Media: Multitasking linked to decreased cognitive performance
Watching television while playing solitaire on your tablet. Looking for a pot roast recipe while talking to a friend on the phone. Do you multitask by juggling your various digital devices, computer, television, smartphone and tablet?
Multitaskers are often positively described for their ability to do several things all at once. But it appears that using several forms of media simultaneously can actually be harmful to the brain. Prior research had already shown a correlation between engagement in multitasking and a decline in cognitive control, along with decreased academic performance and increased depression and anxiety. Researchers wanted to determine if biological evidence could be found to support this data.
Teams from the Graduate Medical School in Singapour, Sussex University, and University College London observed the density of gray matter in the brains of students and academic professionals who engaged in multitasking with various media. 75 volunteers participated in the experiment and agreed to undergo an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to examine their brain anatomy. They also completed two questionnaires in order to evaluate their use of media and assess various personality traits, such as extroversion.
Images obtained from the MRI showed that participants who regularly engaged in multitasking exhibited a lower volume of gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex when compared to those who only occasionally used a single device. The anterior cingulate cortex is an area of the brain that looks much like a collar, located in the front of the brain wrapped around the corpus callosum (collection of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain). It is involved in many processes, both cognitive (e.g. regulation of attention and motivation) and affective, particularly the regulation of emotional responses.
Though scientists found a correlation between lower gray matter density and multitasking, the study could not prove that multitasking caused the deficit. Multitasking may be responsible for a decrease in gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, but the opposite might also be true: people with lower gray matter density may be more prone to multitasking.
Multitaskers are often positively described for their ability to do several things all at once. But it appears that using several forms of media simultaneously can actually be harmful to the brain. Prior research had already shown a correlation between engagement in multitasking and a decline in cognitive control, along with decreased academic performance and increased depression and anxiety. Researchers wanted to determine if biological evidence could be found to support this data.
Teams from the Graduate Medical School in Singapour, Sussex University, and University College London observed the density of gray matter in the brains of students and academic professionals who engaged in multitasking with various media. 75 volunteers participated in the experiment and agreed to undergo an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to examine their brain anatomy. They also completed two questionnaires in order to evaluate their use of media and assess various personality traits, such as extroversion.
Images obtained from the MRI showed that participants who regularly engaged in multitasking exhibited a lower volume of gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex when compared to those who only occasionally used a single device. The anterior cingulate cortex is an area of the brain that looks much like a collar, located in the front of the brain wrapped around the corpus callosum (collection of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain). It is involved in many processes, both cognitive (e.g. regulation of attention and motivation) and affective, particularly the regulation of emotional responses.
Though scientists found a correlation between lower gray matter density and multitasking, the study could not prove that multitasking caused the deficit. Multitasking may be responsible for a decrease in gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, but the opposite might also be true: people with lower gray matter density may be more prone to multitasking.
Source: Loh KK, Kanai R (2014) Higher Media Multi-Tasking Activity Is Associated with Smaller Gray-Matter Density in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. PLoS ONE 9(9): e106698. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106698