Anxiety vs Intelligence

Scientists at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center have found that high intelligence and and the ability to worry both correlate with the same brain activity.  A depletion of the nutrient choline in subcortical white matter of the brain is found in cases of both high intelligence and worry.



Excessive worry is mostly seen to people as high strung and is typically portrayed in a negative light, but this worry is what causes people to stay out of dangerous situations.  People of higher intelligence tend to take less risks, and therefore have higher survival rates.

The study used a group of people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and a control group of people without it.  Only in the  in the group of people with anxiety was there a higher level of intelligence correlated with it.  Scientists have found that this connection is mostly true with higher intelligence and lower intelligence, and less in the moderate intelligence.  This could be because people who are not as smart do not achieve as much.  A higher degree of worry could definitely be a positive towards survival rate though, but may not play as big a part in today's society as it has in decades past.