Humans control the communication between the left and right brains and found out the possibility of realizing "multitasking brain"

ByAmy leonard

The human brain can do the same function as "multitasking" in which the computer simultaneously executes multiple tasks. This is the act of driving the car while listening to the radio while listening to the radio while looking at the television, but in the human brain in the multitask state, the left and right hemispheres of the brain are working separately It is understood by the latest research that it is.

The brain has more than one multitasking mode | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/the-brain-has-more-than-one-multitasking-mode/

In the healthy human brain, the part called "corpus callosum" connecting the left and right "left brain" and "right brain" exchanges information and processes it. In many cases, the expression "left brain human being" or "right brain human being" is used, but in reality the brain transmits and processes information on the left and right, and it is not necessarily active on one side alone.

In treatment of a person with symptoms of "epilepsy" in which abnormal nerve activity occurs due to diseases of the brain including this corpus callosum, "cerebral fractionation surgery" which weakens information transmission by cutting the corpus callosum to a certain degree Treatment may be given. As a result of treatment, the patient may interfere with some behavior, but in reality it is possible to live a normal life rather than what the surroundings predict, and even better to some kind of multitasking work It seems that there are also cases to demonstrate. This is thought to be a phenomenon that occurs because the function of the corpus callosum linking the left and right is weakened or lost, so it is impossible to grasp what the left and right brains are doing each other.

ByKenny Stoltz

A research team by a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also occurred in the brains of healthy people with such brain movements in a multitask state, and in spite of the fact that the corpus callosum actually exists, the left and right brain I thought that they are separately processing information. Research teams such as Dr. Shunta Sasai et al. Used a computer-based driving simulator to investigate which part of the subjects the subjects were handling information given during driving.

The research team can visualize blood flow in the brainFMRI(Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging System) to investigate the activities of the brains of subjects who operate the simulator in detail. Also, driving simulator "Racer Free Car Simulation"It is aimed at reproducing the situation of processing multiple things at the same time in a condition closer to the actual environment.


In the verification experiments, the subject first travels on a two-lane road where no intersections or other vehicles are running. Next, in that state two tasks are given. One is "Integrated type(Integrated) "task, which gives an instruction to change the lane to the subjects in operation like a car navigation system, and the subjects are required to run according to the instructions. At this time, subjects will perform both tasks "driving" and "listening to instruction" at the same time, but each other's contents are "integrated type" tasks that are related to driving I will.

Another task is to ask you to change the lane in accordance with the road signs and to listen to fancy programs flowing from the radio this way while driving in the same way. The content imitating this radio program has become completely irrelevant to the driving behavior, and the subjects hear contents not related at all while drivingSeparate type(Split) "task. In addition, it seems that the instructions of Navi and the sound of the radio are used by the same person.

As a result of examining the activities of the brain by giving two kinds of tasks in this way, in the case of "integrated task", it is said that the state in which two types of tasks are processed in the brain as one same task Thing. On the contrary, in the case of "separate type task", it seems that the activities of the two brains are not very related to each other, and they are found to be operating separately. The research team wrote about this situation, "When the task of listening to contents not related to driving is given, the brain seems to functionally separate the two processes" driving "and" listening "" I will.

ByAbhijit Bhaduri

There are only 13 subjects who participated in the verification this time, and although it is required to conduct even more verification in the future, it is a fact that multiple tasks are handled independently in the brain at the same time It is a very important achievement that was confirmed. From now on, by increasing the types of tasks, we can grasp functions that are easy to multi-task and functions that are not easy to do, and to figure out which mechanism in the brain is manipulating multitask "switches" It seems that more verification will be necessary.

The paper by the research team is published at the following link.

Functional split brain in a driving / listening paradigm
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/11/22/1613200113