The next time you find yourself sighing in annoyance at your colleagues' inability to munch their crisps quietly, take solace in the fact that this could mean you are a genius.
下次再为同事嚼薯片声音太大而烦恼叹息时，你可以如此安慰自己：事实上，这意味着你可能是个天才。
A new study from Northwestern University suggests that the inability to filter out competing sensory information is a common occurence in the creatively talented.
美国西北大学的一项新研究表明，过滤不有关感官信息能力的缺失可能与创造力密切有关。
The study cites creative geniuses such as Charles Darwin, Anton Chekhov and novelist Marcel Proust, who notoriously wore ear-sTOPpers and lined his bedroom with cork to block out noise whilst he worked.
研究列举了生物学家查尔斯·达尔文和俄罗斯小说家契科夫等创造型天才的例子，还有工作时一直携带耳塞、用软木堵住卧室隔绝外面噪音并因此闻名的法国文学家马塞尔·普鲁斯特。
Lead author of the study Darya Zabelina said: "The propensity to filter out 'irrelevant' sensory information....happens early and involuntarily in brain processing and may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention, leading to creativity in the real world."
该研究主笔达里娅·扎比琳娜称：“在大脑处置信息之初，过滤不有关感官信息的倾向会自动产生……这可能可以帮助大家整理那些自己关注点以外的想法，达成现实世界的创造力。”
The study analysed 100 participants who were asked to provide as many answers as they could to several unlikely scenarios within a limited amount of time.Participants were then asked to take a "Creative Achievement Questionnaire" where they reported their creative achievements across 10 verticals, including: visual arts, creative writing, scientific discovery and culinary arts.
研究职员对100名参与者进行了剖析。参与者要在有限时间内对一些不一般的设定情景提出尽量多的解决方法。随后，研究职员需要参与者填写“创造性收获量表”，包含视觉艺术、创造性写作、科学发现、烹饪技术等10个范围的创造性收获。
Their answers revealed a strong link between those with the most creative answers and achievements and those sensitive to background noise whilst working.
研究表明，那些答案最具革新性、创造性收获最多的参与者，在测试时对外面噪音的反应也最为敏锐。
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