Multitasking feels productive. Two tasks at once, twice the progress, right? Not quite.
Previous research has shown that our brains can struggle when we try to do multiple things at the same time.
Most recently, however, researchers at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong have found that our brains can get better at juggling tasks with practice.
What happens to your brain when you multitask?
To find out, the researchers trained mice to continuously move a lever while listening to different sounds and deciding whether they should respond — a sensory decision-making exercise known as a “Go/No-Go” task.
The team then tracked the same brain cells over several weeks of training.
At first, some of the same brain cells were trying to deal with both tasks. This created competition, which could help explain why doing two things at once can be difficult.
But over time, something changed.
The brain started assigning more cells to focus on one task or the other. The mice got better at multitasking as this separation happened.
The researchers also temporarily reduced activity in the part of the brain involved in this learning process. When they did, the mice stopped getting better.
Once normal activity returned, their performance quickly improved.
The study was co-led by Professor Yung Wing-ho, Chair Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), together with scholars from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Source: City University of Hong Kong
So, can you train yourself to multitask?
Maybe — but don’t start watching Netflix during your lectures just yet.
Because the study was conducted on mice, it doesn’t prove that humans can train themselves to focus on 20 tabs on their browsers all at once.
What it does show is that the brain may be more adaptable than we think.
“Our findings suggest that efficient multitasking requires a delicate balance between coordination and specialisation,” said Professor Yung Wing-ho, Chair Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at CityUHK, who co-led the study.
“These principles may provide a framework for understanding multitasking deficits in neurological disorders and, importantly, offer a biologically inspired strategy for designing artificial intelligence systems that can learn and manage multiple competing tasks more efficiently.”
