率，因为每个大脑半球都专注于特定的任务。
"This could help animals survive," said Leaver in a news release, "Which would explain the evolution of laterality across the animal kingdom."
“这可以有助于动物生存，”利弗在新闻稿中说，“这将解释整个动物王国的偏侧性进化。”
She explained that in fish and birds there was evidence that being strongly lateralized meant for better brain function, but that "limited data from studies of mammals suggest a weak or even negative relationship."
她解释说，在鱼类和鸟类中，有证据表明，强烈的侧化意味着更好的大脑功能，但“来自哺乳动物研究的有限数据表明，这种关系很弱，甚至是负面的。”
Leaver and her colleagues were looking for whether there was a correlation between strong lateralization and poor cognitive performance, and they used the gray squirrels at Exeter's Streatham Campus as their subjects.
利弗和她的同事们正在寻找强偏侧化和认知能力差之间是否存在相关性，他们将埃克塞特大学斯特雷瑟姆校区的灰松鼠作为研究对象。
In the study, the squirrels had to finagle peanuts out of a transparent tube. Typically, squirrels grab food with their mouths but there was a problem: The tube was too narrow for the squirrel's mouth. It had to use a paw. Researchers watched more than 30 squirrels, collecting enough data from 12 of the subjects for their report. They wanted to see how quickly each squirrel figured out the problem (assessing learning) and whether they favored one paw over the other (determining lateralization).
在这项研究中，松鼠们不得不用透明的管子取得花生。一般情况下，松鼠是用嘴获取食物，但现在有一个问题：管子太窄，不适合松鼠的嘴。所以它必须用爪子。研究人员观察了30多只松鼠，从其中12只松鼠身上收集了足够的数据用于他们的报告。他们想看看每只松鼠有多快发现问题(评估学习能力)，以及它们是否偏爱一只爪子而不是另一只爪子(确定侧化能力)。
Their conclusion? They say that strongly lateralized squirrels are not as good at learning (which seems counterintuitive considering the problem the squirrel just had to solve). Interestingly, some research also suggests that ambidextrous people (those who favor neither right nor left hand) may be more creative. Again, squirrels may beg to differ.
他们的结论怎样?他们说，高度偏侧化的松鼠不善于学习(考虑到松鼠必须解决的问题，这似乎违反直觉)。有趣的是，一些研究还表明，双灵巧的人(那些既不偏右手也不偏左手的人)可能更有创造力。同样，松鼠可能会求同存异。
