5.癌症
A dog's highly sensitive nose can tell it a lot about the people it meets. Medical studies show that dogs can detect at least some kinds of cancer in humans.
狗狗高度灵敏的鼻子能够分辨出许多和人类有关的东西。药物研究显示狗狗能侦测到几种人类的癌症。
Properly trained dogs can detect lung cancer and breast cancer simply by sniffing a person's breath. Dogs have been documented being able to sniff a skin lesion and tell whether it's a skin cancer melanoma. The dogs are detecting changes in the skin chemistry where the lesions occur. With patients suffering lung and breast cancers, the dogs smell biochemical markers in their breath. Scientists explain that cancer cells give off different waste products than do other cells, and to a dog's keen nose, those products have a noticeable smell. At their 2014 annual meeting, members of the American Urological Association heard the results of a study that found that trained dogs are 98 percent accurate at detecting prostate cancer by smelling urine samples. Dogs also are being used to detect ovarian cancer by smelling "volatile organic compounds". Does this mean that the next time you go for a physical, your doctor is likely to have you screened by a dog? Probably not. But since early detection can be so crucial in surviving cancer, scientists continue to study dogs' ability to sniff out cancer. How does this gift work? How extensive is it? Can it be duplicated with medical instruments? Research in this area is ongoing.
受过适当训练的狗狗仅仅通过嗅一个人的呼吸就可以检测出他是否患有肺癌和乳腺癌。已经有文件记录狗狗能够通过嗅皮肤的损伤来判断是否存在癌变的黑色素瘤。狗狗可以侦测到损伤处皮肤中化学物质的变化。患肺癌和乳腺癌的病人，狗狗可以闻得到他们呼吸中的生化标志物。科学家解释称癌细胞会释放与其他细胞不同的污染物质，而对狗狗灵敏的鼻子来说，这些物质有明显的气味。2014年的年度会议上，美国泌尿外科学会的成员了解到一项研究结果，经训练的狗狗对尿液样本的检测准确率为98％。狗狗也会通过嗅“挥发性有机化合物”，以检测卵巢癌。这是不是意味着下次你去体检的时候，你的医生极有可能让狗狗来对你做检查？也许不会。由于早期侦测对癌症存活十分重要，科学家们会继续研究狗狗嗅出癌症的能力。这个天赋是如何工作的?它的范围有多广?是否能够被复制到医疗器械中?医学上对这个领域的研究仍然在进行中。
4.癫痫
Many people with epilepsy and other conditions rely on seizure-response dogs. Trained as service dogs, these dogs can alert parents when a child has a seizure. They might use a call button or special phone to call for help. They can guard a person having a seizure, protecting the person from injury and even removing objects that might cause harm. They might roll the person into a position in which he or she can breathe.
许多患有癫痫或是其他疾病的人们都很依赖防癫痫犬。防癫痫犬属于服务犬的一种，可以在小孩癫痫发作时通知其父母。它们能通过通话按钮或是特殊的电话装置来进行呼救；也可以监护患有癫痫的病人，移除可能给病人造成伤害的物体，保护他们不受伤害，甚至还可以将病人调整成侧躺姿势，保持呼吸畅通。
Some dogs take dealing with seizures a big step further, by sensing when a seizure is about to occur and warning the person, as much as 10 or 20 minutes before the seizure. Estimates are that 10 to 15 per cent of trained dogs can sense when a seizure is about to happen. Sometimes, a dog becomes able to detect an oncoming seizure after having lived with a person as a seizure-response dog for several months. Scientists aren't sure what the dogs sense. One theory is that a person about to have a seizure has changes in blood or other body chemistry that a dog's highly sensitive nose can smell. A dog might sense a sudden spike in temperature that precedes a stroke. Another theory is that a dog's detail-oriented vision can detect small changes in the person's movements, changes that humans – even the person about to have the seizure – does not notice. However it works, the dog's warning can alert the person in time to get to a safe place, take medication and/or let others know that he or she might soon need help.
有些防癫痫犬能做的更好，它们能在主人发病前10至20分钟对其做出警告。据估计，经过训练后有10%至15%的狗狗可以觉察突发癫痫。在与主人生活几个月后，防癫痫犬能预警主人癫痫发作。科学家们还不能确定这些狗狗是通过什么预测到险情的。有人推测是病人即将发病时体内的血液或是其他的化学物质发生了某种改变，而狗狗灵敏的鼻子可以感觉到细微的变化。比如狗狗可能在主人中风前感知到了主人体表温度的骤然上升来推断出险情。另一种推测是狗狗对视线中的细节较为敏感，可以感知病人发作前行为的微小变化，而这些变化病人自己都注意不到。不过，狗狗的警告确实奏效了，它们总是能保护主人及时到达安全的地点，提醒他们服用药物或是告知他人，患者需要救助。
3.人类的恐惧
"Don't let the dog know you're afraid," most of us were warned as children. The idea was that if the dog knew we were afraid, it would take advantage of our fear by becoming more aggressive.
“千万不要让狗感觉到你的恐惧”——很多人小时候都被这样告知过。意思是说如果狗感觉到了你的恐惧，它会利用你的恐惧心理，变得更加好斗。
But is it true that dogs can sense fear? The answer is yes, if you don't get too literal. As far as anyone knows, dogs don't have eerie supernatural powers. There's a scientific explanation for most of the amazing things dogs can sense. Often, that explanation has to do with the dog's nose, its No. 1 way of understanding the world. Dogs have many more scent receptors in their noses than humans do, and their receptors are sensitive to more smells. Some estimates are that dogs' sense of smell is millions of times keener than ours. So, a dog may not read your mind and think fear, but it can smell what happens in your body when you're afraid. Humans sweat when we're stressed. And if we're frightened, our bodies release adrenaline. Our blood starts pumping faster, and we emit pheromones, or chemical molecules that float through the air. Dogs can smell all these fear-triggered human responses. Dogs' eyes are a secondary sense for them. Because they don't depend upon their eyes for their primary understanding of the world, they pay more attention to individual details than humans do, rather than processing an entire scene. That means that they detect small signals — facial expressions, tensing, varied gait — that tell them we are afraid. If you're afraid, a dog will know through smells and visual hints. Whether that means the dog will become aggressive depends upon the dog and the situation.
但是狗真的能感知到我们的恐惧吗？如果你不过分追究字面意思的话，答案便是肯定的。我们都知道，狗没有超能力。人们对于狗的灵敏感知能力给出了科学的解释：一般来说，这与狗的鼻子有关，鼻子是狗感知世界的首要方式。和人类相比，狗的鼻子里有很多嗅觉感受器，这些感受器对许多气味都很敏感。据估计，狗的嗅觉能力比人类灵敏几百万倍。所以说，狗不会读心术也不会体会到你的恐惧，但是它能够通过鼻子觉察到你体内的物质变化。人在紧张时会出汗；恐慌时，体内会释放肾上腺素，我们的心脏加速跳动时会释放出费洛蒙激素或是化学微粒，它们会漂浮在空中。狗可嗅到所有人体因恐惧而生的物质。狗的眼睛是第二感知来源。因为它们不将眼睛作为基本的感知世界手段，所以相比于人类，它们更关注个体细节而不是全局状况。这意味着它们能够察觉到面部表情，肌肉紧缩，步态变化等能够暗示我们恐惧心理的细节。如果你害怕了，狗会通过气味与视觉感知到。这是否意味着狗会变得有侵略性则要看其类型和所处环境了。
2.人类的悲伤
Anyone who's had a canine best friend knows that dogs are attuned to human emotions. If you're sad, your dog will put its head on your knee or snuggle up. It might whine and give you a friendly lick.
爱狗人士都知道汪星人和人类心灵相通、感情相系。当你伤心的时候，狗狗会过来依偎在你身旁或者把头放在你膝盖上，给予你最温暖的陪伴；亦或是伤心地哀鸣、友好地舔着你，似乎在舔舐你受伤的心灵。
Dogs also seem to sense emotions in people they don't know. Take a dog into a nursing home or children's hospital, and it will find those who need cheering up. Is there a biological explanation for dogs' ability to read human emotions, or is the empathy a natural result of how closely dogs and humans live these days? The answer is a combination of the two. The relatively new field of canine neuroscience investigates the workings of a dog's brain. In February 2014, the results of a study by a team of Hungarian researchers were published in the journal Current Biology and reported in popular news media. Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), the scientists found that dogs' brains have a small part dedicated to detecting emotions in the voices of humans and other dogs. Humans have a similar brain part that enables them to sense emotions from human sounds, regardless of words. Their findings led the scientists to believe that dogs can tell by the sound of a voice when a person is sad. (There's a fascinating side story about how the scientists got 11 dogs to enter a scanner and stay still.) Is there more to the story than detecting the sounds of voices? Probably so. In 2004, a Harvard scientists said that his research showed that over the centuries of living closely with and depending upon humans, dogs have adapted genetically, developing a keen ability to read human emotions and intentions. Whatever the explanation, there's nothing like a sympathetic pooch to lift the spirits.
狗狗们似乎还能感受到连人们自己都没意识到的情感。比如，把一只狗带进养老院或是儿童医院，它会发现那些需要安慰的人们。汪星人能够读懂人类的情感，是生物学原因，还是因为狗狗和人类长期亲密地生活在一起所产生的自然共情结果呢？答案是两者兼具。犬科动物神经科学的较新领域调查了狗脑的运作方式。2014年2月，《当代生物学》杂志报道了匈牙利的一个研究小组的研究成果，各大知名媒体也报道了这则消息。科学家们利用功能性磁共振成像技术，发现狗的大脑里有一小部分系统专门负责从人类和其他狗狗的声音中感知情感。人类大脑里也有一小部分类似的神经，尽管没有话语的沟通，但其单凭人们的声音便可感知到情感。根据这个发现，科学家们深信，狗狗是通过辨别人类的声音来判断他们是否伤心难过。（另外，想知道科学家们是如何把11只狗放进扫描仪，并让它们保持不动的吗？有一则有趣的花絮新闻专门报道了此事，在此就不赘述了。）汪星人除了通过人类声音来感知人类情感，还有其他原因让它们如此灵性。2004年，一位哈佛大学的科学家发现，狗狗和人类在几个世纪的亲密接触中，已经对人类有依赖性。它们的基因潜移默化地发生了改变并开始适应人类，与此同时，它们也发展出了一种能读懂人类情感和意图的强大能力。不管是什么原因让汪星人有这样的能力，当你伤心痛苦的时候，没有什么比一只狗狗更能帮你疗伤啦。
1.宝宝即将出生
Can a dog sense when a woman is about to go into labor?
女性即将分娩时，狗狗是否能够觉察到呢？
Without a doubt, dogs can tell when a woman is pregnant, partly because they can smell changes in the woman's body as her hormones shift. Later in pregnancy, a dog will sense changes in the way a woman moves, as well as changes in her emotions. If a dog is around when the woman's water breaks, it will be able to smell the amniotic fluid. If a dog is present when a woman is in labor, it will surely be aware of whatever she's doing and saying. Those are all fairly obvious. But will a dog know when labor is about to start, before it actually does? Many women say their dog could tell. Visit the comments section on websites for expectant moms, and you'll see plenty of testimonials about how Buster got protective or anxious hours before his mistress went into labor. The answer may simply be that because dogs live so closely with their humans, a dog can sense emotional changes when a woman's labor is about to start. Also, dogs, with their keen attention to visual clues, may sense subtle physical movements that the woman may not be aware of. Some people suspect that the anecdotes have more to do with a woman recalling what happened shortly before she went into labor, much as we recall where we were or what was happening when we learned dramatic news. But who knows? Some dogs can tell when a person with diabetes is about to have a serious drop in blood sugar, or when a person is about to have a seizure. Is it far-fetched to think there might be some small physical change in a woman hours before labor beings, something that humans can't detect but dogs can?
毫无疑问，汪星人之所以能够判断一个女人是否怀孕，有一部分原因是由于它们能够嗅出女性体内随着荷尔蒙分泌所发生的变化。汪星人也能够感觉到怀孕后女性行为和情绪上的变化。如果有狗狗在场，它不仅能够嗅出女性羊膜破裂时流出来的羊水味道，而且也一定能够料到女性分娩时会说什么做什么。以上那些都是相当明显的事实。但是，当真正分娩到来之前，狗狗们是否也能感觉到呢？许多女性都称，她们的狗狗能预料到宝宝即将出生。看看准妈妈们在网站上的评论，你就会发现有许多留言都是关于她们分娩前，家里的那只小家伙是怎么对女主人关切保护，又是怎么焦虑地度过那几个小时的。狗狗有这样的能力，其原因可能是它们长期与主人生活在一起，当女主人即将分娩时，它们能够感受到她们的情绪变化；不仅如此，狗狗利用其强大的视觉能力，也能够察觉到女主人肢体行动上的细微变化，而这些变化也许连她们自己都没意识到。但有人质疑道，发生这样的趣闻轶事，大多是一个女人在其分娩前那段时间的遐思罢了，这非常像我们回想那些激动人心的消息时，总会想到那时候我们在哪里，发生了什么。但又有谁知道这些趣闻轶事不是真的呢？一些狗狗确实能够预料到糖尿病患者血糖骤降，或者癫痫患者突发癫痫。那么，狗狗能够通过女性身体微变化而觉察其即将分娩（人类很难做到）的理论难道只是牵强附会？
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