Study: Living In A City Might Make You Crazy

Study: Living In A City Might Make You Crazy

 Ever wondered why those apple-cheeked Himalayan villagers look so untroubled, even as most of your friends and family make weekly visits to the therapist? You might finally have your answer -- and it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

According to a study reported in the science journal Nature, city-dwellers are more prone¹ to mental disorders³ than those living in villages and smaller towns.

Psychiatrist⁴ Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg and collaborators at the Central Institute of Mental Health and the University of Heidelberg Medical Faculty⁵ in Mannheim, Germany recruited 32 volunteers from cities, towns and villages and asked them to work on difficult arithmetic problems while monitoring brain activity. Meyer-Lindenberg found that that volunteers who currently lived in a city exhibited greater activity in the amygdala -- the brain part that is overactive in persons with social anxiety disorder². He also found that those raised in a city showed more activity in the perigenual anterior⁶ cingulate cortex (pACC), a region that has been implicated⁷ in some studies on schizophrenia.

The results of the initial study encouraged Meyer-Lindenberg to conduct a further study, this time with visual cues of scientists frowning at those working on the problems. Again they found a greater stress response in those volunteers who lived in the city. According to Nature, even the most powerful gene⁸ linked to schizophrenia only conveys a 20 percent increased risk. But the disease is twice as common in those who are city-born and raised as in those from the countryside, and the bigger the city, the higher the risk.

However, the small sample size means that the results so far are not conclusive⁹.

The team now plans to conduct similar studies on the general population and on immigrants to map the connection between social isolation¹⁰ and mental illness.

While epidemiologists have long sought out -- and proven -- the link between the mental illness and the attendant stresses of city life, neuroscientists have thus far stayed away from such studies. This is perhaps the first study of its kind by a psychiatrist. 

1 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

5 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

6 anterior   

adj.较早的；在前的

参考例句：

• We've already finished the work anterior to the schedule.我们已经提前完成了工作。
• The anterior part of a fish contains the head and gills.鱼的前部包括头和鳃。

7 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

9 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。

10 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。