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She found that, while the genetically engineered mice and the BTBR mice had, as expected, reduced levels of L. reuteri,
她發現，雖然經過基因編輯的老鼠和BTBR老鼠體內的羅伊氏乳桿菌果然有所減少，
and those with bacteria-free guts were obviously free of the bug altogether, the valproic-acid mice had normal amounts of the bacterium.
但那些體內沒有細菌的老鼠明顯也沒有了羅伊氏乳桿菌，暴露于丙戊酸的老鼠體內細菌水平正常。
This last result was unexpected, but the team carried on regardless.
最后的這個結果出人意料，但團隊還在堅持。
They arranged for between seven and 15 mice of each of the four types to have, starting at the age of three weeks, their drinking water laced with L. reuteri.
他們組了四種類型并安排每一類型中的7到15只老鼠，從三周大的時候就開始飲用摻有羅伊氏乳桿菌的水。
Equivalent numbers of each type continued to be given ordinary water as a control.
作為實驗對照，讓每種類型中相同數量的老鼠繼續飲用普通水。
During the course of the experiment the mice had their faeces collected regularly, so that their bacteria could be tracked.
在實驗期間，定期收集老鼠的排泄物，以追蹤它們體內的細菌。
And, at the age of seven weeks, they were given two sorts of social tests.
在7周的時候，對它們進行兩種社會測試。
The first test involved putting each experimental mouse into a perspex container from which it could go either into a chamber
第一項測試是將每只實驗鼠放進一個有機玻璃容器中，它們可以選擇鉆進其中一個房間中
where there was an empty wire cup or into one where there was a similar cup containing an unfamiliar mouse.
房間中有一個空的線圈杯子，或是進入另一個房間中，這個房間中有一個相似的杯子，但杯中有一只陌生的老鼠。
Subject mice were left in the container for ten minutes and were monitored to see how long they spent with the empty cup and with the other mouse.
實驗鼠被留在容器內十分鐘并對它們留在空杯中的時間以及和另一只老鼠待在一起的時間進行監測。
The second test placed a mouse in an arena where another, unfamiliar mouse was already present.
第二項測試將一只老鼠放在一個臺子上，臺中已經站上了另一只陌生的老鼠。
An observer, who did not know which mice were controls and which had been given L. reuteri in their water,
然后由一名觀察員（這名觀察員不知道哪種老鼠是對照組老鼠，哪只飲用了摻有羅伊氏乳桿菌的水）
then noted how often over the course of ten minutes the two mice touched, sniffed, groomed and crawled on one another.
記下在這十分鐘內，這兩只老鼠相互觸摸、聞、順毛和爬行的頻率。
In both tests, all the mice that had had their water laced with L. reuteri, regardless of how their autism had been induced,
在兩項測試中，所有飲用了羅伊氏乳桿菌水的老鼠，不論它們孤獨癥誘因是什么，
were more sociable than equivalents that had been drinking unlaced water. In the first, they spent twice as much time with the mouse under the wire cup.
均比飲用普通水的同等類更喜歡社交。在第一項測試中，它們在線圈杯中和老鼠相處的時間是同等類的兩倍。
In the second, they engaged in many more social interactions with the unfamiliar mouse.
在第二項測試中，它們和另一只不熟悉老鼠的社交互動更多。
The team's initial hypothesis had been that the supplementary L. reuteri were somehow changing the gut flora of the mice exposed to them into something more normal.
團隊的初步假設是，添加羅伊氏乳桿菌改變了它們體內的腸道菌群，讓它們變得更加正常。
But they weren't. Indeed, L. reuteri proved able to abolish autistic behaviour even in those mice which had guts otherwise devoid of microbes—
但并非如此，羅伊氏乳桿菌確實有消除孤獨癥行為的可能，即便是那些腸道缺乏細菌的老鼠
as well as in those with valproic-acid-induced autism, which already had normal levels of the bug.
以及那些被丙戊酸誘發孤獨癥的老鼠，它們已經擁有正常的羅伊氏乳桿菌水平。
That suggests boosting levels of this bacterial species is shaping behaviour all by itself.
這表明促進這種細菌種群的含量是在通過其本身來塑造行為的。
Their next hypothesis was that the bacterium was doing this by interacting somehow with oxytocin,
他們的第二個假設是，細菌通過和催產素的相互作用消除了消除孤獨癥行為，
a hormone that shapes behaviour and plays a part in the ways in which people and other mammals form social bonds.
催產素是一種塑造行為的激素，以不同的方式在人類和其他哺乳動物的社會聯系形成中起作用。
Dr Costa-Mattioli knew from work published in 2013 that spraying oxytocin into the noses of mice with autistic symptoms helps to ameliorate some of those symptoms.
Costa-Mattioli博士從2013年發表的一項研究中了解到，往有孤獨癥癥狀的老鼠的鼻子噴射催產素可以幫助改善其中一些癥狀。
Dr Sgritta therefore ran the experiments again, but this time on autistic mice that had had the oxytocin receptors on the relevant neurons disabled by genetic engineering.
因此Sgritta博士再次進行實驗，但這一次的實驗老鼠是，通過遺傳工程將相關神經上的催產素接受器破壞掉。
In these new experiments, the presence of L. reuteriin drinking water had no effect.
在這些新實驗中，羅伊氏乳桿菌的存在沒有效果。
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