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，你可以这样安慰自己：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(Northwestern University)的一项新研究表明，过滤不相关感官信息能力的缺失可能与创造力密切相关。

　　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(Charles Darwin)和俄罗斯小说家契科夫(Anton Chekhov)等创造型天才的例子，还有工作时一直带着耳塞、用软木堵住卧室隔绝外界噪音并因此闻名的法国文学家马塞尔·普鲁斯特(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."

　　该研究主笔达里娅·扎比琳娜(Darya L. Zabelina)称：“在大脑处理信息之初，过滤不相关感官信息的倾向会自动产生……这或许可以帮助人们整合那些自己关注点之外的想法，实现现实世界的创造力。”

　　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.

　　研究人员对100名参与者进行了分析。参与者要在有限时间内对一些不寻常的设定情景提出尽可能多的解决方案。随后，研究人员要求参与者填写“创造性成就量表”(Creative Achievement Questionnaire)，包括视觉艺术、创造性写作、科学发现、烹饪技术等10个领域的创造性成就。

　　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，那些答案最具创新性、创造性成就最多的参与者，在测试时对外界噪音的反应也最为敏感。

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（责任编辑：何莹莹）