WEDNESDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) -- Worrying may have co-
evolved with intelligence as an important survival trait in
humans, new research suggests. For the study, researchers looked
at 26 people with generalized anxiety disorder and compared them
to a group of 18 healthy volunteers without the disorder. The
investigators found that both worry and high intelligence were
associated with brain activity measured by the depletion of the
nutrient choline in the brain's white matter. This suggests that
worry may have co-evolved with intelligence, said Dr. Jeremy
Coplan, a professor of psychiatry at the State University of New
York Downstate Medical Center in New York City. "While excessive
worry is generally seen as a negative trait and high
intelligence as a positive one, worry may cause our species to
avoid dangerous situations, regardless of how remote a
possibility they may be," Coplan said in a center news release.
"In essence, worry may make people 'take no chances,' and such
people may have higher surviva