导读:根据发表在《Open Biology》上的一项研究，绵羊能认出熟悉的人脸。剑桥大学的研究人员训练了八只威尔斯山地绵羊去识别演员 Jake Gyllenhaal 和 Emma Watson，以及前美国总统奥巴马和 BBC 播音员 Fiona Bruce 的脸。

Sheep have been trained to recognize the faces of celebrities, including former U.S. President Barack Obama, by University of Cambridge scientists who hope it may help with understanding neurodegenerative diseases.

绵羊通过接受训练可以识别名人的面孔，包括美国前总统奥巴马。剑桥大学科学家们希望以此能够有助于了解神经变性的疾病。

In a specially equipped pen, sheep were shown pictures of people on two computer screens, on one side would be an unknown person and on the other would be one of four celebrities.

在一个有特殊装备的羊舍下，绵羊在两个电脑屏幕中观察图片中的人。一边是不知名的人，而另外一边则是四位名人中的一位。

The animal would receive a reward of food for choosing the photograph of the celebrity by breaking an infrared beam near the screen displaying it. If they chose the wrong photograph, a buzzer would sound and they would receive no reward.

绵羊可以通过在屏幕上显示出它的红外光束来选择名人的照片以获得食物的奖励。如果他们选择了错误的照片，就会发出蜂鸣声，并且他们不会得到任何奖励。

The sheep eventually managed to identify the familiar face eight times out of every 10.

这只羊最终每十次中有八次能成功识别出熟悉的面孔。

The group of celebrities the sheep were trained to recognize included actors Emma Watson and Jake Gyllenhaal, BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce and Obama.

这些用于羊训练认识的名人组中包括演员艾玛沃特森和杰克.吉伦哈尔，BBC新闻主播菲奥娜布鲁斯和奥巴马。

We’ve shown that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys, Professor Jenny Morton, who led the study, said in a statement.

指导这个研究的教授Jenny Morton在声明中说道:我们已经看到了绵羊的发达的人脸识别能力能跟人和猴类发达的人脸识别能力相提并论！

In addition to being shown images of the celebrities facing forward, scientists also tested the animals’ ability to recognize the faces in photographs taken from other angles.

除了被展示的名人人脸照片，科学家们还测试了动物识别从其他角度拍摄的照片的能力。

The animals’ success rate fell by around 15 percent when presented with the faces at a new angle, an amount researchers said was comparable to that seen when humans perform the task.

研究人员称，当这些人脸以新角度呈现时，这些动物的成功率会下降15%左右，这与人类完成这项任务时的情况相当。

Scientists aim to use the sheep as models to understand disorders of the brain, such as Huntington’s disease, that develop over a long time and affect cognitive abilities.

科学家旨在用羊作为动物模型去研究脑紊乱疾病，如享廷顿氏病，患病时间长会影响大脑认知能力。

（来源：爱语吧）