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.

无法保持专注？动不动开小差？根据新的研究，这可能是由于你的大脑十分强大，因而需要时刻保持活跃。

A team of psychologists has found a positive correlation¹ between a person's tendency to daydream² and their levels of intelligence and creativity.

心理学家们发现，一个人做白日梦的倾向同他的智力和创造力水平存在正相关。

"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.

佐治亚理工学院的艾瑞克·舒马赫说：“人们倾向于认为神游是不好的事情，因为它让你难以集中注意力。”

"Our data are consistent with the idea that this isn't always true. Some people have more efficient brains."

“这个想法并不总是正确的，我们的数据可以证明。事实是，有些人虽然经常走神，但是他们的大脑效率更高。”

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 fixed³ point for five minutes.

研究人员要求112名研究参与者躺在功能核磁共振仪器里，连续5分钟盯着一个固定的点，然后扫描他们的大脑运作模式。

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 unison⁴ in what's called the default mode network.

这被称作静息态扫描，研究团队通过采集到的数据来分析参与者大脑的哪些部分在所谓的“默认网络”中共同发挥作用。

These participants also completed a questionnaire about daydreaming⁵, and, once the researchers figured out how their brains worked, tests of executive function, fluid intelligence and creativity.

这些参与者还完成了关于白日梦的调查问卷，在研究人员了解他们大脑的运作机制后，他们还做了有关大脑执行功能、流体智力和创造力的测试。

There were several correlations⁶. 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.

实验显示了几处相关性。那些做白日梦比例更高的参与者大脑中的默认网络连接更强，同时他们默认网络与大脑前额叶控制网络之间的控制率也更高。

Those participants also performed better on the fluid intelligence and creativity tests than the participants who weren't daydreamers.

与不做白日梦的参与者相比，做白日梦的参与者在流体智力和创造力测试中表现更好。

The perils⁸ of daydreaming have been well documented. Previous research has found that a wandering mind can have a detrimental⁹ effect on tasks such as reading comprehension and academic tests, and it can reduce the brain's cortical analysis of external events.

关于白日梦危害的记录很多。此前研究发现，神游不利于执行阅读理解和学术考试等任务，它会减少大脑皮层对外部事件的分析。

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，神游可能是件好事。比如，它可以促进创造性地解决问题，甚至对于未来的规划也有益处。

So how do you know if you're a smart daydreamer⁷? If your mind wanders and you can connect the dots of what you've missed when you come back down to Earth, Schumacher said.

那怎么知道自己是不是一个聪明的白日梦者？舒马赫表示，假如你走神了，但是等回过神来你还是可以把错过的那些点联系起来，那么你就是一个聪明的白日梦者了。

"Our findings remind me of the absent-minded professor - someone who's brilliant, but off in his or her own world, sometimes oblivious¹⁰ to their own surroundings," he explained.

他解释道：“我们的研究成果让我想起了一位总是心不在焉的教授，他很有才华，只是总沉浸在自己的世界里，有时候会忘记自己所处的环境。”

"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."

“还有那些十分聪明的学生，课堂上其他同学需要5分钟才能搞懂的新知识，他们可能1分钟就懂了，剩下的时间便开始做白日梦了。”

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 boon¹¹.

值得注意的是，这项研究使用的样本量不大，即便如此，研究团队认为这一发现开启了后续研究的大门，以便进一步了解神游何时有害、何时有益。