"Happiness" also Has Gene快乐”也有基因Positive people may owe their optimism to a gene variant that helps them dwell on the good and ignore the bad.

永持乐观心态的人或许是因为他们拥有能帮助他们凡事都向好的方面看且自动忽略消极影响的变异基因。

That's the conclusion from a study examining people's subliminal preferences for happy, neutral, and threatening images.

这个结论是从接受检测的人在看到愉悦、中立和有威胁性的图像时所做出的潜意识选择的实验中得出来的。

Volunteers who had inherited two copies of the "long”variant of 5-HTTLPR, a gene that controls transport of the mood-affecting neurotransmitter serotonin showed clear avoidance of negative images, such as fierce animals, and a clear preference for positive ones, such as puppies.

People with this variant combination are dubbed "LL" carriers.

拥有两对长”变异5-HTTLPR基因(5-HTTLPR基因能够控制影响人情绪的神经递质血清素的传递)的志愿者表现出对消极图像的明显排斥，如凶猛的动物，和对积极图像的明显偏爱，如小狗。

带有这种变异基因组合的人被称为LL"携带者。

The effect wasn't seen in volunteers with at least one version of the "short"variant of the same gene these people showed no strong preference whatever the content of the images.

这种趋利”避害”的特性在遗传了至少一条短”变异5-HTTLPR基因的志愿者身上则看不到，这样的人对不同图片并没有明显的喜好。

Time lapse慢速拍摄In repeated tests, the 97 volunteers had less than a second to identify dots hidden in one or other of a pair of adjacent images.

Each pair contained a neutral image alongside one that was either positive or negative.

在重复实验中，97名志愿者需在不超过一秒的时间里分辨出隐藏在一对相邻图像中任意一张里的黑点。

每一对图像都是一张中立的和一张或积极或消极的图像。

The researchers found that LL volunteers took 18.

3 milliseconds longer on average to spot the dots in a negative rather than neutral image, suggesting a subliminal aversion to bad images.

研究发现，携带LL基因的志愿者找出消极图像中的黑点要比在中立图像中找到黑点多用时I 8.

3毫秒，这就表明这部分志愿者在潜意识里不喜欢看到负面的图像。

Conversely, they noticed the dots 23.

5 milliseconds sooner in the positive images, such as cuddly puppies, than in the neutral ones, suggesting they were subliminally drawn to them.

"It sounds very small, but in terms of attentional time,it's consistent,”says team leader Elaine Fox of the University of Essex in Colchester, UK.

相反地，这些志愿者在积极的图像—如可爱的小狗—中找到黑点比找出中立图像中的黑点用时短23.

5毫秒，这意味着他们潜意识里被正面图像吸引。

对此，英国科尔切斯特市埃塞克斯大学的研究小组组长伊莱恩·福克斯说道:听起来差别很小，但说到集中注意力的时间，这个研究结果前后则是一致的。

”Optimistic streak乐观的记号Fox and her colleagues conclude that the LL volunteers may be primed to seek out positive events and ignore negative events.

福克斯和她的同事们作出结论:携带LL基因的志愿者也许天生就能寻找积极向上的事情，而忽略所有有负面影响的事件。

Earlier studies had revealed a tendency for negativity and anxiety among individuals with at least one short variant of the gene, but the study is the first to reveal an optimistic streak in LL individuals.

早期有研究显示拥有至少一条短变异5-HTTLPR基因的个体在性格上有消极和抑郁的趋势，不过这次的研究第一次揭示了乐观个性和LI基因携带者之间的关系。

"A number of mechanisms may contribute to this difference, and the authors have provided good evidence that attentional bias in the processing of emotional stimuli may be one of those mechanisms,”says Turban Canli, who has studied the same phenomenon at Stony Brook University in New York.

有许多运行机制都可能造成这种个性上的差异，作者为我们提供了切实的证据来说明，情绪刺激过程中出现的的注意力偏见也许是其中一种运行机制。

”纽约斯托尼布鲁克大学的图汉·参利，一位同样研究这一现象的学者如是说。

【双语美文欣赏：“快乐”也有基因查看网站：[db:时间]】