ScienceDaily (May 25, 2010) — Exposure to specific bacteria in the environment , already believed to have antidepressant qualities, could increase learning behavior, according to research presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego. 發表在110屆的ASM的研究指出，暴露在特定的細菌可以增強學習行為。 "Mycobacterium vaccae is a natural soil bacterium which people likely ingest or breath in when they spend time in nature," says Dorothy Matthews of The Sage Colleges in Troy, New York, who conducted the research with her colleague Susan Jenks. Mycobacterium vaccae是一種在土壤裡的細菌，當我們接觸大自然就可以吸到。Dorothy Matthews表示。Matthews和Jenks一起完成了這個研究。 Previous research studies on M. vaccae showed that heat-killed bacteria injected into mice stimulated growth of some neurons in the brain that resulted in increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety. 前人研究發現，加熱死掉的細胞注射到小鼠裡，會刺激一些大腦神經的生長。這是由於血 清素的增加和減少焦慮。 "Since serotonin plays a role in learning we wondered if live M. vaccae could improve learning in mice," says Matthews. 由於血清素會促進學習效果， Matthews and Jenks fed live bacteria to mice and assessed their ability to navigate a maze compared to control mice that were not fed the bacteria. 所以Matthews和Jenks餵了小鼠五隻活的M.vaccae，並觀察他們在迷宮理的表現。而對照組 並沒有被餵食細菌。 "We found that mice that were fed live M. vaccae navigated the maze twice as fast and with less demonstrated anxiety behaviors as control mice," says Matthews. 有吃M. vaccae的小鼠比對照組有兩倍的學習能力，而且較不焦慮。 In a second experiment the bacteria were removed from the diet of the experimental mice and they were retested. While the mice ran the maze slower than they did when they were ingesting the bacteria, on average they were still faster than the controls. 接著，停止餵食實驗組的老鼠，但結果雖然學習能力下降，整體來說還是快於控制組。 A final test was given to the mice after three weeks' rest. While the experimental mice continued to navigate the maze faster than the controls, the results were no longer statistically significant, suggesting the effect is temporary. 三週後再度測試，發現實驗組以及對照組並沒有顯著差異。這指出這種效果可能是短暫性 的。 "This research suggests that M. vaccae may play a role in anxiety and learning in mammals," says Matthews. "It is interesting to speculate that creating learning environments in schools that include time in the outdoors where M. vaccae is present may decrease anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks." 這是一個有趣的研究，M. vaccae對於減少焦慮以及增進學習扮演重要的角色。 -- 原網址： http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143416.htm 其實我有個疑問 就是這篇的暴露量是一般人日常生活接觸土壤就可以達到 還是要有很高的劑量。 也就是所謂的是否具有生態效度。 但無論如何，這研究頗有趣的，大家多多踏青吧 XD --

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