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，还有法国小说家马塞尔·普鲁斯特（Marcel Proust），众所周知，他工作时一直带着耳塞，还用软木封住卧室来隔绝外界噪音。
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."达里娅·扎比琳娜（Darya L. Zabelina）是该研究的主要作者，她说：“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名受试者进行了分析，要求他们在有限时间内，针对一些不寻常的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“创造性成就问卷”（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。
