研究發現 猴子不會說話是因爲大腦的原因
Monkeys have the vocal tracts to produce human speech sounds, but what they lack is a speech-ready brain, a new study has found.
據一項最新研究發現，猴子的聲道可以發出人類語言的聲音，但是它們缺少一個會說話的大腦。The study, conducted by researchers from the U.S. and Europe and published this week in the U.S. journal Science Advances, used X-ray video to see within the mouth and throat of macaque monkeys induced to vocalize, eat food, or make facial expressions.
這份研究由美國和歐洲的研究者們聯合進行、發表在本週的美國雜誌《科學進展》上，在獼猴發出聲音、進食和做出面部表情時，他們使用X射線來觀察它們嘴巴和喉嚨內部。The scientists then used these data to build a computer model of a monkey vocal tract, allowing them to answer the question "what would monkey speech sound like, if a human brain were in control?"
科學家們隨後用這些數據建立了一個猴子聲道的電腦模型，從而使得他們回答這一問題--“如果猴子長了人腦，那麼它們的語言是什麼樣的？”
The results showed that monkeys could easily produce many different sounds, enough to produce thousands of distinct words.
結果表明，猴子可以輕鬆地發出許多不同的聲音，足以產生上萬個不同的詞彙。For example, monkeys could produce comprehensible vowel sounds -- and even full sentences -- with their vocal tracts if they had the neural ability to speak.
舉例來說，如果獼猴真的具有神經功能的語言能力，它們可以用自己的聲道說出可理解的元音--甚至是完整的句子。The researchers noted, however, that while monkeys would be understandable to the human ear, they would not sound precisely like humans.
不過研究者們指出，雖然人類可以理解獼猴說的話，但是它們的聲音卻和人類不大一樣。Therefore, the researchers concluded that previous research -- largely based on plaster casts made from the vocal tracts of a monkey cadaver -- underestimates primate vocal abilities and that evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than an adaptation of vocal anatomy.
因此研究者們作出結論，之前的研究（很大程度上基於一隻死亡猴子聲道的石膏模型）低估了靈長類動物的發聲能力，而人類語言能力進化需要的是神經的改變，而不是聲道生理構造的改變。"Now nobody can say that it's something about the vocal anatomy that keeps monkeys from being able to speak -- it has to be something in the brain," said Asif Ghazanfar, a professor of psychology at the Princeton University and one of the study leaders.
該項研究領導者之一、普林斯頓大學心理學教授阿西夫表示：“現在沒人說猴子不能說話是因爲聲道生理構造和人類不同了--而是它們大腦裏的東西和人類不同。”
