無聊的工作會議讓你神遊?永遠不要爲此感到愧疚

We've all been there: You're at a dull work meeting or presentation, and your mind keeps wandering-to what to eat for lunch, your weekend plans, or what's going on with the new season of Stranger Things.
我們都有過這種經歷：你聽着無聊的工作會議或展示，而你的大腦一直在神遊--中午吃什麼、週末怎麼安排、或者新一季的《怪奇物語》會發生什麼。

Don't feel so bad about all your daydreaming. Mind-wandering may be a sign of intelligence and creativity, according to a new study in the journal Neuropsychologia. And as long as your performance at work are doesn't suffer when your mind drifts, daydreaming may not be such a bad thing after all, the study authors say.
千萬不要爲自己的神遊感到內疚。《神經心理學》雜誌刊登的一項新研究表明：走神可能是聰慧和創造力的一種跡象。走神的時候，只要你的工作表現不受影響，那也許神遊並不是一件壞事，研究作者表示。

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology wanted to study what happens to people's brain patterns when they're told to lie still and do nothing-a prime opportunity for mind-wandering. So they asked 112 study participants to do just that: lie in an MRI machine while starting at a fixed point for five minutes.
佐治亞理工學院的研究人員想要研究當人們被要求躺着什麼都不做的時候，他們的大腦模式會發生何種情況--這是走神的絕佳機會。所以他們要求112位研究對象做了這樣的事情：躺在覈磁共振儀器中盯着一個點，盯五分鐘。

The research team used those readings to identify which parts of the brain worked together during this type of awake but resting state, and they also compared the readings to tests the participants took to measure their creative and intellectual abilities. In addition, the participants filled out a questionnaire about how much their mind wandered in daily life.
這一研究小組用這些讀數確定在這種清醒但休息的狀態下，大腦的哪些部分會一起運作。他們還將這些讀數與受試者所做的測試（測試他們的創造力和智力）進行了比較。此外，受試者還填寫了一份問卷：每天走神多久。

The researchers made several interesting connections. People who reported more frequent daydreaming during the day scored higher on creative and intellectual tests. Their MRIs also showed they had more efficient brain systems-meaning different regions of the brain were more in sync with each other-compared to people who reported less frequent mind-wandering.
研究人員做了幾個有趣的聯繫。與那些聲稱自己白天神遊次數更少的人相比，那些聲稱自己白天神遊次數更多的人在創造力和智力測試上得了更高分；他們的核磁共振成像也表明他們的大腦系統更有效--意味着大腦的不同區域之間更加一致。

The finding that mind-wandering is associated with intelligence was somewhat surprising, says lead author Christine Godwin, a psychology PhD candidate. That's because previous research has linked mind-wandering to poorer performance on memory and reading-comprehension tests, lower SAT scores, negative mood, and mental-health disorders.
博士預科生、首席作者克里斯汀·戈德溫說，研究結果有點令人吃驚：神遊與智力相關。這是因爲先前的研究表明神遊或導致記憶力差、閱讀理解能力差、SAT分數更低、情緒消極、以及精神健康障礙。

"But when you think about the possibility that mind-wandering can potentially be helpful at times for cognitive-or at least not directly harmful-it makes sense," Godwin tells Health. Other research has also suggested that daydreaming (along with night dreaming) may help people become better problem-solvers, and that daydreaming about the future "can be particularly beneficial in preparing individuals to obtain their upcoming goals," the authors wrote in their paper.
"但當你思考神遊或能潛在的、不時的提高認知--或至少沒有直接傷害時--這也是有道理的，"戈德溫對《健康》雜誌說道。其它研究也表明：做白日夢（以及晚上做夢）或幫助人們更好的解決問題，而幻想自己的未來'對於個人實現即將到來的目標尤爲有益，'研究作者在論文中寫道。