为什么饥饿感相比口渴、焦虑和害怕更能刺激人?

Hunger is more powerful than thirst, fear or anxiety, new research suggests.

最新研究表明，饥饿对人的影响比口渴、恐惧或者是焦虑都要大。

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health found lab mice would be willing to put themselves in danger or cut themselves off socially if it meant they could eat.

美国国立卫生研究院的科学家们发现，如果实验室的老鼠在粮食充足的情况下，它们甚至愿意将自己置身于危险之中，或者切断自己与社会的联系。

The mice also picked food over water in every scenario.

在不同的实验环境下，老鼠们相对于饮水更倾向于选择食物。

The findings have been hailed as a crucial step towards our understanding of eating disorders and how to control food cravings.

这项发现已经被视为人们了解饮食失调及如何控制对食物的渴望的至关重要的一步。

It is the first research that pits different cravings against each other, looking at how hunger affects us in a more naturalistic setting.

研究人员首次在相互竞争的状态下对人类不同的欲望进行研究，并观察饥饿如何在自然环境中对我们产生影响。

Previous studies have isolated each craving - hunger, thirst, fear - to work out how the brain triggers such instincts.

先前的研究中，人们将不同的欲望进行分开，例如饥饿、口渴和恐惧，同时观察大脑如何触发人类的这种本能。

But now experts in diabetes and obesity are looking at how powerful each craving is, in relation to our other survival instincts.

但现在糖尿病和肥胖症的相关专家研究的是几种不同生存本能之间的关系，并了解单个生存本能对人体产生的影响。

The study, carried out by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), put mice in different scenarios where they would have to choose between cravings.

该研究由美国国家糖尿病、消化及肾脏疾病研究中心(NIDDK)负责承担，研究人员将实验小鼠放在不同的实验条件下，并让其在不同的生存本能之间做出选择。

To make them hungry, the scientists did one of two things: deprived the mice of food for 24 hours or activated neurons that are known to cause hunger.

为了让实验小鼠处于饥饿状态，科学家们会让小鼠处于饥饿状态24小时，或者激活能够产生饥饿感的神经元中心。

A similar process was performed to make them thirsty. To make them scared they would put them in a large space which smelled like foxes.

让它们产生口渴感的方式与让其产生饥饿感的方式相同。至于恐惧感，为了让小鼠产生恐惧会将其放置在闻起来有点像狐狸味道的环境中。

In one set of experiments, mice that were both thirsty and hungry consumed more food at the expense of drinking water. That, however, was the least surprising result.

实验中，又渴又饿的小鼠们在同样的条件下相比饮水消耗了更多的食物。然而，这样的结果却是让人十分惊讶的。

To their astonishment, hungry mice placed in a scary situation would overcome their fear and venture ahead if they knew there was food in the danger zone.

让实验人员惊讶的是，将饥饿的小鼠们放置在令它们感到害怕的环境中，如果它们知道这里有食物，则会选择克制自己的恐惧。

By contrast, sated mice preferred to stay in 'safe' corner zones or in a non-scented chamber rather than venture out into the more risky locations.

相比之下，吃饱的小鼠们则会选择待在相对“安全”的角落，而不会冒着风险去探索其它区域。

Hunger also drove mice to cut themselves off socially. Hungry mice preferred to spend time in a chamber with food rather than a different chamber containing another mouse.

解饿感也会趋势小鼠切断自己于社会间的联系。处于饥饿状态的小鼠宁愿选择自己一个人待在有食物的屋子里，也不去另外一间屋子跟一群小鼠混在一起。

Mice that were lonely but not hungry strongly preferred the company of another mouse to a chamber baited with food.

具有强烈孤独感但是还不是很饿的小鼠，则会选择寻找自己同伴，而不再独自躲在有食物的屋子里。

'We interpret this as a unique ability of hunger-tuned neurons to anticipate the benefits of searching for food, and then alter behavior accordingly,' lead author Dr Michael Krashes said.

研究项目负责人迈克尔·克拉希斯博士表示；“我们认为独特的饥饿调节神经元事先预测到食物的作用，并因此改变了生物体的行为模式。”

'Evolutionarily speaking, animals that consistently picked the right motivations over others have survived while other animals have not.'

“从进化论的角度来说，能够活下的动物们都是做出来正确的选择，而其它的动物我们就可想而知了。”