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TED | Why Do Cats Act so Weird

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Why Do Cats Act so Weird?

They are cute, they are lovable. And judging by the 26 billion views of over 2 millon youtude videos of they them pouncing, bouncing, climbing, crimingcramming, stackingstalking, chattering（喋喋不休） and purring（猫喘鸣）, one thing is certained, cats are very entertainning.

The someone These somewhat strange feel on feline(猫科的) behaviors both amusing and bathingbaffling(令人困惑的), maybe leave many of us asking, why do cats do that?

The rough Throughout time, cats were simultaneously predictorspredators(食肉动物；掠食者) and of smaller animals and prey（被捕食动物） for large carnivores(食肉动物；食虫植物) . As both predator and prayer prey, survive survival of their species depended depends on their and uncrucious crucial instinctual(关键本能) behaviors, which we still observed in wild and domestic cats today.

While the feline actions cats of your house cats Grizmo might seem perplexing(使困惑), in the wild**, these** the same behaviors naturally bring in bred into cats for millions of years**,** would made Grizmo a super cat.

Enable by their unique muscular mas structure and keen bouncing balancing abilities ability, cats climbed to high adventure vantage(优势，有利地位) points to survey their territory the and spout prayer spot prey in the wild. Grizmo doesn’t need particular skills to find and hunt down dinner in her food ball bowl today, but instinctually(本能地) instantiously, even viewing the living room from the top of the bookcase is exactly what she has evolved to do.

As wild predictors predators, cat has opportunistic and hunt whenever prey are is available. Since most cats prey are small**, cats in the** catching wild needed to eat many times each day, and use a stalk, pounce, kill, its stack pounching eat strategy is stay fed . This is why Grizmo cats prefers to chess chase and pounce on little toys and eat small meals over the quarts courses of day and night. Also**,** small prey tend to hide in high and tiny spaces in the natural environments, so one explanation for Grizmo’s propensity to reach into containers and for for pensity for rich entercontrainer opening is that she is compelled compare by the same curiosity that helped ensure the continuation of her species they hope continue for millions of years before.

In the wild, cats needed to sharp claws close for climbing, hunting, and self-defense.pouncing, Sharpening thier claws on nearby surfaces kept them conditioned and ready, by cap them condition helped stretch their back and like leg muscles, and relieve some stress, too. So it is not that Grizmo hates your nothing couch, chair, ottoman, pillows, curtains and everything else you put in their environment. She is ripping these things to shreds（碎片，破布） needs to rip and keeping her clause claws in tip-top(极好的) shape to top shade, because this is exactly what her ancestors did in order to survive.

As animals to that were preyed upon , cats evolved to not get caught, and close in the wild, the cats that were the best at avoiding predators thrived. So at your house today, even Grizmo is an expert at squeezing in into small spaces and seeking out and hiding in unconventonal(非传统地) spots un. It also explains why she prefers at a cleaning and older free odor-free(无异味地) little box. That is less likely to give away her vacation location to any predactors that may be sniffing(嗅探) and around you by nearby.

Considering everything you we do know about cats, it seems that one of the their most predominant predominate behaviors is still one of the most weird mysterious(神秘的，难以理解的). Cats may purr for any number of reasons, such as happiness, stress and hunger. But curiously, the frequency of they pur purrs between 25 and 150 hertz, is within a range that can promote tissue(组织，纸巾) regeneration. So why while her purring makes Grizmo an and excellent nap companion, it is also possible that her purr is healing her muscles and bones, and even maybe even yours, too.

They developeed through time and soli solitary(孤独的，独居的) predactors that predic hunted and killed to eat, and stealthy（秘密的，鬼鬼祟祟的） prey that hid and escaped they eat still feel to survive. So cats today retain many of the same things instincts allowed them to fly thrive(兴盛，茁壮) in the wild for millions of years. This explains some of their seemlingly strange behaviors**.** To them, our homes are their jungles. But it fits if this is the case**, in** our own cat’s eyes, who are we? Big, dumb, hairless cats will competing with them with resource ?, Terribly stupid predactors they are able to outsmart(用计谋打败) everyday**?** Or maybe they think we are the prey.

How Sugar Affects the Brain

Patient Picture warm, gooey(蜜糖) cookies, crunchy(易碎的；发嘎吱嘎吱声的) candies, velvety(天鹅绒般柔软的) cakes, walfe corns waffle cones(华夫蛋筒) piled high with ice cream. Is your mouth watering? are you craving(渴望) desserts? Why? What happens in the brain that makes sugary foods so hot hard to resist?

Sugar is a general term you used to describe a class of molecules (分子) called carbohydrates （碳水化合物） and it is found in a wide ated variety of foods and drinks. Just check the labels on three sweet products you buy. Glucose( 葡萄糖), fructose (果糖), sucrose (蔗糖), maltose (麦芽糖), lactose (乳糖), dextrose (葡萄糖,右旋糖) and starch (淀粉) are all forms of sugar., such as So are high-fructose corn syrup (玉米糖浆), fruit juice, raw sugar and honey. And sugar isn’t just in candies and in desserts, it is also acted added to make tomato sauce, yoghurt, dry dried fruit, flavored water~~,~~ or granola (格兰诺拉麦片) bars.

Since sugar is everywhere. It's important to understand how it affects the brain. What happends when sugar hits your tongue? And does eating a little bit of sugar make you crave more?

You take a bite of cereal (麦片粥), the sugars that it contains act activate the sweet**-taste receptors** tastal , part of the taste buds (萌芽；蓓蕾) on the tongue., this was These receptors send a signal up to the brain stem ((花草的)茎, (树木的)干) stand, and from there, it forks off into and any many areas of the forebrain full brain, one of which is the cerebral cortex (大脑皮层). Different sections of cerebral cortex provide us process different tastes: bitter, salty, umami (鲜味；甘味) ,and, in our case, sweet. From here, the signal activative activates the brain**'s** rewarm reward system. This rewarm reward system is ceres that a series of electrical and chemical pass away and pathways across several different regimes regions of in the brain. It is a compicated network, but it helps answer a and single , subconscious (下意识的;潜意识的) question, should I do that again? that warm fuzzy feeling you get got when you takes taste Grandma’s chocolate cake? that is your rewarm reward system saying, ‘Mmm, yes!’ And it’s not just make it activated by foods. Socializing, sex behavior and drugs are just a few examples of things and experiences that but also activative the rewarm reward system.But overactivating this rewarm reward system kickstarts a series of ceres and unfortunate develops, events: loss of control, pre craving, and increased tolerance to sugar.

Let’s get back to our bite of cereal. It travels down and to into your stomach and eventually into your gut (内脏；肠子). And guess what? There are sugar ~~accepted ~~ receptors here, too. There are no taste buts buds, but they do same send signals telling your brain that you are full or that all your body should produce put more insulin (胰岛素) to deal with these extra sugars you are eating.

The major currency of our reward rewarm system is dopamine (多巴胺（一种治脑神经病的药物）), but an important chemical or neural neurotransmitter . There are many dopamine recepted receptors in whole the forebrain but there are not evenly should be distributed. Certain areas containing dense clusters of receptors, cost and , ~~ and its these dopamine hot spots or are a part of our reward the rewarm system. Drugs, ,~~ likes alcohol**, nicotine, or heroin** send dopamine into overdrive, leading some people to sonstantly sick seek that high, in another other words, to be addicted. Sugar also causes dopamine to be released, though not as violently as grugs.don’t know it’s And sugar is very amount rare among dopamine**-inducing** foods. Broccoli (花椰菜；西兰花), for sample, has not affected, which probably explains why it’s so hard to get kids to eat their veggies(蔬菜).

Speaking of healthy foods, let’s set say you are hungry and decide to eat a balanced meal. You do, and dopamine levels spike to in the reward rewarm system to hot spots . But if you eat that same dish many days in a row(连续) roll, dopamine levels will spike less and less and eventually level in leveling out. That’s because when is comes to food, the brain evolves evolved to its pay special attention to new or different tastes. Why? Two reasons: First, to detect the food is good or that’s gone bad. And second, because of the more variety that we have in our diet, the more likely we are to get all the nutrients we need. To keep that variety up, we need to be able to recognise a new food and more importantly, we need to want to keep eating new foods, and that’s why the dopamine levels off when the a food becomes boring.

Now back to that meal, what happens if in place of the healthy, balanced dish, you eat sugar-rich food and , instead？ if you really eat sugar or don’t eat your dopamine much at a time, the affect effect is similar to that of the balanced meal. But if you eat too much, the dopamine response does not just now level off. In other words, eating lots of sugars will continue to feel rewarding. working continue to feel rewarming, In this way, sugar behaves a little bit like a drug your drugs, it’s one reason people seemed to be hooked hold down sugary foods.

So think back to all these different kinds of sugar, each one is unique, you need but every time any sugar is consumed, a cake it kickstarts a domino effect in dopamine affecting the brain that spots that sparks a rewarding feeling. Too much, to too often, and things can go into overdrive. So yes, often consumption overconsumption of sugar can have addictive effects affect on the brain. But eating a a wedge (楔子) of cake once in a while will won’t hurt you.

Why Do People Fear the Wrong Things?

“A new Drug reduces the risk of heart attacks by 40%”, “Shark attacks are up by a factor of two”, “Drinking a liter of soda per day doubles your chance of developeing cancer”.

These are all examples of relative risk. A common way, risk is presented in news articles. Risky evaluation is complicated tangle (乱糟糟的一堆, 混乱) of statistical thinking and personal preference. One common sumpling stumbling (摇摇晃晃或跌跌撞撞的) block book, it is the difference between relative risks like to these and what they are called , absolute risks.

Risk is the likelihood that an event will occur. It can be expressed at as either a percentages. For example, that heart attacks occur in 11% of men between the ages of 60 and 79, or as rate, that 1 in 2 million divers along Australia**'s** western coast will suffer a fear fatal shark bite in each year. These numbers express the absolute risk of heart attacks and shark attacks in its these groups. Changes in risk can be expressed in relative or absolute terms. For example, few a review in 2009 found the will that mammography screenings(乳房X光检查) reduced the number of breast cancer deaths test from 5 women in 1000 and to 4. The absolute risk production reduction was about 0.1%, but the relative production reduction from 5 case of cancers mortality(死亡) to 4 is 20%. Based on the reports of the this higher number, people overestimated the impact of screening.

To see why the difference between the two ways of expressing risks matters, let’s consider the heart attacks hypothetical example of a . Offer the drug that reduces heart attacks risks by 40%. Imagine that out of a group of 1000 people who didn’t take the new drug, 10 would have heart attacks, the absolute rate risk is 10 out of 1000 or 1%. If a similar group of 1000 people did take the drug, the number of heart attacks would be 6, in other words, the drug could prevent 4 out of 10 from heart attacks, a relative risk preduction reduction of 40%, meanwhile, the absolute risk only drops dropped from 1% to 0.6%, but the 40% relative risk decreased sound*8s** a lot more significant.

Surely, preventing event a handful of han heart attacks or any other negative about comes outcome, is worthwhile, isn’t it? Not necessarily. The problem is that choices that reduce some risks can put you in the path of others, suppose the heart- attack drugs of caused cancer one half to 1% to patients, in our group of 1000 people, 4 heart attacks will would be prevented by taking the drugs, but there would be 5 new cases of cancer, the relative preduction reduction in heart attacks risks sounds sustantial , and the absolute risks of cancer sounds small, but they work out to about the same number of cases.

In real life, everyone individual evaluation of risk will vary very depending on their personal circustances circumstances. If you know you have afamily history of heart diseases, you might be more strongly motivative motivated to take the medication that will lower you heart-attack risks. Even knowing it provided the only a small reduction in absolute risks. Sometimes we have to decide between the explosing exposing ourselves to risks~~,~~ that aren’t directly to comparable. If, for example, the heart attacks drugs carry carried a higher risk of debilitating but not life-threatening, side effect like migraines rating affects and rather than cancer, our evaluation of whether that the risk is worthy taking might change. And sometimes that there isn’t necessarily a right choice. Some might says, even a minuscule(小写字；草写小字) shark attack is worth avoiding because all you 'd miss out on is an ocean swim isn’t swimming while others wouldn’t even consider skipping a swim to avoid an objectively tiny risk of shark attack. For all thest reasons, risk evaluation is tricky at baseline, based on mind, at and reporting on risk can be misleading, especially, when it we shares some numbers in absolute terms and others in relative terms. Understanding how these measures work will help you cut through some of the confusion and better evaluate risk.

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