Don't confuse old people with thoughts!

Neurologists explained the reason for the "non-multitasking" of the brain of the elderlyABC Magazine

Neurologists from the University of California explained why with age the human brain loses the ability to work in multitasking mode. The fact is that the brain of older people processes incoming information differently.

The problem is not that you have to pay more attention to the secondary task, but that with age it becomes more difficult to return from the secondary task to the primary one. This was established during the study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The brain activity of 20 volunteers older than 60 years and the same number of subjects younger than this age was evaluated.

Initially, a photograph of a certain person was shown to everyone. Then there was a photograph of the landscape that needed to be described. Then the task was suddenly interrupted and they started asking questions about the person from the first photo – they were asked to estimate his age and gender.

In young people, associative connections were switched very quickly, the activity of neurons associated with processing the first photo was restored quickly. In the elderly, this process was stalled, they could not quickly return to the memories of the first photo, as a result of which switching between tasks was not as effective as in the young.

The article Deficit in switching between functional brain networks underlies the impact of multitasking on working memory in older adults is published in PNAS

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.04.2011