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.
下次再為同事嚼薯片聲音太大而煩惱嘆息時，你可以這樣安慰自己：事實上，這意味著你可能是個天才。

A new study from Northwestern University suggests that the inability to filter out competing sensory information is a common occurence in the creatively talented.
美國西北大學（Northwestern University）的一項新研究表明，過濾不相關感官信息能力的缺失可能與創造力密切相關。

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.
研究列舉了生物學家查爾斯·達爾文（Charles Darwin）和俄羅斯小說家契科夫（Anton Chekhov）等創造型天才的例子，還有工作時一直帶著耳塞、用軟木堵住臥室隔絕外界噪音并因此聞名的法國文學家馬塞爾·普魯斯特（Marcel Proust）。

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."
該研究主筆達里婭·扎比琳娜（Darya L. Zabelina）稱：“在大腦處理信息之初，過濾不相關感官信息的傾向會自動產生……這或許可以幫助人們整合那些自己關注點之外的想法，實現現實世界的創造力。”

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.
研究人員對100名參與者進行了分析。參與者要在有限時間內對一些不尋常的設定情景提出盡可能多的解決方案。隨后，研究人員要求參與者填寫“創造性成就量表”（Creative Achievement Questionnaire），包括視覺藝術、創造性寫作、科學發現、烹飪技術等10個領域的創造性成就。

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，那些答案最具創新性、創造性成就最多的參與者，在測試時對外界噪音的反應也最為敏感。

Vocabulary
munch：大嚼
solace：慰藉
filter out：過濾
notoriously：惡名昭彰地
propensity：傾向

（譯者：清歡君 編輯：侯瑋萍）