Brain and Multitasking, 2

“So what’s the big deal about multitasking?” is a question often voiced when groups of people are discussing brain function. The big deal is that the frontal lobes of the brain are not wired to do two tasks at once. Some studies have suggested that male brains may be able to perform two cognitive tasks simultaneously as long as the tasks primarily utilize different hemispheres. With hemisphere of the female brain however, working wholistically and less independently, likely appear to be multitasking when in fact the brain is actually doing rapidly alternating shifts of attention. As such, accuracy tends to go down and mistakes go up. The effort required by the frontal lobes to attempt multitasking increases brain fatigue, decreases the performance of the brain, and slows efficiency. Even when this information is pointed out to individuals, typical reactions are to poo-poo the information or assert that their lifestyle demands multitasking.