The science of it...
When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain’s attention, but that involuntary bottom-up impulse can be voluntarily overridden through a top-down process that Dr. Desimone calls “biased competition.” He and colleagues have found that neurons in the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s planning center — start oscillating in unison and send signals directing the visual cortex to heed something else.
When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain’s attention, but that involuntary bottom-up impulse can be voluntarily overridden through a top-down process that Dr. Desimone calls “biased competition.” He and colleagues have found that neurons in the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s planning center — start oscillating in unison and send signals directing the visual cortex to heed something else.
These oscillations, called gamma waves, are created by neurons’ firing on and off at the same time — a feat of neural coordination a bit like getting strangers in one section of a stadium to start clapping in unison, thereby sending a signal that induces people on the other side of the stadium to clap along. But these signals can have trouble getting through in a noisy environment.
“It takes a lot of your prefrontal brain power to force yourself not to process a strong input like a television commercial,” said Dr. Desimone, the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at M.I.T. “If you’re trying to read a book at the same time, you may not have the resources left to focus on the words.”
We have more than a few kids in school who seem incapable of NOT attending to the random electronic bleeps popping up all around them. They sneak in their cell phones. They text from the bathroom. They are so preoccupied with communication (that is, the girls are) that the facebook/cell phone/own brain nexus hums unceasingly. They boys are far more entangled in video games. All them seem to watch 20 movies a week.
What can we do? Ten year ago TAS' biggest problem was drug use and chaotic home lives. At least those were things one had a chance of growing out of...
another passage from the article:
“Multitasking is a myth,” Ms. Gallagher said. “You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.
“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.”
We have more than a few kids in school who seem incapable of NOT attending to the random electronic bleeps popping up all around them. They sneak in their cell phones. They text from the bathroom. They are so preoccupied with communication (that is, the girls are) that the facebook/cell phone/own brain nexus hums unceasingly. They boys are far more entangled in video games. All them seem to watch 20 movies a week.
What can we do? Ten year ago TAS' biggest problem was drug use and chaotic home lives. At least those were things one had a chance of growing out of...
another passage from the article:
“Multitasking is a myth,” Ms. Gallagher said. “You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.
“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.”
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