#distration

“We are, by nature, so futile that distraction alone can prevent us from dying altogether.”

Next time you’re getting vexed that someone next to you is loudly munching and crunching on their food, don't fret – it could just be your creative brain. You’re not alone either: Many people given the label “genius” are often reported to be troubled and distracted by noise, such as Charles Darwin, Marcel Proust, and Anton Chekhov. Franz Kafka even once said: “I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ – that wouldn’t be enough – but like a dead man.” Research by Northwestern University found that there is a link between creativity and an inability to filter out irrelevant noises. The study, published in Neuropsychologia in March, looked at the link between creative thinkers and different levels of "sensory gating," the involuntary neurological process that filters out unnecessary or irrelevant stimuli. Analyzing all this information showed that creative people were more sensitive to sound distraction. The study suggested that people with “leaky” sensory gating tended to be more creative as they have an ability to deploy attention over a larger range of stimuli. This increased input can lead to a richer and more nuanced experience, which can also help hone their ability to create associations with distant concepts or ideas. Since “leaky” sensory gating happens early in brain processing and may help people integrate ideas that are outside their main focus of attention, a reduced ability to filter out the irrelevant things may lead to creativity in the real world, said Darya Zabelina, lead author of the study, in a statement. She added, “If funneled in the right direction, these sensitivities can make life more rich and meaningful, giving experiences more subtlety.”

Let's see how well I can focus on writing my first to-be-published short-story.