you're just as good at every task when multitasking? NOT. Only 1/40 are.

Believe you're just as good at every task you're doing when you're multitasking?  Tons of research demonstrates that isn't true.

Only about 1 out of 40 folk is, so it's really unlikely you're one of them.  In fact, the research shows convincingly that effective multitasking is a myth.  The current belief that video gamers, smart phone users, etc. have developed multi-tasking skills through practice is also a myth; frequent multitaskers are often the worst at it.

There are, however, a very few folk who multitask with ease, performing previously believed impossible cognitive feats.  These folk are being analyzed with the latest imaging technology and computer simulations to gain some insight into how a small percentage of brains are able to seamlessly perform multiple mental activities at a top quartile performance level.

The recent issue of Scientific American Mind, one of the best of this genre, IMHO, (and i'm not getting paid to say that) has an excellent article on multitasking.   The article focused on the work of Jason Watson and David Strayer, psychologists at the University of Utah, and the authors of "Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability" in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 479-485, 2010.   They also co-authored the Scientific American Article.

The first studies of multi-tasking were done in World War II on pilots, and the increasing number of airplane accidents that were not related to mechanical failures.  It was quickly discovered that attention is finite and limited in capacity; when more tasks are presented, allocation occurs.  Devoting more attention to one task suppresses it for others.

we have all heard the research that demonstrates that when driving and talking on a cell phone, hands-free or not, or even walking and texting, both activities are impaired.  There is a great youTube video of a woman texting and walking who falls into a mall water fountain.  (Of course, this being the US, she is suing the mall.)   Interestingly, at any given time during the day, 1 in 10 drivers are on the phone.   (It's higher than that where i live, IME.)  There are many studies demonstrating that these drivers don't stop when/where they should, don't stay in their lanes, run red lights, follow too closely, etc.

Using a driving simulator, the authors' research demonstrated that the crash risk for using a cell phone, or texting, and driving exceeds the level of drivers at the legal limit of alcohol intoxication.  Many of you may have already heard of this.  Even more troubling is that phoning drivers failed to notice up to half the items they looked at, and reacted substantially more slowly to that information, even items like a child standing on a sidewalk; the brain did not do its usual function of prioritizing information.

The brain wave known as "P300" is a signal that shows how much attention a folk is paying to a specific stimulus.  The amplitude of the P300 signal is decreased by 1/2 when drivers were talking on their cell, hands free or not.  Legislative efforts at the state level have focused on prohibiting handheld phones, but permitting hands-free cells - this obviously will make no difference.  Even computer-based, speech-recognition systems are unlikely to change this.

As far as the belief that "practice makes it better", Clifford Nass at Stanford found that higher self-reported levels of media multitasking were actually found to be negatively correlated with switching times; frequent multitasking actually increased the time to switch between tasks.  Multitasking folk also had lower working-memory capacity, were more impulsive and rated their ability to multitask "above average".

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

What about these "supertaskers", whose performance doesn't deteriorate when doing two things at a time?  After testing 700 folk, 19 were found to all rank in the top 25% when doing a single task and to have no deterioration in performance when doing two assignments at once.

fMRI scanning demonstrated that these supertaskers actually showed reduced activity at the most difficult levels of multitasking tests, exactly the opposite of what is found with "normal" folk.  The fMRI showed that there were striking differences from controls in three frontal brain areas; frontopolar prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.

Frontopolar Prefrontal Cortex

Frequent readers of this blog are familiar with the latter two, and they would be "expected" to be involved in improved performance, but the other is really interesting.  The frontopolar prefrontal cortex is anomalously highly interconnected with other frontal cortical areas as compared to other higher primates.  This may indicate that this interconnection is a relatively recent evolutionary development.  Neuropsychological patients with extensive damage to this region show much more impaired multitasking capabilities.

There may also be a genetic component to this anomalously high multitasking ability.  Variants of the COMT gene, which generates COMT,  is a target of many contemporary pharmaceuticals designed to control catecholamines such as dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine.  DNA samples taken from the multitaskers suggest that they have a variant of the COMT gene that leads to more efficient dopamine signaling in the brain regions supporting multitasking, and potentially their superior powers of attention.

Supertaskers are likely to be found in pilots of high performance aircraft, high-end chefs, perhaps star quarterbacks in the NFL, champion video gamers, and elite doctors in hospital emergency rooms.  That is where the researchers are continuing their research to find more of these extraordinary folk and to understand how they do their super multi-tasking.