Most mornings I power up the television, plug in the coffee maker and turn on my computer. After I've had my fill of forecasts, caffeine and e-mail, I head for the car. In the garage, I turn on fluorescent overhead lights. I push a button to unlock the car, another to open the garage door and still more as I tune the FM radio.

If I paid homage to the person who made it possible, Nikola Tesla's name would certainly be on my lips during the day's earliest hours. Tesla, a Croatian-born Serbian who became an American immigrant in 1884, invented many of the conveniences we still use today.

Tesla's creations, whether FM radio, spark plugs, early computers, fluorescent lights, electrical generators, A/C electricity, remote controls or the Tesla Coil used in TV and radio transmissions, were precursors to many of today's necessities and niceties.

As much as Tesla was a genius, he was mentally ill. He didn't like to touch anything dirty or round, and he hated human hair. The actions of his daily life required divisibility by three: He used 18 napkins at each meal, only slept in hotels rooms assigned a number divisible by three and walked three times around a building before entering it [source: Bayne, Tesla Memorial Society]. If Tesla were alive today, he would probably be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Turns out, the very spark that triggered Tesla's virtuosity may have been  in mental illness. The same could be said of Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo or American mathematician John Nash. Michelangelo would probably have been labeled autistic were he alive today; Nash's descent into schizophrenia was chronicled in the film, "A Beautiful Mind" [sources: Davis, PBS].

Whether it manifests as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety or anorexia, mental illness is a medical condition. It affects a person's thoughts, mood and daily life -- often negatively [source: National Alliance on Mental Illness]. Even so, mental illness has been part and parcel of some of the world's most creative minds. We'll explore why on the next page.

The Upside of Mental Illness

By 2012, as many as 30 scientific studies had been completed that uncovered links between creativity and mental illness, particularly disorders that affected mood [source: Hsu].

Researchers conducting one such study of Swedish teenagers discovered straight-A students were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder, a mental illness marked by alternating moods of elation and depression, illustrating a correlation between intelligence and higher instances of mental illness. As the study subjects' emotional state transitioned from low to high, there was evidence of increased activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. This area is known for regulating creativity.

The study was expanded in 2012 to include more than 1 million participants, and researchers reported a link between artists, authors and scientists and the propensity to develop mental illness. Not only bipolar disorder, but a whole suite of mental illnesses, from drug abuse to anorexia nervosa and depression. A single gene, known as DARPP-32, is suspected to cause the link between intelligence and mental illness. A study found that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have the version of DARPP-32 that boosted performance on tasks involving thinking and filtering of information [source: National Institute of Mental Health].

Studies such as these could affect the way mental illness is understood and treated. If a scientist grapples with a bipolar disorder, but relies on the moments of brilliance that bubble up when depression transitions into mania, what is the best treatment? A medication that makes the majority of his days more bearable (and potentially keeps him from self-harm) or a behavior modification program that allows for feverish, singular obsessions? In some cases, a tandem approach is best, combining drug therapy with behavioral therapy to decrease stressful triggers or cognitive therapy to change thought patterns.

While some psychologists and researchers claim there's an "upside" to mental illness, one that produces bouts of creative and productive thinking, there is a clear downside, too. Untreated bipolar disorder, for example, can lead to substance abuse or suicide. If mental illness represents a classic case of risk versus benefits, it also is an intensely personal equation [source: Science Daily].

Of course, there's also the matter of opposing evidence. Some studies have shown no difference in IQ levels between those with bipolar disorder and those without it. Others indicate that greater acumen is a protective factor against the most psychotic illnesses and that low intellect is associated with developing, for example, severe bipolar disorder. A great deal of research is being carried out in this area, with the aim of fully understanding how this illness is linked to intelligence [source: Collingwood]. 

The Link between Intelligence and Mental Illness

智力和精神疾病的关联

 Is the stereotype of the mad scientist just a myth or is there some truth as well?

图释：疯狂的科学家的刻板印象是神话，还是真有点道理？

 

Despite its moniker, mental illness often has a biological component. Some researchers suspect it has to do with a person's inability to shut out stimuli. Selectively ignoring certain incoming sights, sounds and thoughts is a hallmark of the mentally healthy, a trait psychologists call "latent inhibition." For example, a study of nearly 200,000 20-year-old Finnish males found those with higher intelligence were more than 12 times more likely to develop bipolar disorder as they aged. The link, surmised researchers, was the capability to rapidly process information while problem-solving, a hyper-alertness thought to accompany some types of mental illnesses [source: Collingwood]. Turns out, the selective hearing your child or spouse develops when it is time to take out the trash may be a good thing.

尽管名为“精神”疾病，但精神疾病往往具有生物方面的组成部分。一些研究人员猜测，精神疾病和一个人无法排除刺激有关。选择性地忽略某些进入大脑的视觉、声音和思想，是心理健康的标志，心理学家把这个特点称为"潜伏性抑制"。 例如，一项对近20万人的20岁芬兰男性的研究发现，那些智力较高的男性随着年龄增长，患双相情感障碍的可能性增加了12倍。研究人员推测，这种联系是解决问题的时候快速处理信息的能力，这种高度警觉的思考伴随着某些类型的精神疾病[source: Collingwood]。原来，你的孩子或配偶发展出的、对于“把垃圾放到屋外”之类的话的选择性倾听，可能是一件好事。

 On the other hand, biology could be behind a person's propensity for certain mental maladies. For example, researchers have discovered nerve cells in a portion of the brain called the posterior cingulate cortex become more active when monkeys explore potentially rewarding new courses of behavior instead of the normal routines. It is suspected that for people who have an obsessive-compulsive disorder compelling them to adhere to strict behavioral patterns, the flexibility to pursue new -- even potentially gratifying -- avenues is absent [source: Futurity].

另一方面，生物学可能是一个人某些精神疾病的倾向的背后原因。例如，研究人员发现，当猴子探索可能得到奖励的新行为过程而不是惯例时，大脑中称为后皮层（posterior cingulate cortex）的神经细胞变得更加活跃。人们怀疑，那些患有强迫症而坚持严格的行为模式的人，没有追求新的行为模式的灵活性，就算新模式令人愉悦也不行。

 And then there are those who defy their diseases. Although Tesla exhibited behaviors consistent with obsessive-compulsive disorder, his thought process was agile. Just as engineers now use computer models to construct a complicated apparatus, Tesla virtually tested and recalibrated every invention before ever building a single prototype. Only he did it entirely in his own mind!

还有那些无视自己的疾病的人。虽然特斯拉表现出与强迫症一致的行为，但他的思维过程是敏捷的。正如工程师现在使用计算机模型来建造一个复杂的设备一样，特斯拉在构建单个原型之前，对每一项发明都进行了虚拟的测试和重新校准。只有他完全在自己头脑中做!

 Tesla's autobiography, in which he described his creative process, reveals that across hundreds of inventions, he never built a device that didn't work as he thought it would [source: Knapp]. The link between intelligence and mental illness -- even if we don't fully understand it -- often seems to be two sides of the same coin.

特斯拉的自传描述了他的创作过程，揭示了在数百项发明中，他从未制造过一个没有按照他所设想的样子运转的装置[source: Knapp]。智力和精神疾病之间的联系——即使我们不完全理解——往往像是同一枚硬币的两面。

 Author's Note: Is there a link between intelligence and mental illness?

作者提示：智力和精神疾病有关联吗？

When I began researching this article, I wondered how many of the world's historical geniuses would be considered mentally ill were they alive today? Turns out, probably many of them. From the suspected autism of Michelangelo, bipolar tendencies of Sylvia Path and depression of Abraham Lincoln, there are plenty of suppositions to be made. In the end, what I really found interesting was the connection between mental illness and intellect at either end of the spectrum. Both a high IQ and a low IQ are thought to protect against some forms of mental illness -- and potentially cause mental illness, too.

我开始研究此文的时候，我好奇——如果史上的天才都活在今天，多少人会被诊断为精神疾病患者。恐怕有很多。从米开朗基罗疑似的自闭症，到西尔维娅·普拉斯（Sylvia Plath，1932—1963，美国女诗人）的两极倾向，到亚布拉罕·林肯的抑郁症，会有很多推测。最后，有趣的发现是，精神疾病和智力的关联处于光谱的两段。高智商和低智商都被认为能防止某些种类的精神疾病——同时也可能导致精神疾病。

译后

近日中央音乐学院一教师身亡引起一些讨论，还扩展到了智力和精神疾患的关联。发达国家对此议题的研究已经相当丰富，但尚无结论，甚至连相关性也没有最终确认。所以，目前更稳妥的说法是：智力和精神疾患没有关联。希望未来的研究能给出答案。

逻辑常识之一是“相关非因果”。但“相关”和“因果”经常被混同起来。坊间或许有“高智商（或高创造力人才）更容易有精神疾患”的传言，但严谨的学术研究尚没有任何证据支持这个因果关系。反智主义，对具有杰出才能的人的嫉妒心，不应该是我们随意赞同这个传言的理由。

 

译出科学普及型短文一篇分享，或许能增加一点思考的材料。原文有很多外链均某明奇妙地被新浪博客识别为敏感词，不能分享，很遗憾。——吴骏, 2019/6/14

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