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Research Suggests Brain Has a 2-Task Limit for Multitasking

Posted by timothy on from the typing-sleeping-being-hungry-so-there dept.

suraj.sun writes with a story from LiveScience about just how much attention you can devote to each of the tasks on hand that scream for it: "The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests. That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled. 'What really the results show is that we can readily divide tasking. We can cook, and at the same time talk on the phone, and switch back and forth between these two activities,' said study researcher Etienne Koechlin of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. 'However, we cannot multitask with more than two tasks.'"

2 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OMG! Is that BASIC I see??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You sound like an idiot with the frequent misspellings of "iPad". If even Fox News can get it right so should you.

    Of course you're only at "1" -- I had to browse at lowest level even to see you.

  2. that's more... by Schnoogs · · Score: -1, Troll

    than the iPhone is capable of.

    A better question though is can it play crysis?