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Marmosets are small primates.
絨猴是很小的靈長類。
Think of a monkey with huge fuzzy ears.
試想一下，猴子長者一對大大的毛絨絨的耳朵。
Primatologists have oftenwondered whether nonhuman males evaluated their potential mates, or whether their sex drivewas more like an on/off switch.
動物學家時常有這樣的疑惑：雄性動物選擇“另一半”或者控制性欲是否更像是一個開關鍵。
We may think of animals as just responding to sexual invitations without thinking, but a studyconducted in both the U.S. and Germany shows this isn't necessarily so.
我們也許會認為動物對于性邀請基本是不假思索的，但最近美國和德國有研究稱事實并非如此。
Male marmosets havingtheir brains scanned were given sniffs of genital-gland secretions from ovulating females.
雄性絨猴用它們的大腦掃描，聞正在排卵的磁性動物生殖腺的分泌物。
That's a scent that should trigger a mating response in the brain, and it did!
有一種氣味會引起大腦里的交配反應，這樣它們才會進行交配。
But guess what elsehappened?
但你猜還會發生什么情況？
Many other brain areas lit up as well, such as memory formation, informationintegration–in other words, areas associated with decision-making.
很多其它的大腦葉都會被“激活”，像信息形成，信息整合，也就是說，所有和決策相關的區域。
Researchers are still studying the effect, but apparently a lot more happens in a marmoset brainthan a simple “have sex now” program.
研究人員還在觀察其影響，但很顯然，絨猴的腦部有很多活動而不是一個簡單的“性行為”指定。
The specific areas of brain activity suggest that the malesare evaluating potential mates before agreeing to a sexual union.
特定區域的大腦活動暗示雄性絨猴在性結合之前會評估潛在的交配對象。
This makes special sense for marmosets, because they are monogamous and both partners raise the offspring.
這對于絨猴有特殊的意義，因為它們是單配制，并且共同撫養后代。
Under those circumstances you wouldn't want to enter into a relationship without any thought.
在這種情況下，就不會不假思索地介入這段關系了。
