站着办公可能让你更聪明

This is an odd admission for a psychiatrist to make, but I’ve never been very good at sitting still. I’m antsy in my chair and jump at any opportunity to escape it. When I’m trying to work out a difficult problem, I often stand and move about the office.

一个精神科医生说这个显得挺奇怪的，但我从不擅长于安稳坐着。在椅子上的我总是坐立不安，能逃则逃。当我想解决一个困难的问题时，我通常会站起来，在办公室里走动。

We’ve known for a while that sitting for long stretches of every day has myriad health consequences, like a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, that culminate in a higher mortality rate. But now a new study has found that sitting is also bad for your brain. And it might be the case that lots of exercise is not enough to save you if you’re a couch potato the rest of the time.

我们早就知道，每天长时间地坐着对健康会有许多影响，比如，心脏病和糖尿病的风险会更高，最终导致更高的死亡率。但现在，一项新研究证明了坐姿对你的大脑也有害。如果你的其余时间都坐在沙发上，那么可能大量的运动也不足以拯救你。

A study published last week, conducted by Dr. Prabha Siddarth at the University of California at Los Angeles, showed that sedentary behavior is associated with reduced thickness of the medial temporal lobe, which contains the hippocampus, a brain region that is critical to learning and memory.

加州大学洛杉矶分校(University of California at Los Angeles)的普拉巴.希达斯(Prabha Siddarth)博士进行的一项研究表明，久坐行为与大脑内颞叶的厚度减少有关，大脑内颞叶中含有的海马体是学习和记忆的关键区域。该研究于上周发表。

The researchers asked a group of 35 healthy people, ages 45 to 70, about their activity levels and the average number of hours each day spent sitting and then scanned their brains with M.R.I. They found that the thickness of their medial temporal lobe was inversely correlated with how sedentary they were; the subjects who reported sitting for longer periods had the thinnest medial temporal lobes.

研究人员向35名年龄在45到70岁之间的健康人士询问了他们的活动水平和每天坐着的平均小时数，然后使用MRI对他们的大脑进行了扫描。研究人员发现，他们大脑内颞叶的厚度与他们久坐的程度负相关；报告自己坐着的时间较长的研究对象大脑内颞叶最薄。

The implication is that the more time you spend in a chair the worse it is for your brain health, resulting in possible impairment in learning and memory.

这意味着，你在椅子上坐的时间越久，就越不利于你的大脑健康，可能会导致学习和记忆受损。

Of course, the study cannot prove that this link is causal. It’s possible that people with pre-existing cognitive problems might just be more sedentary. Still, the researchers screened the subjects to rule out major medical and psychiatric disorders, so this explanation is unlikely.

当然，这项研究不能证明这种联系的因果性。前期存在认知问题的人也有可能会坐得更久。但研究人员对受试者进行了筛选，排除了重大医疗和精神疾病，因此这种解释的可能性不大。

What’s also intriguing is that this study did not find a significant association between the level of physical activity and thickness of this brain region, suggesting that exercise, even strenuous exercise, may not be enough to protect you from the harmful effects of sitting.

同样有趣的是，这项研究并没有在体育活动水平和大脑这块区域的厚度之间发现显著的相关性，这就表明，运动--甚至是剧烈运动--可能不足以使你免受久坐的危害。

This all puts me in mind of the Peripatetics, followers of Aristotle, who conducted their philosophical inquiries while strolling about the Lyceum in ancient Athens. Sounds as if they were on to something.

这一切都让我想起了逍遥学派--这是追随亚里士多德的学派，他们会一边进行哲学探讨，一边在古希腊的莱森学园(Lyceum)中漫步。听起来他们这样好像有点道理。

But what is it about walking - besides increased blood flow to the brain - that might facilitate thinking? Perhaps it’s the fact that you are constantly bombarded by new stimuli and inputs as you move about, which helps derail linear thinking and encourages a more associative, unfocused thought process.

但是除了增进了血液向大脑的流动，是什么让步行促进了思考？或许是因为当你在四处走动时，你会不断地接收新的刺激和输入，帮助你脱离了线性思维，并助长了更富有联想的、分散的思维过程。

I remember once forgetting the combination to my lock in the gym. Standing there naked, dripping wet and in a panic that I would be late to an important meeting, I tried one wrong combination after another. When that didn’t work, I walked around the locker room in a daze for a few minutes, came back to the lock and - voila - opened it instantly.

记得有一次，我忘了健身房储物柜的密码。我赤身裸体站在那里大汗淋漓，担心自己会赶不上一个重要会议，不禁惊恐万分。我试了一个又一个错误的密码，全都失败了。我不知所措地在更衣室里转了几分钟，然后回到储物柜--哇--一下就打开了。

Intriguingly, you don’t even have to move much to enhance cognition; just standing will do the trick. For example, two groups of subjects were asked to complete a test while either sitting or standing. The test - called Stroop - measures selective attention. Participants are presented with conflicting stimuli, like the word “green” printed in blue ink, and asked to name the color. Subjects thinking on their feet beat those who sat by a 32-millisecond margin.

有趣的是，你甚至不需要为增强认知而做太多动作。只要站着就可以做到这一点。例如，两组受试者被要求在坐着或站立时完成测试。该测试名为Stroop，是用来测试选择性注意力的。参与者看到相互冲突的刺激物，比如用蓝色墨水印出的“绿色”字样，并被要求说出这种颜色的名称。站着思考的受试者比坐着的受试者快32毫秒。

The cognitive benefits of strenuous physical exercise are well known. But the possibility that the minimal exertion of standing more and sitting less improves brain health could lower the bar for everyone.

剧烈运动对认知的益处是众所周知的。但是，尽量多站少坐，这样的微小努力也可以改善大脑健康，这种可能性可以帮助所有人降低锻炼标准。

It’s also yet another good argument for getting rid of sitting desks in favor of standing desks for most people. For example, one study assigned a group of 34 high school freshman to a standing desk for 27 weeks. The researchers found significant improvement in executive function and working memory by the end of the study. (True, there was no control group of students using a seated desk, but it’s unlikely that this change was a result of brain maturation, given the short study period.)

这也是大多数人摆脱坐式办公桌，转向立式办公桌的又一个好理由。例如，一项研究让34名高一学生使用站立式书桌学习27周。研究结束时，研究人员发现他们的执行功能和工作记忆得到显著改善。（研究中的确没有使用坐式书桌的对照组，但考虑到研究时间较短，这种改变不太可能是大脑发育成熟的结果。）

I know, this all runs counter to received notions about deep thought, from our grade-school teachers, who told us to sit down and focus, to Rodin’s famous “Thinker,” seated with chin on hand.

我知道，这与我们从小学老师那里得到的关于深思的想法背道而驰，他们让我们坐下来，专心致志，一手托腮，就像罗丹著名的雕塑《思考者》那样。

They were wrong. You can now all stand up.

他们错了。现在你可以站起来了。