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2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Popular psychology constantly tells us that one of the cerebral hemispheres is more developed in us and that this determines our behavior. However, this is a misconception: the brain is one whole. The right and left hemispheres constantly transmit information to each other using neural connections. And this feature of the brain is directly related to our ability to multitask.
It happens that the two hemispheres are separated. This method is used to treat severe forms of epilepsy. Surprisingly, the severing of the adhesions between the hemispheres does not affect the functioning of the brain as much as it might seem. The behavior of people after such a procedure for the most part does not differ from what it was before the operation, and in multitasking they can even give odds to those who have adhesions.
Studying the work of the brain with disconnected hemispheres helps to understand how the brain processes information and how it distributes processes that occur simultaneously. For example, we know that the two hemispheres in such a disconnected brain must process all processes separately from each other. It turns out that one hemisphere does not know what the other is doing.
A group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison suggested that a healthy brain sometimes processes tasks separately as well. While it cannot literally separate, when multiple tasks are being performed simultaneously, the two separate systems must operate independently of each other.
Consolidation and division of tasks
Scientists conducted an experiment based on the method of functional magnetic resonance imaging. … Participants in this experiment had to perform two actions at the same time: drive a car and listen to a speech on the radio. Firstly, these are habitual everyday activities, which means that there is less likelihood of obtaining artificial results, which sometimes happens in laboratory conditions. Secondly, science already knows exactly how the systems used to process sound and linguistic information, as well as systems used to process visual and motor driving processes, work.
During the experiment, the participants were driving on a two-lane road with no intersections or other vehicles on the road. The task was complicated by the fact that it was necessary to perform additional tasks. In the first ("complex") part, drivers heard while driving instructions, such as the directions of a car navigator, telling them when to change lanes. In the second ("separate") part, the drivers changed lanes, focusing on road signs, and listened to radio speeches.
Since speech in the instructions of a GPS navigator and speech on the radio sound completely different, the researchers recorded them using the same voice to make the task more difficult. In addition, they asked the participants how difficult the tasks seemed to them and if they felt drowsy. Thus, their driving skills and ability to perceive information by ear were tested.
When the participants completed the "complex" part of the task, the tomograms showed that the brain was processing both tasks as one. But during the execution of the "split" part, the communication between the two running systems decreased. “When the speech that the driver hears is not directly related to the driving process, the brain is functionally divided into two independent systems: the driving system and the listening system,” the study authors say.
conclusions
This showed that the brain is able to control two separate systems at the same time, as well as to combine them when required. However, the results of this study, like many others based on the method of functional magnetic resonance imaging, cannot be considered 100% correct. The experiment involved only 13 people, and there is a risk that the recorded results are individual characteristics of the participants.
Naturally, scientists have new questions. The brain uses other ways of processing information besides those studied in this study, and it is not yet known which other systems can combine and which cannot. In addition, it is necessary to understand which subsystems are responsible for switching between merging and separating the two hemispheres.
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