LONDON: Multitasking may be the need of the hour, but scientists say it's very difficult as the brain typically struggles to do too many different things at once.
A new study has found the mind may easily deal
with two separate tasks at the same time as it can channel them into the two separate parts of the front of the brain; but when a third activity is introduced, the mind gets overloaded. Not only the accuracy declines but people are much less able to carry out tasks, the scientists say.
The study's finding may explain why humans tend to prefer a simple choice between two options rather than three or more, reports the Independent.
Lead scientist Etienne Koechlin of Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris said, "The two frontal lobes which jointly drive the pursuit of a single goal divide for driving concurrently the pursuit of two independent goals.
"This finding suggests that the human frontal function is limited to accurately driving the pursuit of two concurrent goals at a time. This capacity limit places severe constraint bearing upon human higher cognition and may clarify several limitations in human decision making and reasoning abilities."
The scientists have based their findings on an analysis of the brains of 32 men and women. They used brain scans to identify what happens when the subjects attempted to do two things at once.
The hi-tech magnetic resonance imaging scans focused on the left and right frontal lobes involved in sophisticated mental functions.
When the volunteers tried to carry out two tasks at once the lobes divided the activities between them. Signals on the left corresponded to the first task, while activity on the right to the second.
However, accuracy declined when the group tried to tackle three tasks at once, the findings revealed.
A new study has found the mind may easily deal
with two separate tasks at the same time as it can channel them into the two separate parts of the front of the brain; but when a third activity is introduced, the mind gets overloaded. Not only the accuracy declines but people are much less able to carry out tasks, the scientists say.The study's finding may explain why humans tend to prefer a simple choice between two options rather than three or more, reports the Independent.
Lead scientist Etienne Koechlin of Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris said, "The two frontal lobes which jointly drive the pursuit of a single goal divide for driving concurrently the pursuit of two independent goals.
"This finding suggests that the human frontal function is limited to accurately driving the pursuit of two concurrent goals at a time. This capacity limit places severe constraint bearing upon human higher cognition and may clarify several limitations in human decision making and reasoning abilities."
The scientists have based their findings on an analysis of the brains of 32 men and women. They used brain scans to identify what happens when the subjects attempted to do two things at once.
The hi-tech magnetic resonance imaging scans focused on the left and right frontal lobes involved in sophisticated mental functions.
When the volunteers tried to carry out two tasks at once the lobes divided the activities between them. Signals on the left corresponded to the first task, while activity on the right to the second.
However, accuracy declined when the group tried to tackle three tasks at once, the findings revealed.
