Multi-tasking Could Slow Down the Brain

Multi-tasking could make one feel proud of oneself. But there is a hidden danger. Ultimately it could lead to the slowing down of the brain.
Even though modern technology allows people to perform more tasks at the same time, juggling tasks can make our brains lose connections to important information.

Which means, in the end, it takes longer because we have to remind our brains what we were working on. Youngsters these days swiftly move from one to another, computer to music to cricket to …… Possibilities are endless.

But therein lies the dangerDavid Meyer at the University of Michigan has spent the past few decades studying multitasking, mostly in adults."For tasks that are at all complicated, no matter how good you have become at multitasking, you're still going to suffer hits against your performance.

You will be worse compared to if you were actually concentrating from start to finish on the task," Meyer says.Multitasking causes a kind of brownout in the brain. Meyer says all the lights go dim because there just isn't enough power to go around.

So, the brain starts shutting things down, things like neural connections to important information.The technical name for creating, or recreating, these neural pathways is "spreading activation." It involves building connections step by step.
Meyer says it's similar to what we do when we free associate."I say to you, 'What do you think of when I say the word apple to you?' And you start vibing on apple. 'Oh, apple's a fruit, it fell on Newton's head. Newton was a physicist. He invented the first theory of gravity.' And on and on," Meyer