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Researchers appear to have shown how the brain creates two different kinds of thirst. 研究员们可能已经破解了大脑是如何产生两种不同的渴望。 The process involves two types of brain cells, one that responds to a decline in fluid in our bodies, while the other monitors levels of salt and other minerals, a team reports in the journal Nature. 一组研究人员在《自然》杂志上报告说，这一过程涉及两种脑细胞，一种负责我们体内液体含量的下降，另一种负责监控盐和其他矿物质的含量。  Together, these specialized thirst cells seem to determine whether animals and people crave pure water or something like a sports drink, which contains salt and other minerals. 这些特殊的口渴细胞似乎决定了动物和人是渴望纯净水，还是像运动饮料那样含有盐和其他矿物质的东西。 "Our brain can detect these two distinct stimuli with different cell types," says Yuki Oka, a professor of biology at Caltech and the study's lead author. “我们的大脑可以通过不同的细胞类型来检测这两种不同的刺激，”玉祁·奥卡说，她是加州理工学院的生物学教授，也是这项研究的第一作者。 The finding appears to help answer "this question that we've been trying to ask for decades and decades and decades," says Sean Stocker, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies water and salt balance in the body. 匹兹堡大学研究体内水和盐平衡的教授肖恩·斯托克(Sean Stocker)说，这一发现似乎有助于回答“这个我们几十年来一直试图问的问题”。 Stocker was not involved in the study. 斯托克没有参与这项研究。  Oka's research is part of an effort to understand the brain biology underlying behavior that's seen in people and many animals. 奥卡的研究是理解人类和许多动物大脑生物学行为的一部分。 For example, people who've just finished a long, sweaty workout often experience a special kind of thirst. 例如，刚完成长时间汗流浃背的锻炼的人通常会感到一种特殊的口渴。 "Pure water doesn't do it, right? It's not enough," Oka says. “喝白开水这时没法解渴了，对吗？感觉还不够，”奥卡说道。 "You need water and salt to recover. And we can easily imagine that under such condition, we crave [a] sport drink." “你需要水和无机盐才能恢复。所以我们可以额说，在这样的情形下，我们感觉到了一种运动饥渴。” Sports drinks like Gatorade generally include a mix of salt and sugar, as well as water. 像佳得乐这样的运动饮料通常包括盐和糖的混合物，还有水。  To understand what triggers this type of thirst, Oka's team studied cells in two regions of mouse brains. 为了了解是什么引发了这种口渴，奥卡的团队研究了小鼠大脑两个区域的细胞。 Both regions are known to contain neurons involved in the sensation of thirst. 这两个区域都含有与口渴感觉有关的神经元。 The team induced two kinds of thirst in the mice. 研究团队在小鼠体内引发了两种不同饥渴。 One was caused by a simple lack of fluid in the body. 一种仅仅是缺乏体液。 The other simulated the loss of fluid and minerals that occurs during a sweaty workout. 另一种则是在出汗运动期间引发的体液和矿物质的缺失。 And each type of thirst appeared to produce a response from a different type of cell. 每种类型的口渴似乎都能从不同类型的细胞中产生反应。  To confirm that these cells are truly linked to drinking behavior, Oka's team did an experiment that gave mice access to two bottles. 为了证实这些细胞确实与饮用行为有关，奥卡的团队做了一项实验，让老鼠接触两种瓶子。 One contained pure water and the other a mixture of water and minerals, including salt. 一种装的是纯水，另一种装的是水和矿物质，包括盐分。 Then the team used a technique called optogenetics to stimulate each type of thirst cell in the mice. 然后，研究小组使用一种名为光遗传学的技术刺激小鼠体内的这两种口渴细胞。 When they stimulated the water-only thirst cells, the mice immediately went to the bottle of pure water and began "drinking vigorously," Oka says. 奥卡说，当他们刺激只喝水的口渴细胞时，这些老鼠立即走向一瓶纯水，开始“奋力喝水”。 But when the team stimulated the cells that responded to salt levels, the mice began drinking a combination of pure water and salty water. 但是当研究小组刺激对盐水平有反应的细胞时，老鼠开始饮用纯水和咸水的混合物。 In essence, they reached for the mouse version of a sports drink. 实际上，他们用的是一种小鼠版的运动饮料。 The team focused on how cells in the two brain regions affect thirst. 研究小组着重研究了大脑两个区域的细胞是如何影响口渴的。 But scientists say these and other cell types are probably involved in regulating a wide range of bodily functions and behaviors. 但是科学家们说，这些细胞和其他类型的细胞很可能参与调节广泛的身体功能和行为。  "Is it only thirst related, or does it also affect heart rate or blood pressure or temperature regulation?" says Claire Gizowski, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco. 加州大学旧金山分校的博士后学者克莱尔·吉佐斯基说:“这只是与口渴有关，还是也会影响心率、血压或体温调节?” "These are all interconnected," she says. “这些都是相互关联的，”她说。 The link to blood pressure is highly likely, Stocker says. 斯托克说，这很可能与血压有关。 Decades of research have shown how levels of salt and fluid in the body can change a person's blood pressure. 几十年的研究已经表明，体内的盐和液体水平是如何改变一个人的血压的。 Stocker's own research has found links between brain cells involved in thirst and those involved in blood pressure. 斯托克自己的研究发现了与口渴有关的脑细胞和与血压有关的脑细胞之间的联系。 And he says it's likely that many blood pressure drugs act on the same brain areas that regulate fluid and salt intake. 他说，很可能许多降压药都会作用于控制液体和盐摄入量的大脑区域。 Understanding how thirst cells work in the brain could also help certain sick people and athletes. 了解口渴细胞在大脑中是如何工作的也可以帮助到一些病人和运动员。 "Fluid balance is one of the top 10 factors that causes you to be admitted into a hospital when you show up to the ER," Gizowski says. “当你出现在急救室时，体液平衡往往是导致你被送进医院的十大因素之一，”吉佐斯基说。 Some of those trips might be avoided if scientists could develop a sensor that worked the same way the brain does to monitor fluid and salt levels. 如果科学家们能开发出一种传感器，这种传感器的工作原理与大脑监测液体和盐水平的原理相同，那么一些这样的急救情形就可以避免了。 Also, Gizowski says: "This would be super-helpful for athletes to know how much Gatorade they're supposed to drink to have optimal performance." 此外，吉佐斯基说:“这对于运动员知道他们应该喝多少佳得乐才能有最佳表现是非常有帮助的。”  Gizowski thinks the next frontier in thirst science is figuring out how the brain anticipates the need for fluid or salt. 吉佐斯基认为，饥渴科学的下一个前沿是弄清楚大脑是如何预测对液体或盐的需求的。 "Sometimes you drink and you don't even realize that you're drinking or that you're even thirsty because your body is just doing these things without you knowing," she says. 她说:“有时候你喝了，却没有意识到自己在喝，或者口渴，因为你的身体正在无意识地做着这些事情。” That's probably to protect you from "the consequences of not drinking water and not being hydrated properly" later on. 这可能是为了保护你免受“不喝水和没有适当补水的后果”。 问题 文中提到运动之后更适合喝水还是喝运动饮料？ 留言回复正确答案，前五名朋友可以获得红包奖励哦，赶快来试试吧！ 感谢关注 跟Amber一起看世界 |
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