Looking to Genes for the Secret to Happiness

从基因中寻找快乐的秘密

　　Our genes may have a more elevated moral sense than our minds do, according to a new study of the genetic effects of happiness. They can, it seems, reward us with healthy gene activity when we’re unselfish — and chastise us, at a microscopic level, when we put our own needs and desires first.

　　一项关于快乐的遗传学效应的新研究表明，基因的“道德意识”可能比大脑更强——当我们表现出无私的品质时，基因就显示出健康的活性以资奖励;而当我们将自己的需求和欲望排在首位时，它们就在微观层面上对我们施加惩罚。

　　To reach that slightly unsettling conclusion, researchers from the University of North Carolina and the University of California, Los Angeles, had 80 healthy volunteers complete an online questionnaire that asked why they felt satisfied with their lives. Then the researchers drew their blood and analyzed their white blood cells.

　　北卡罗来纳大学(University of North Carolina)和加州大学洛杉矶分校(University of California, Los Angeles)的研究人员邀请了80名健康的志愿者，并要求他们填写网上问卷，回答他们因何对生活感到满意。然后，研究人员抽取了这些志愿者的血样，并对其白细胞进行了分析。他们最终取得了这个令人多少有些不安的结论。

　　Scientists have long surmised that moods affect health. But the underlying cellular mechanisms were murky until they began looking at gene-expression profiles inside white blood cells. Gene expression is the complex process by which genes direct the production of proteins. These proteins jump-start other processes, which in the case of white blood cells control much of the body’s immune response.

　　长期以来，科学家们一直猜测情绪可能会影响健康，但是其潜在的细胞学机制始终令人费解——直到人们开始研究白细胞内的基因表达谱，这种情况才有所改观。基因表达是一个复杂的过程，基因藉由该过程指导蛋白质的生产。这些蛋白质则可启动其他生理过程，对于白细胞而言，是控制人体的大部分免疫反应。

　　It turned out that different forms of happiness were associated with quite different gene-expression profiles. Specifically, those volunteers whose happiness, according to their questionnaires, was primarily hedonic, to use the scientific term, or based on consuming things, had surprisingly unhealthy profiles, with relatively high levels of biological markers known to promote increased inflammation throughout the body. Such inflammation has been linked to the development of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also had relatively low levels of other markers that increase antibody production, to better fight off infections.

　　人们发现，不同形式的快乐分别与迥然相异的基因表达谱相关。具体来说，按照问卷上的答案，可将这些志愿者分为两大类：一类志愿者倾向于将自己的快乐建立于消费之上，以科学术语来说，他们是享乐主义者，他们的基因表达图谱非常不健康，那些已知可提高全身炎症水平的生物标志物的表达水平相对较高，而此类炎症与癌症、糖尿病和心血管疾病的发生有关。而那些可增加抗体产量，以便更好抵御感染的其他标志物的表达水平却相对较低。

　　The volunteers whose happiness was more eudaemonic, or based on a sense of higher purpose and service to others — a small minority of the overall group — had profiles that displayed augmented levels of antibody-producing gene expression and lower levels of the pro-inflammatory expression.

　　而另一类志愿者比较注重心理幸福感，他们更多地将快乐寄托在实现崇高的目标以及为他人(总体中的一小部分人)服务上。他们的图谱表达正相反：生产抗体的基因表达水平有所上升，而促炎症基因的表达水平较低。

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