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Animal Play: Just for fun?
BERND HEINRICH
Bernd Heinrich is in the Department of Biology, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont05405, USA
Working out why animals play is no easy task.
The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits
by Gordon M. Burkhardt
MIT Press: 2005. 518 pp. $50, ?32.95
A kitten batting a ball of yarn, kids on a swing, or an adult wielding a fishing-rod — few would disagree that these behaviours can be described as play. Yet in the study of animal behaviour, the phenomenon of play is an anomaly. It is said to be adaptive and yet it involves the expenditure of much energy, often with no apparent pay-off. When a certain behaviour is found to have obvious pay-offs or functions it is, almost by definition, no longer 'play' but is defined by its function, such as foraging, predator avoidance or mating.
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According to the simplest, most short-term definition, play is 'just for fun'. But in the long term it may also be practice for a future role, although the ultimate pay-off may only be determined over a lifetime. Consider the activity of batting a ball around. That's play, isn't it? But if someone got paid for it, would it still be play? Even without pay, it may be for practice. And what about others who expend time and resources to watch this senseless activity? It would be difficult to assign adaptive value to these behaviours, or to measure them objectively. Should play then be defined by internal motivation — pleasure, fun? But the motivation of internal pleasure can apply to many complex behaviours, such as hunting, birdsong, sex or chasing a frisbee, although only the latter is likely to be called 'play'. Is play then only 'senseless' behaviour, or is it simply behaviour for which an ultimate function has yet to be discovered?
動物玩耍就是為了娛樂？
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小貓玩球，小孩玩秋千或者成年人揮動魚竿。沒有人不同意這可以說是在玩耍。但在動物行為學的研究中，這種玩耍的現(xiàn)象是不平常的。這可以說是一種適應，但而這會花費大量的能量，而且經(jīng)常會沒有什么明顯的回報。當一個特定的動作有了明顯的回報或者有一定的作用后，就不叫作“玩耍”了，而用它的作用來定義它的名字，如食草、避免被捕食或者交配。?
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Play may be plagued by paradoxes and enigmas, but it is a genuine behavioural phenomenon. It is an appropriate subject for enquiry, if only because we know so little about it, despite the interest of scholars who for centuries have tried to define it, fix its boundaries and fathom its functions. For the most part there has been little progress — instead, the subject has become entangled in a web of definitions and controversies. It is clearly time to re-examine play.
The Genesis of Animal Play does not really explore the limits that I allude to above, but to date it is the most comprehensive and illuminating effort to come to terms with this enigmatic topic. Even though Gordon Burkhardt claims his book "is not meant to be a thorough review of play research in animals or people on either a narrow or broad scale", I believe nevertheless that it does come close. Burkhardt reviews the literature (about 1,300 references are cited) and refers to most of the serious attempts to study play. In his attempt to understand its origins and nature, he incorporates both comparative and multidisciplinary approaches.
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In the first part of the book, Burkhardt explores the diversity of play behaviour and the history of various theories, definitions and controversies surrounding it. He also proposes criteria for a modern definition of play. He champions the view of ethology laid down by Niko Tinbergen, which says that any definition of a behaviour must encompass four entirely different types of problem: its causation or mechanisms; its adaptation or function; its development or ontogeny; and its evolution and phylogeny. Burkhardt adds a fifth category: the world of private experience. Researchers using this last criterion would ask whether all play is accompanied by one or a few specific emotions (presumably after play has already been identified, not to identify it).
玩耍可能是一個謎，但是這是一個真實的行為現(xiàn)象。如果這僅僅是因為我們對此知道得很少，而不是學者幾個世紀以來一直想給它一個合適的度量，這是一個合適的課題。這個課題在很多方面進展緩慢——取而代之的是在大量的定義和爭吵而引起的混亂。現(xiàn)在需要重新審視一下玩耍了。
In the second half of the book, Burkhardt examines the phylogeny of play, reviewing examples from studies of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and invertebrates. Most of the examples of play in the literature come from a small number of placental mammals, in which play is clear-cut. However, because the focus of the book is the origin and function of play, the most relevant examples are those at the boundaries where play is not readily distinguished from non-play. Even among the mammals and the few birds studied, there is a great variety of play or potential play behaviour, so ecological, social and other potentially relevant factors may shed light even within this narrow taxonomic grouping. At the borders, in fish and invertebrates, descriptions of putative play behaviour remain anecdotal. I suspect that few of these will sustain the five criteria for play that the author sets up, but he remains open-minded to the possibility.
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Burkhardt concludes by strongly backing the 'surplus resources' theory as a way to predict where and when we might expect to find playful behaviour. This idea is an elaboration of one proposed in 1795 by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, who wrote: "An animal may be said to be at work when the stimulus to activity is some lack, and it may be said to be at play when the stimulus is sheer plenitude of vitality." Schiller's idea was further elaborated by Herbert Spencer in 1872. Burkhardt brings it into the social context and adds the adaptive significance — that play not only originates from, but also creates, surplus resources that may be useful on subsequent occasions. I am not sure how or at what point in the life of an animal such surplus resources would manifest themselves or how an ethologist could demonstrate their existence. However, the idea surely applies to the activity of scientific research, and perhaps even to the writing of a book.
March 22, 2005
Hypomanic? Absolutely. But Oh So Productive!
By BENEDICT CAREY
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Sometimes when talking to people, I'll tell them that I've just had a lot of coffee, even though it's not true, because I know I fire off in all directions, and I can talk to you about anything - literature, string theory, rock guitar - I once worked for Leo Fender - and one thing I say to people is that, of course, I live near the edge; the view is better."
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Laurence McKinney, 60, who lives near the edge of Boston, is a business consultant, a Harvard graduate and self-described polymath who has had a career that is every bit as frenzied as his conversational style.
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Among other ventures, he said, he has started pharmaceutical companies, played in rock bands and helped design electric guitars, and written a book about the neuroscience of spirituality. This month, for the first time, he helped start a Web site for people like himself. They are known as hypomanics.
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At some point, almost everyone encounters them - restless, eager people, consumed with confident curiosity. Researchers suspect that their mental fever shares some genetic basis with that of bipolar disorder, known colloquially as manic depression, a psychiatric disorder characterized by effusive emotional highs and bouts of paralyzing despair.
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有時我與別人談話，我會告訴他們我剛剛和了一些咖啡，盡管我并沒有喝。因為我知道我說起來就沒完。我可以談任何事情 - 文學、弦論（這是個什么學問）、搖滾吉他 – 我曾經(jīng)給Leo Fender工作 - 或者對別人說，我住在邊緣（郊區(qū)？），風景更好。
Laurence McKinney，60歲，住在波士頓的郊區(qū)，商業(yè)顧問，哈佛大學畢業(yè)，自己說是一個博學者，他從事的每一項事業(yè)都向他談話的模式一樣狂躁。
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在其它的冒險中，他還開始過藥物公司、玩過搖滾樂隊和幫忙設計電吉他，還寫過一本關于神經(jīng)科學的書。這個月，他第一次建設了一個為像他這樣的人開設的網(wǎng)站，他們被稱為輕度狂躁者。
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在某些方面，幾乎所有的人都遭遇過他們 – 不消停的，狂熱的人，被好奇心淹沒的人。研究者懷疑他們的狂熱來源于一些雙極性疾患的基因，用白話說就是躁郁癥，一種表現(xiàn)為時而情緒亢奮時而癱瘓絕望的精神疾病。?
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In recent decades, scientists have found that bipolar disorder is widely variable, and that its milder forms are marked by hypomanias, currents of mental energy and concentration that are less reckless than full-blown manic frenzies, and unspoiled, in many cases, by subsequent gloom.?
New research helps explain how people with manic or hypomanic tendencies navigate the small triumphs and humiliations of daily life, and provides clues to how some of them quickly shake off the emotional troughs that their ambitious natures should make inevitable.
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"It kind of goes against the common assumption, but many people who are inclined to hypomanic or manic symptoms have an underlying resilience," said Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at JohnsHopkinsUniversity. "They may get trashed by their peers, laid low, but they respond very strongly."
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In a new book, "Exuberance," Dr. Jamison argues that flights of joyous energy similar to hypomanic states frequently accompany scientific and literary inspiration. Psychiatrists have known for more than a century that bipolar disorder, unlike any other mental illness, is often associated with some financial and professional accomplishment. Mania can inspire destructive shopping or gambling sprees, but it can also generate bursts of creative and focused work.
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在最近十年里，科學家發(fā)現(xiàn)兩極性疾患廣泛存在，它的溫和形式表現(xiàn)為輕度狂躁癥，與狂躁癥相比，他們的精力和注意力影響不大，并未被破壞，在很多情況下伴有并發(fā)的憂郁癥。?
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新的研究有助于幫助解釋那些有狂躁癥和輕度狂躁癥傾向的人如果來對待每天的小得成功與羞辱，and provides clues to how some of them quickly shake off the emotional troughs that their ambitious natures should make inevitable。
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“這可能有些違反常規(guī)，但是很多傾向于輕度狂躁癥或者狂躁癥的人都有潛在的樂觀性” 約翰霍普金斯大學的Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison說，“他們會因為自己的原因被當做垃圾，被看貶，但是他們的反應非常強烈。”
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在一本名為“健康”的書中，Dr. Jamison爭論說類似于輕度狂躁癥的樂觀的的感覺經(jīng)常伴隨著科學和文學靈感。精神病學家發(fā)現(xiàn)，與其它精神疾病不同，在一個多世紀以來的兩極疾患者中，經(jīng)常會取得經(jīng)濟或者職業(yè)方面的成就。狂躁者可以去發(fā)瘋的去購物或者瘋狂的賭博，也可以在創(chuàng)造性和焦點性工作中產(chǎn)生爆炸性的力量。
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Psychiatrists and psychologists have found ample evidence for bipolar tendencies in the life histories of many famous writers and painters. The composer Robert Schumann, for example, experienced extreme mood swings; so, some now argue, did the poet Emily Dickinson.?
Some studies suggest that first-degree relatives of people with bipolar illness, who are likely to inherit some genetic basis for bipolar disorder, are particularly likely to enjoy high socioeconomic status.
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Most recently, researchers have turned their attention to the mild end of the bipolar spectrum, and sliced it into many permutations. Bipolar II, III and IV, for example, each include depressive episodes and varieties of hypomania, or exuberant moods. Cyclothymic disorder involves rapid cycling from moderate depressive to manic symptoms, and hyperthymia is a state of elevated mood.
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"When you look across the entire bipolar spectrum, you find that maybe 10 percent to 15 percent of these people never get depressed: they're just up," said Dr. Ronald C. Kessler, a professor of health care policy at HarvardMedicalSchool.
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As one psychiatrist put it, Dr. Kessler said, "The goal in life is constant hypomania: you never sleep too much; you're on; you keep going."
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一些研究部分證實了患有雙極性疾患的病人的第一層關系，他們都似乎遺傳了一些雙極性疾患的基因，特別喜歡高社會經(jīng)濟學的狀態(tài)。
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最近，研究者轉向了對雙極性基因的溫和末端光譜的研究，將其分割成多個序列。例如雙極II III IV型，每一個都包含有抑郁的片斷和多個輕度狂躁片斷，或者有豐富的感情的片斷。循環(huán)型精神病患者籠罩于快速的在中度抑郁和狂躁中轉變，并且輕度狂躁癥是是這其中的過渡狀態(tài)。
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“當你看整個兩極光譜的時候，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)大約有10%到15%的人從來不會抑郁，他們只會情緒高漲。” said Dr. Ronald C. Kessler, a professor of health care policy at HarvardMedicalSchool.?
就像一個精神病醫(yī)生一樣，Dr. Kessler說，“生活中的目標是持久的輕度狂躁，從不多睡，持續(xù)下去，繼續(xù)下去。”
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With the exception of Bipolar II and cyclothymic disorder, which are accepted as standard psychiatric diagnoses, these permutations of low-level bipolar disorder overlap with each other and with normal ranges of mental function so much that some scientists question how distinct they are.?
"For some of us, there is a lot of wariness about this tendency to see bipolar disorder everywhere," said Dr. William Coryell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa School of Medicine, adding that "it's very difficult to determine reliable boundaries between one diagnosis and another" and document the true prevalence of the conditions.
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Yet even if bipolar disorders can be reliably diagnosed in only 2 percent of the population, some now believe that hypomania or similar charged states are more prevalent than previously imagined. About 6 percent of college students score high on personality tests that measure hypomanic tendencies, some studies find, and about 10 percent of children rate as temperamentally "exuberant," a related quality.
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Outsized delight in small successes may be central to what kindles hypomanic natures and sustains them. In an effort to learn how the joys and sorrows of daily life affect mania and depression, Dr. Sheri Johnson, a professor of psychology at the University of Miami, began surveying men and women in whom bipolar disorder had been diagnosed.
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Originally, Dr. Johnson was interested in the effect of negative events, like struggles at work or arguments at home. "But the people in the study told us we were getting it wrong, that it was when good things happened that they felt they had their manias," Dr. Johnson said.?
In two studies involving 149 people, one completed in 2000 and the other a continuing project, Dr. Johnson has found that personal victories like a promotion oran award very often precede or coincide with manic symptoms, though the person may be feeling neither manic nor depressed when life takes a good turn.
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Even when small successes do not arouse manic symptoms, they appear to prompt exaggerated surges of confidence. In one study, scheduled for publication later this year, Dr. Johnson led a team of psychologists who rated a group of 153 college students on a hypomanic scale, which included items like: "There have often been times when I had such an excess of energy that I felt little need to sleep at night," "I often feel excited and happy for no apparent reason," and "I often feel I could outperform almost anyone at anything."
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The scale was intended to identify people at risk for developing bipolar disorders.
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The researchers gave the students a hand-eye coordination test, then told them that they had scored very well, regardless of their true scores. Offered a choice of which test to take next, the hypomanic group selected a significantly more challenging exam than their peers did. These students not only expected to do very well, Dr. Johnson reports, they were more willing than peers to pursue difficult goals after an initial success.
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Researchers do not know whether this surging confidence and hunger for challenge persists, or for how long, but it is a familiar pattern to some psychiatrists who treat mild forms of bipolar disorder.
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Dr. John Gartner, a psychiatrist in Baltimore who specializes in treating hypomania, recently published "The Hypomanic Edge," a book that identifies hypomanic symptoms in the lives of American historical figures from Christopher Columbus to the biotech entrepreneur J. Craig Venter.
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"These are people who are always moving the goal posts," Dr. Gartner said in an interview. "If they do well at one thing, they shoot for the moon."
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In a footnote in his book, Dr. Gartner recounts the story of how Henry Ford sailed off on a luxury steamer on a whim in 1915 to personally end World War I and bring world peace. "I'll bet this ship against a penny," Ford boasted to the reporters, "that we'll have the boys out of the trenches by Christmas."
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This grandiosity practically begs for a tragic fall. Difficult goals are by definition less likely to be achieved, even by those with mental power packs, and there is little question that people with hypomanic tendencies feel disappointment deeply. For some, their fevered, scavenging curiosity may overwhelm any excess rumination: new projects beckon before the old ones can be mourned.
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"I'm not so much smarter than other people as faster," said Mr. McKinney, the polymath near Boston, who contacted Dr. Gartner after hearing of his book. "I swing more often, I make errors, but I make them faster. That's how I sometimes describe it. If you can focus this energy, you can do great things with it. If not, well, I think it can be difficult."
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And that is one catch. Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of the University of California's Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los Angeles, said that he considered true hypomanic types to be rare and that some of them crashed at midlife, or later.
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"Usually what happens in the clinical domain," Dr. Whybrow said, "is that these people come in when they've had a business reversal and they're very depressed. They look back on their lives and realize that they were hyperactive, hypomanic, that they started a lot of projects but finished very few of them."
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The view may be better, but it is easy to lose your balance.
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轉載于:https://www.cnblogs.com/Seraph/archive/2005/03/25/125715.html
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