I have a bad habit of losing my earrings, keys, retainers, and most recently, my class ring. When I saw the title of this article, "Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party" I had to click on because just a couple of days ago, I lost my class ring
A research team at UC Berkeley, led by Tolga Cukur, demonstrated how the brain functions in switching from one task to another. They concluded that the brain is much more dynamic than previously thought. It "rapidly reallocates resources based on behavioral demands, and optimizing our performance by increasing the precision with which we can perform relevant tasks".
In this study, an fMRI was used to measure the brain activity in patients as they searched for either people or vehicles in movie clips. The study showed through the fMRI images that when searching for a person, most of the brain was used. When searching for a vehicle, most of the cortex was used.
These findings help explain why it is difficult to multitask, since the brain optimizes its performance and engages most of the cortex in that one task. This also helps provide insight into what is happening inside the brain in someone with ADHD. Another reason this article intrigued me is because my little sister has ADHD and has the most difficult time focusing when she has more than one thing to do and it also takes her a very long time to switch between tasks. I would be interested in learning more about how these findings related to people with ADHD and other attention disorders.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130421153844.htm
I find this interesting because I feel like it is fairly relatable to most people. We are always multitasking and it gets so frustrating when we can't remember/do more than one thing at a certain time. Understanding how the brain works paints an easier picture for why this is so complicated and for why those with ADHD have trouble. The brain is made to do many different things however this may explain how parts of the brain focus on one task while other parts focus on another hindering the ability for multitasking.
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