别想那么多了，会早死的

Long live the lazy and idle-minded.

懒惰万岁。

A new study reveals that too much brain activity as we age may lead to a shorter life span, contrary to the widely held belief that staying mentally active into old age helps keep the brain spry.

一项新的研究表明，随着年龄的增长，大脑活动过多可能导致寿命缩短，这与人们普遍认为的保持老年精神活跃有助于保持大脑活力的观点相反。

The surprising results come from a new report in the journal Nature, by researchers who analyzed post-death brain tissue. They compared the tissue of centenarians to those who died in their 60s and 70s.

这一令人惊讶的结果来自于《自然》杂志的一份新报告，该报告由分析死后脑组织的研究人员撰写。他们将百岁老人的组织与六七十岁的老人进行了比较。

The team from Harvard Medical School found that, compared to those who lived longest, those who died at younger ages had lower levels of a protein that quiets brain activity. The protein, RE1-Silencing Transcription (REST), can protect against Alzheimer’s disease, according to previous studies.

哈佛医学院的研究小组发现，与那些寿命最长的人相比，那些在较年轻时死亡的人大脑中一种能使大脑活动安静的蛋白质含量较低。根据先前的研究，这种蛋白质可以重新沉默转录(REST)，预防老年痴呆症。
 

The findings “could have such far-ranging consequences for physiology and life span,” Bruce Yanker, genetics and neurology professor at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.

哈佛医学院遗传学和神经学教授布鲁斯·扬克(bruce yanker)在一份声明中说，这些发现“可能对生理学和寿命产生深远的影响”。

Yanker is currently studying how drugs that target the protein could treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, or aging itself. But scientists still don’t know exactly how it relates to life span.

扬克目前正在研究以这种蛋白质为靶点的药物如何治疗阿尔茨海默病或衰老本身等疾病。但科学家们仍然不知道它与寿命的确切关系。

To better understand that relationship, scientists worked with mice and worms, since it’s not currently possible to measure REST in living humans. They tinkered with REST levels in worms to find that those who had more of it exhibited busier brains and also lived longer; conversely, when researchers cut the supply of REST in Methuselah roundworms, which are known for having unusually long life spans, they experienced increased neural activity and died much sooner than usual. Additionally, mice who lacked REST had more active minds with unusual spikes in brain activity similar to seizures.

为了更好地理解这种关系，科学家们对老鼠和蠕虫进行了研究，因为目前还无法测量活人的休息时间。他们对蠕虫的休息水平进行了调整，发现那些休息水平更高的人大脑更活跃，寿命更长;相反，当研究人员切断玛士撒拉蛔虫的休息时间时，它们的神经活动增加，死亡时间也比平常早得多。此外，缺乏休息的老鼠思维更活跃，大脑活动的异常峰值与癫痫相似。

According to Yanker, their research could also reveal potential benefits of other activities which impact neural rhythms, such as meditation, which he says might help treat memory loss.

据扬克说，他们的研究还可能揭示其他影响神经节律的活动的潜在益处，比如冥想，他说冥想可能有助于治疗记忆丧失。

“An exciting future area of research will be to determine how these findings relate to such higher-order human brain functions,” he said.

他说：“一个令人兴奋的未来研究领域,将是确定这些发现是如何与高阶的人脑功能相互作用的。”