趣味双语：动物原来比人更早学会笑

本文选自《北外网院》的博客，点击查看博客原文

　　As the human brain evolved, humans were able to laugh before they could speak, according to a new study.

　　一项最新的研究结果显示，由于大脑的进化，人类在能够说话之前就已经学会笑了。

　　But here's the punch line: Laughter and joy are not unique to humans, the study says. Ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals long before humans began cracking up.

　　研究结果同时表明，笑和喜悦并不只是人类所特有的，早在人类会笑之前，其它一些动物就已经拥有原始形态的笑声了。

　　"Human laughter has robust roots in our animalian past," said Jaak Panksepp, a professor of psychobiology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

　　美国俄亥俄州保令·格林州立大学( Bowling Green State University)的神经生物学家杰克·潘克塞普表示：“人类笑的历史深深植根于我们的动物史。”

　　Panksepp has studied rats and found that when they "play," they often chirp--a primitive form of laughter, according to the scientist. And he makes the argument that animal laughter is the basis for human joy.

　　潘克塞普曾对老鼠进行了相关研究，他发现，当老鼠“玩耍”的时候，他们经常发出一种唧唧喳喳很尖的声音，而这则是笑的一种原始形态。潘克塞普在文章中提出的论点是，动物的笑是人类快乐的基础。

　　In studying laughter, scientists have focused mostly on related issues--humor, personality, health benefits, social theory--rather than laughter itself.

　　在以前的研究中，科学家们曾把工作的重心大部分集中在和笑相关问题上，如

　　New research, however, shows that "circuits" for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the human brain. As humans have incorporated language into play, we may have developed new connections to joyous parts of our brains that evolved before the cerebral cortex, the outer layer associated with thought and memory.

　　而最新的研究结果则显示，笑的“循环线路”存在于人类大脑非常古老的区域中。当人类把语言与玩耍结合在了一起时，我们或许已经和大脑的快乐部分建立了新的关系，这个部分的进化要早于和人们思考及记忆密切相关的大脑皮层的进化。

　　Researchers say that the capacity to laugh emerges early in child development, as anyone who has tickled a baby knows.

　　对此，研究人员表示，笑的能力在孩子发育阶段早早地就显现出来，这一点是任何一个曾经胳肢过小婴儿的人都知道的。