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When Marmosets Think About Love
小猴子表達如何愛
狨猴（Marmoset），又稱指猴，是生活在在南美洲亞馬遜河流域的森林中的一種世界上最小的猴子。這種猴長大后身高僅10—12厘米，重80—100克。新生猴只有蠶豆般大小，重13克。這種猴子喜歡捉虱子吃，且性格溫和，因此飼養它們便成了當地印第安人的嗜好。
Marmosets are small primates. Think of a monkey with huge fuzzy ears. Primatologists have often wondered whether nonhuman males evaluated their potential mates, or whether their sex drive was more like an on/off switch.
絨猴是很小的靈長類。試想一下，猴子長者一對大大的毛絨絨的耳朵。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 study conducted in both the U.S. and Germany shows this isn't necessarily so. Male marmosets having their brains scanned were given sniffs of genital-gland secretions from ovulating females.
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。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! But guess what else happened? Many other brain areas lit up as well, such as memory formation, information integration–in other words, areas associated with decision-making.
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。但你猜還會發生什么情況？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 brain than a simple “have sex now” program. The specific areas of brain activity suggest that the males are evaluating potential mates before agreeing to a sexual union.
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。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. Under those circumstances you wouldn't want to enter into a relationship without any thought.
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。在這種情況下，就不會不假思索地介入這段關系了。
