If the very thought of spatial¹ and mathematical tasks, such as reading a map or solving a geometry problem, makes you nervous, it could be partly due to your genes², suggests a new research. “Our results have important implications for finding specific genes which contribute to differences in anxiety between people,” said Margherita Malanchini from the Institute of Psychiatry³, Psychology⁴ and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

你是不是经常会有这种感觉，只要一想到空间和数学问题就会变得紧张焦虑，比如在查阅地图或者求解几何问题时就会出现这种情况。最新研究发现，这可能有一部分是因为你的基因问题。就职于伦敦国王学院精神病学、心理学和神经科学研究所的Margherita Malanchini 称，“研究人员现在正在寻找一些造成人与人之间焦虑差异的特定基因，而我们的调查结果对他们的工作有着重要意义。”

“Pinpointing⁵ specific genes for anxiety could help in identifying children who are most at risk from very early in their lives, and subsequently to intervene and prevent the development of anxiety,” Malanchini added.

Malanchini 补充说，“如果能找到引发人们焦虑的特定基因，就可以从早期识别出那些面临风险最高的儿童，从而对这些基因采取干预手段，预防焦虑的进一步发展。”

In the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers measured anxiety in a sample of more than 1,400 twin pairs aged 19 to 21 from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS).

这份研究被发表在《科学报告》杂志上，研究人员在《双胞胎早期发展研究》(TEDS)上选取了1400多对19到21岁的双胞胎样本，并对他们的焦虑水平进行了测定。

The researchers identified several different forms of anxiety — general, mathematics, navigation and rotation/visualisation.

由此研究人员总结出几种不同形式的焦虑：一般性焦虑、数学焦虑、驾驶焦虑以及旋转/视觉化焦虑。

All forms of anxiety showed a substantial genetic⁶ component⁷, with DNA⁸ explaining over a third of the differences between people.

而所有形式的焦虑都是由大量的遗传因素造成的，人类之间超过三分之一的差异都可以用基因来解释。

Non-shared environments were found to explain the rest of the differences between people in spatial anxiety, which are environments that twins raised in the same family do not share, such as different extra-curricular activities, teachers and friends.

研究人员还发现，除了基因，导致人与人之间产生空间焦虑差异的还有另外一个因素，那就是不共享环境，顾名思义，不共享环境就是生活在同一家庭下的双胞胎不会彼此分享的环境，例如两个人有不一样的课外活动、老师和同学等。

Non-shared environments such as driving, cycling or playing computer games may be particularly relevant to spatial anxiety, the researchers said.

研究人员称，类似于开车、骑自行车或者玩电脑游戏时的不共享环境可能和空间焦虑尤其相关。

The study also showed that people who are anxious about navigation are not necessarily anxious about rotation/visualisation tasks, such as completing a complex jigsaw⁹ puzzle.

这项研究同时说明，对驾驶感到焦虑的人不一定会对旋转/视觉化的任务(比如完成一幅复杂的拼图)感到焦虑。

The same was found for mathematics and general anxiety, showing that those who experience spatial anxiety do not necessarily tend to experience anxiety when faced with a mathematical tasks.

而在对比数学和一般性焦虑时，研究人员也得出了同样的结论，即那些有空间焦虑的人不一定对数学任务也感到焦虑。

The researchers also found a small but significant gender¹⁰ difference in their sample, with women showing higher levels of anxiety than men across all areas.

研究人员还在样本中发现了一个虽然很小但是却很重要的性别差异，女性在所有领域中的焦虑水平都要高于男性。

This could be due to women being more willing to disclose their feelings of anxiety, or anxiety caused by the stereotype¹¹ that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects are “for men”, the researchers said.

对此研究人员表示，这可能是因为女性更愿意表露出自己焦虑的感觉，或者是受刻板印象的影响，觉得科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)这些科目都是给男生准备的，因而在接触相关东西的时候就会感到焦虑。