新发现：戴眼镜的人真的更聪明！

It's one of the oldest, weather-worn clichés: that people who wear glasses are somehow smarter than those who don't. It's ridiculous, unfounded, and – it turns out – actually true.

近现代社会中历史最悠久的一种成见：戴眼镜的人比那些不戴眼镜的人更聪明。听起来荒谬，毫无根据，却得到了事实证明，它说的是真的。

The largest study to date investigating the genetic underpinnings of intelligencesuggests there is in fact a link between wearing glasses (or contact lenses) and cognitive function, with intelligent people almost 30 percent more likely to be glasses wearers.

迄今为止关乎智力遗传基础的最大规模的研究表明，戴眼镜(包括隐形眼镜)和认知功能之间存在联系，高智商人群中几乎有30%是戴眼镜的。

"This study, the largest genetic study of cognitive function, has identified many genetic differences that contribute to the heritability of thinking skills," says genetic statistician Gail Davies from the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

“本次是最大型的对认知功能的遗传学研究，确定了许多遗传性差异，这些遗传差异可以解释思维能力水平的遗传性。”英国爱丁堡大学的遗传统计学家Gail Davies说。

"The discovery of shared genetic effects on health outcomes and brain structure provides a foundation for exploring the mechanisms by which these differences influence thinking skills throughout a lifetime."

“发现同一组基因对健康状况和大脑结构同时具有影响，为探索这些遗传差异影响思维能力的机制提供了线索。”

While old stereotypes about glasses wearers being smarter are based upon the unsupported assumption that geeky types require optical assistance after straining their eyes through excessive reading (and hence learning), the new data suggests there isn't such a simple case of cause and effect.

尽管认为眼镜佩戴者更聪明的陈腐观念完全没有事实支持，人们似乎是通过不正确的假设，即“更聪明的人更加喜爱阅读，因此更加容易出现屈光不正的问题”而得到的正确结论，但新数据表明，不能使用如此简单的推理方式来确定因果关系。

Davies and her team combed through the genetic information of over 300,000 individuals compiled from existing genomic databases, in which participants submitted samples for DNA analysis, answered questionnaires, and underwent tests designed to give a measure of their general cognitive ability.

Davies和她的团队梳理了现有基因组数据库收录的30多万份个人的遗传信息，其中参与者提交了DNA分析样本的同时，也回答了问卷，并通过了旨在衡量其普通认知能力的测试。

When they analysed the genetic data, the researchers discovered 148 genome-wide regions associated with general cognitive function, including 58 genomic sites that hadn't previously been linked with intelligence.

当他们分析遗传数据时，研究人员发现了148全基因组区域与普通认知功能相关，其中58处关联智力水平的基因组位点尚属首次发现。

They also found 42 genome-wide loci linked to reaction time, 40 of which are new to science.

他们还发现了42处与反应时间相关的全基因组测序位点，其中40处对于科学家来说也是新的发现。

In the study, the participants from the three existing cohorts were all of European ancestry and aged between 16 and 102, and among this group, those who exhibited higher intelligence were 28 percent more likely to need glasses or contact lenses and 32 percent more likely to be shortsighted.

在这项研究中，三组参与者全部为欧洲裔，年介于16到102岁之间。在组中，那些表现出更高智力水平的人，需要戴眼镜或隐形眼镜的可能性提高了28%。呵，目光短浅。

A number of other health factors also turned up in the data. In addition to being more likely to wear glasses, intelligent people were significantly less likely to experience hypertension, heart attack, angina, lung cancer or osteoarthritis.

数据中还出现了一些其他健康因素。除了更可能戴眼镜之外，聪明的人更不容易患高血压，心脏病，心绞痛，肺癌或骨关节炎。

They were also 30 percent less likely to experience a major depressive disorder, and 17 percent more likely to live longer.

他们罹患严重抑郁症的可能性减少30%，长寿的可能性增加17%。

One of the limitations of the research is all the data come from individuals with European ancestry, meaning we can't extrapolate the insights to people from other genetic backgrounds.

该研究的局限性之一是所有数据都来自欧洲血统的个体，这意味着我们无法判断来自其他遗传背景的人，是否满足实验的结论。

But the staggering size of the congregated cohort means there's a wealth of information for scientists to learn from here, as these genome-wide analyses become ever greater in scope, giving us a better chance to truly understand what it is that makes people smart.

但是，该研究采集的样本规模惊人，这意味着科学家可以从中掌握有大量的生物信息，因为全基因组测序的范围越来越大，赋予我们一个绝佳的机会来真正揭开聪明人之所以聪明的奥秘。

"Less than a decade ago we were searching for genes related to intelligence with about 3,000 participants, and we found almost nothing," says one of the researchers, cognitive epidemiologist Ian Deary.

“不到十年前，我们从大约3000名参与者提供的样本中寻找与智力相关的基因，而那次我们几乎一无所获。”研究人员之一，认知流行病学家Ian Deary说。

"Now with 100 times that number of participants, and with more than 200 scientists working together, we have discovered almost 150 genetic regions that are related to how clever people are."

“现在的参与者是当年的100倍，并且有200多位科学家共同工作，所以我们这一次收获颇丰。”

The findings are reported in Nature Communications.

相关信息来自Nature Communications的报道。