一般性焦虑病人过度焦虑反而智商更高

近日，有研究表明，焦虑同智商共同进化。

人们的焦虑会随着智力一起变化，近日，来自美国纽约州立大学南部医学中心的研究者通过剔除大脑皮质下白质的营养物胆碱，发现高智商和担忧焦虑同大脑的活动相关。相关研究刊登在了近日的杂志Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience上，结果表明人类的智力随着担忧共同进化。

研究者Coplan表示，我们一般认为过度担忧是一种负面效应，然而高智商却是一种正面效应。担忧可以使我们避免一些危险的情况，尽管这种危险事件发生的概率很低。从本质上来说，担忧通常是我们觉得自己没有什么机会了，这种人往往具有更高的生存率。就比如说智力，担忧往往对智力发展有一定好处。

在这项焦虑和智力的研究中，研究者测定了一般性焦虑症病人（GAD）和正常志愿者的智商（IQ）、焦虑以及胆碱的皮质下白质代谢过程。正常组的研究结果表明，高智商人群往往存在低焦虑症；而在GAD组中，高智商人群往往和高焦虑症状相关。在GAD组和正常健康人群组中，IQ和焦虑的关系表现的很明显，对于前者来说，IQ和焦虑表现为正相关，而对于后者来说，IQ和焦虑表现为负相关。正常志愿者中有8位男性、10位女性；GAD组中有12位男性、14位女性。

以前有研究表明，高焦虑症出现在高智商人群和低智商人群中，而在智商中等的人群中却很少出现高焦虑。而且低智商者或许会遭受更多的焦虑症状，因为他们人生中成功的次数非常至少。

doi:10.3389/fnevo.2011.00008
PMC:
PMID:

The relationship between intelligence and anxiety: an association with subcortical white matter metabolism

Jeremy D. Coplan1*, Sarah Hodulik1, Sanjay J. Mathew2, Xiangling Mao3, Patrick R. Hof4, Jack M. Gorman5 and Dikoma C. Shungu3

We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence. We have also shown that both worry and intelligence exhibit an inverse correlation with certain metabolites in the subcortical white matter. Here we re-examine the relationships among generalized anxiety, worry, intelligence, and subcortical white matter metabolism in an extended sample. Results from the original study were combined with results from a second study to create a sample comprised of 26 patients with GAD and 18 healthy volunteers. Subjects were evaluated using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, the Wechsler Brief intelligence quotient (IQ) assessment, and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI) to measure subcortical white matter metabolism of choline and related compounds (CHO). Patients with GAD exhibited higher IQ’s and lower metabolite concentrations of CHO in the subcortical white matter in comparison to healthy volunteers. When data from GAD patients and healthy controls were combined, relatively low CHO predicted both relatively higher IQ and worry scores. Relatively high anxiety in patients with GAD predicted high IQ whereas relatively low anxiety in controls also predicted high IQ. That is, the relationship between anxiety and intelligence was positive in GAD patients but inverse in healthy volunteers. The collective data suggest that both worry and intelligence are characterized by depletion of metabolic substrate in the subcortical white matter and that intelligence may have co-evolved with worry in humans.