愛做白日夢敵人，更聰明大綱

Unable to stay focused? Frequently going away with the fairies? It may be because you have so much brain capacity that it needs to find ways to keep itself occupied, according to new research.
無法保持專注？動不動開小差？根據新的研究，這可能是由於你的大腦十分強大，因而需要時刻保持活躍。

A team of psychologists has found a positive correlation between a person's tendency to daydream and their levels of intelligence and creativity.
心理學家們發現，一個人做白日夢的傾向同他的智力和創造力水平存在正相關。

"People tend to think of mind wandering as something that is bad. You try to pay attention and you can't," said one of the team, Eric Schumacher from Georgia Institute of Technology.
佐治亞理工學院的艾瑞克·舒馬赫說：“人們傾向於認爲神遊是不好的事情，因爲它讓你難以集中注意力。”

"Our data are consistent with the idea that this isn't always true. Some people have more efficient brains."
“這個想法並不總是正確的，我們的數據可以證明。事實是，有些人雖然經常走神，但是他們的大腦效率更高。”

The researchers examined the brain patterns of 112 study participants as they lay in an fMRI machine not doing anything in particular and just staring at a fixed point for five minutes.
研究人員要求112名研究參與者躺在功能核磁共振儀器裏，連續5分鐘盯着一個固定的點，然後掃描他們的大腦運作模式。

This is known as a resting state scan, and the team used this data to figure out which parts of the participants' brains worked together in unison in what's called the default mode network.
這被稱作靜息態掃描，研究團隊通過採集到的數據來分析參與者大腦的哪些部分在所謂的“默認網絡”中共同發揮作用。

These participants also completed a questionnaire about daydreaming, and, once the researchers figured out how their brains worked, tests of executive function, fluid intelligence and creativity.
這些參與者還完成了關於白日夢的調查問卷，在研究人員瞭解他們大腦的運作機制後，他們還做了有關大腦執行功能、流體智力和創造力的測試。

There were several correlations. Those participants who self-reported higher rates of daydreaming had a higher rate of default mode network connectivity in the brain, as well as a higher rate of control between the default mode network and the frontoparietal control network of the brain.
實驗顯示了幾處相關性。那些做白日夢比例更高的參與者大腦中的默認網絡連接更強，同時他們默認網絡與大腦前額葉控制網絡之間的控制率也更高。

Those participants also performed better on the fluid intelligence and creativity tests than the participants who weren't daydreamers.
與不做白日夢的參與者相比，做白日夢的參與者在流體智力和創造力測試中表現更好。

The perils of daydreaming have been well documented. Previous research has found that a wandering mind can have a detrimental effect on tasks such as reading comprehension and academic tests, and it can reduce the brain's cortical analysis of external events.
關於白日夢危害的記錄很多。此前研究發現，神遊不利於執行閱讀理解和學術考試等任務，它會減少大腦皮層對外部事件的分析。

On the other hand, more recent research suggests that a wandering mind can be a good thing. It could help facilitate creative problem solving, for instance. It can also be beneficial towards future planning.
另一方面，最近有研究表明，神遊可能是件好事。比如，它可以促進創造性地解決問題，甚至對於未來的規劃也有益處。

So how do you know if you're a smart daydreamer? If your mind wanders and you can connect the dots of what you've missed when you come back down to Earth, Schumacher said.
那怎麼知道自己是不是一個聰明的白日夢者？舒馬赫表示，假如你走神了，但是等回過神來你還是可以把錯過的那些點聯繫起來，那麼你就是一個聰明的白日夢者了。

"Our findings remind me of the absent-minded professor - someone who's brilliant, but off in his or her own world, sometimes oblivious to their own surroundings," he explained.
他解釋道：“我們的研究成果讓我想起了一位總是心不在焉的教授，他很有才華，只是總沉浸在自己的世界裏，有時候會忘記自己所處的環境。”

"Or school children who are too intellectually advanced for their classes. While it may take five minutes for their friends to learn something new, they figure it out in a minute, then check out and start daydreaming."
“還有那些十分聰明的學生，課堂上其他同學需要5分鐘才能搞懂的新知識，他們可能1分鐘就懂了，剩下的時間便開始做白日夢了。”

While it's important to note that the sample size in this study was fairly small, the team believes that this finding opens up the potential for further research into the wandering mind, to try and figure out when it's a problem, and when it's a boon.
值得注意的是，這項研究使用的樣本量不大，即便如此，研究團隊認爲這一發現開啓了後續研究的大門，以便進一步瞭解神遊何時有害、何時有益。