Facebook is branching out into the field of neuroscience research with the creation of its own scientific lab dedicated to devising new marketing techniques for agencies, brands and media firms.

The Center for Marketing Science Innovation is still under construction in Manhattan but Facebooks director of advertising research gave Ad Week a sneak peak of the fledgling facility, which takes the underwhelming appearance of a GPs surgery.

This unassuming facade bellies a hi-tech operation behind the scenes however with neuroscience specialists to help guide marketers, publishers and brands toward impactful content.

To achieve this Facebook has built a variety of rooms designed to mimic common viewing environments such as a living area or conference suite with an array of monitors tracking every twitch and glance of strapped in guinea pigs.

By keeping tabs on heart rate, facial movements and eye movements of participants as they scroll through profiles or consume TV content it is hoped to gain a better understanding of how such imperceptible biological reactions correspond to real world behavior.

Speaking to Ad Week Daniel Slotwiner, Facebooks director of advertising research, explained: A lot of what we dont understand is where peoples eyes are going when theyre on the platform. We know how much time people are spending on the platform, so this is really about how that time is spent and what features on our product theyre looking at.

Facebook isnt the first organisation to take an interest in biological cues for reading engagement, with a landmark Imperial College London study enabling marketers to get to know us better than we know ourselves.

The new centre is expected to be finished within the next few weeks.

More here:
Facebook establishes neuroscience centre dedicated to marketing studies - The Drum

We all know that person. Her Instagram is covered with more pictures of feline friends than human companions. Not an insignificant number of these pictures feature mini cat-sized lattes with the caption Fluffy simply adores her morning coffee. And let us not forget that the archetype ofcrazy cat manmay be just as prevalent. When you look at these pictures, you probably wonder: is he like this because of the cat? Or does he have the cat because he is like this?

It turns out that cats have a mischievous and somewhat dark reputation in neuroscience. There is research to suggest that a cats proximity to other mammals can cause them to behave strangely. This feline power has been attributed to a protozoan that lives in their stool, called Toxoplasma gondii (or Toxo for short). In one classic story, researchers showed that Toxo can travel into a rats brain and cause the rat to no longer avoid areas where cats live. The rats, in fact, become attracted to the smell of cat urine. Previously repulsed by the smell, these brain-infected rodents run joyously through urine-laden environments. They walk right through the cats trap, until their young rodent lives come to an end under a forceful paw.

These same protozoans can affect the brains of humans. Immuno-compromised patients, like those with AIDS, can contract the infection from a litter box and develop dangerous brain abscesses. We treat these patients with powerful antibiotics and frequently recommend that they give away their cats. Pregnant women are also advised not to handle cat litter, as a fetus does not yet have the immune system needed to fight Toxo. Fetuses exposed to the protozoan can suffer from seizures, cognitive problems, and blindness. But what about your immunocompetent and decidedly non-pregnant Instagram friend; is she under the influence of this cats protozoan minion?

Neuroscientists have shown that Toxo may have more subtle effects than brain abscesses and blindness. The bug contains an enzyme that creates dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Humans given dopamine pills are at an increased risk of impulsive and risky behavior. Excess dopamine activity is also involved in schizophrenia. Immunologists point out that the known genetic risk factors for schizophrenia include many immune-related genes that could affect the way one's body reacts to Toxo. Theoretically, a strange Toxo-induced immune response in the brain could cause psychosis. Even more alarming was asummaryof thirty-eight studies, published in 2012, that found that individuals with schizophrenia were three times more likely than those without schizophrenia to have antibodies in their blood to the Toxoplasma protozoan, meaning their bodies developed an immune response to Toxo at some point. Measuring antibodies to Toxo, however, is several steps removed from cat ownership. The clues are intriguing, but are cats really to blame for psychotic behavior?

New researchin the journalPsychological Medicinesuggests that your cat friends are just fine. Scientists from University College in London examined 6,705 adolescents and 4,676 young adults to see if early exposure to household felines contributed to the risk of developing psychotic episodes. In the largest and best-controlled study to date, the researchers showed that those exposed to cats were at no increased risk of psychosis after controlling for a number of other variables (including ethnicity, social class, and dog ownership to control for exposure to animal stool).As lead author Francesca Solmi put it, previous studies reporting links between cat ownership and psychosis simply failed to adequately control for other possible explanations. Cat ownership doesnt seem to truly increase ones risk of psychosis.

Sois a cat sipping a latte on Instagram bizarre? Certainly. But its not Fluffy's fault. He didnt ask for any of this (most cats are lactose intolerant), and its time to clear his name.

Read the rest here:
Are Cats Responsible for "Cat Ladies"? - Scientific American

David Eagleman, neuroscientist and host of 'The Brain' on PBS,will speak at the Los Angeles Hope Festival on Sunday, May 21. The event is free but seats are limited. RSVP here.

David Eagleman isn't your garden-variety neuroscientistif there is such a thing. His former neuro lab at Baylor College of Medicine built the technology to help deaf people hear through their skin:

the-secret-lives-of-the-brain-david-eagleman-live-on-big-think-2

"One of the things my lab is doing is building a vibratory vest so that we can feed in sensory information through the skin of your torso rather than through more typical sensory channels. So, for example, were doing this for people who are deaf who want to be able to hear. We set up a microphone on the vest and then the auditory stream is turned into this matrix of vibrations on your skin, and what that does is it feeds in electrical signals into the brain that represent the auditory information.

"And if it sounds crazy that you would ever be able to understand all these signals through your skin, remember that all the auditory system is doing is taking signals and turning them into electrical signals in your brain," he says.

That vest was recently put to a very scholarly use:

Eagleman is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw, and leverages that research to solve problems in the real worldwhether that's by restoring lost senses, breaking up fights between atheists and believers, or equipping people with tools to have more informed discussions about mass shootings in America. Eagleman points out that in the aftermath of every massacre, people toss around labels like: psycho, sociopath, ADHD, Asperger's.

david-eagleman-on-mass-shootings

"Theres no such thing as a psycho. Thats a meaningless term. What the commentator presumably means is either this person has a psychosis, something like schizophrenia where they have a disorder of cognition, or they mean this person is a psychopath which is not a disorder of cognition. Instead psychopathy is about having no empathy towards other people, not caring at all about other people, seeing other people as objects to get around. Theyre also known as sociopaths. So somebody can have a psychosis or somebody can have a psychopathy or sociopathy, and these are completely different things.

"An understanding of these things in the public dialogue I think would be very important; every time theres a mass shooting there are all sorts of commentators that come out and say things like, 'Well, I heard he had Aspergers' or 'I heard he had ADHD,' or, 'I heard that he wrote dark poetry,' which is, of course, true of most young teenagers. So a better understanding of the vocabulary and what are the issues that come along with these different things is something that I try to disseminate through my work in neuroscience and law."

david-eagleman-can-a-computer-simulate-consciousness

For his talk at theLos Angeles Hope Festival, Eagleman will present ideas from his new neuro lab atStanford University School of Medicine, presenting aframework of the brain as a team of rivals, with different networks driving different behaviors.He'll discuss how a major job of intelligent brains is simulation of the future, and he'll leverage lessons from neuroscience about how we can best steer ourselves into the futurekeeping our behavior consistent with a long-term notion of the self. Tickets are free but seats are limited, so RSVP here.

Below is the full schedule for the Los Angeles Hope Festival.

Excerpt from:
Neuroscience Isn't Just for Scientists: It Solves Real-World Problems ... - Big Think

The number of neuroscience publications steadily grows over the years. In 2006, around 27,000 paper on this subject were published, while in 2015 this number went up to almost 37,000. This is a seriously big increase that reflects the importance of brain science and the growing interest in this field of research. The selection of articles presented here covers a wide range of topics, from purely academic subjects to the findings of clinical significance and newly discovered facts that will be of interest to almost everyone.

On the 25 April 1971, David Eagleman was celebrating his birthday. David is probably one of the best known neuroscientists these days, thanks to his books and TV series. In the academic world, Dr Eagleman is better known for hit works on the relationship between timing of perception and timing of neural signals.

THE BEST

New type of cells discovered in brain

This new discovery touches again on how little we still know about the brain. A new type of brain cell, mural lymphatic endothelial cells, were reported in the article published this week. The function of these cells, which are lymphatic in their origin, is to clean up the brain from accumulating cellular debris and thus prevent the damage to normal healthy cells of the brain.

Artificial synapse capable of learning

Brain synapses are central for our ability to learn. Stimulation of synapses strengthen the connection between the neurons and thus enhances the learning. A similar approach was used when researchers created an electronic synapse called memristor. Although the physical components of this nano-device have nothing to do with the real synapses in brain, the underlying principle is still the same. The devices of this kind will be important for the developing artificial brain.

Doxycycline for treating Parkinsons disease?

Doxycycline has been used to treat bacterial infection for well over 50 years. New findings indicate that this antibiotic may have a new application: to treat Parkinsons disease. This disease is caused by abnormal accumulation and toxicity of protein alpha-synuclein. In cell culture, the scientists observed that the formation of alpha-synuclein aggregates is reduced by 80% in the presence of doxycycline. Mice models with Parkinsons disease fed on the diet with addition of doxycycline improved their symptoms. Human trials with low doses of doxycycline are now being planned.

Psychedelics and higher state of consciousness

The effects of psychedelics such as LSD on brain function are poorly studied. A paper published this month has reported that psychedelics induce increased signal diversity, as shown by brain imaging methods. Signal diversity is considered to be a measure of the complexity of brain activity. In the subjects exposed to the drugs, this measure was higher then the baseline value in the normal condition. Researchers conclude that, under the influence of psychedelics, the brain experiences a changed state of consciousness. The question remains whether this is a better or more desirable state, and whether the psychedelic drugs can be used for therapeutic applications.

Growing brain tissue in a lab

Modelling the brain is very hard due to the complexity of this organ. While most other tissues and even organs can be grown in a laboratory artificially, the brain has resisted attempts thus far. A new paper published this month reported a successful attempt to do exactly this. Researchers successfully turned stem cells into tiny cultures of brain cells with several cell types typical for the midbrain. This is a very important methodological development that will help to facilitate the study of both the healthy brain and various brain pathologies.

THE WORST

Aspirin does not benefit cognitive functions

Aspirin is one of the oldest drugs still in use. Surprisingly, new beneficial qualities of this simple molecule are still being discovered. With only small and manageable side effects, low-dose aspirin is even recommended as a daily drug for older healthy individuals, for reducing the risk of serious conditions such as cardiovascular problems. There were many reports suggesting that aspirin might also be useful for protection against dementia and cognitive decline. However, the meta-analysis of existing data published this month found no evidence to support this view.

Soda drinking damages brain and accelerates its aging

The fact that sugary drinks are bad for general health is well known. New data based on a long-term study show that they are also damaging for brain functions. People consuming two or more sugary drinks at any time per day have poorer memory, decreased overall volume of the brain, and a smaller hippocampus (a part of the brain associated with memory and learning). On the MRI scans their showed more prominent features of brain aging compared to people who dont consume sugary beverages. Interestingly, switching to diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners doesnt help much: people consuming at least one diet soda a day are three times more likely to develop dementia and stroke.

Marmite: bad choice for brain?

Marmite, a food spread popular in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, might be not as safe and healthy as usually assumed. A rather curious piece of research published this month demonstrated that daily consumption of Marmite (one teaspoon every day) results in a 30% decrease in the brain response to visual stimuli. The effect is explained by the high content of vitamin B12 in Marmite. This vitamin regulates the level of neurotransmitter GABA that has an inhibitory effect on the excitability of some neurons. The findings show that the food we eat may have substantial effects on our brain functioning.

A link between cancer chemotherapy and depression

It was always difficult to figure out if the depression that cancer patients often experience is caused by the psychological stress of having cancer, or also because of chemotherapy. New research data obtained on healthy mice receiving drugs for brain cancer demonstrated that chemotherapy prevents formation of new cells in the hippocampus, a region of brain involved in memory formation and emotions. The treatment also resulted in the release of stress hormones and clear signs of depression. Brain cancer patients appear to be some of the most affected by the treatment-related depression, which remains mostly undiagnosed. Understanding that depression might be related to treatment will help to develop therapies to counteract this effect.

Multitasking: few advantages, brain overloading

The ability to multitask is often praised as a valuable skill, but does it really bring any advantages? New research data seriously questions the value of multitasking. Performing several tasks at the same task reduces productivity by 40%. Moreover, the findings show that frequent switching between tasks interferes with brain activity. Scientists also point out the danger of the continuous use of social media as it is an additional task for our brain and thus reduces the effectiveness of other tasks performed at the same time. It appears that focusing on a single task for a longer period of time brings better results than multitasking.

References:

Andy Wai Kan Yeung, Tazuko K. Goto, W. Keung Leung. The Changing Landscape of Neuroscience Research, 20062015: A Bibliometric Study. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2017; 11 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00120

Neil I Bower, Katarzyna Koltowska, Cathy Pichol-Thievend, Isaac Virshup, Scott Paterson, Anne K Lagendijk, Weili Wang, Benjamin W Lindsey, Stephen J Bent, Sungmin Baek, Maria Rondon-Galeano, Daniel G Hurley, Naoki Mochizuki, Cas Simons, Mathias Francois, Christine A Wells, Jan Kaslin, Benjamin M Hogan. Mural lymphatic endothelial cells regulate meningeal angiogenesis in the zebrafish. Nature Neuroscience, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nn.4558

Sren Boyn, Julie Grollier, Gwendal Lecerf, Bin Xu, Nicolas Locatelli, Stphane Fusil, Stphanie Girod, Ccile Carrtro, Karin Garcia, Stphane Xavier, Jean Tomas, Laurent Bellaiche, Manuel Bibes, Agns Barthlmy, Sylvain Saghi, Vincent Garcia. Learning through ferroelectric domain dynamics in solid-state synapses. Nature Communications, 2017; 8: 14736 DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS14736

Florencia Gonzlez-Lizrraga, Sergio B. Socas, Csar L. vila, Clarisa M. Torres-Bugeau, Leandro R. S. Barbosa, Andres Binolfi, Julia E. Seplveda-Daz, Elaine Del-Bel, Claudio O. Fernandez, Dulce Papy-Garcia, Rosangela Itri, Rita Raisman-Vozari, Rosana N. Chehn. Repurposing doxycycline for synucleinopathies: remodelling of ?-synuclein oligomers towards non-toxic parallel beta-sheet structured species. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7: 41755 DOI: 10.1038/srep41755

Michael M. Schartner, Robin L. Carhart-Harris, Adam B. Barrett, Anil K. Seth, Suresh D. Muthukumaraswamy. Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7: 46421 DOI: 10.1038/srep46421

Anna S. Monzel, Lisa M. Smits, Kathrin Hemmer, Siham Hachi, Edinson Lucumi Moreno, Thea van Wuellen, Javier Jarazo, Jonas Walter, Inga Brggemann, Ibrahim Boussaad, Emanuel Berger, Ronan M.T. Fleming, Silvia Bolognin, Jens C. Schwamborn. Derivation of Human Midbrain-Specific Organoids from Neuroepithelial Stem Cells. Stem Cell Reports, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.03.010

Stubbs, Stefania Maggi, Trevor Thompson, Patricia Schofield, Christoph Muller, Ping-Tao Tseng, Pao-Yen Lin, Andr F. Carvalho, Marco Solmi. Low-Dose Aspirin Use and Cognitive Function in Older Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/jgs.14883

Matthew P. Pase et al. Sugar- and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and the Risks of Incident Stroke and Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study. Stroke, April 2017 DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.016027

Matthew P. Pase, Jayandra J. Himali, Paul F. Jacques, Charles DeCarli, Claudia L. Satizabal, Hugo Aparicio, Ramachandran S. Vasan, Alexa S. Beiser, Sudha Seshadri. Sugary beverage intake and preclinical Alzheimers disease in the community. Alzheimers & Dementia, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2017.01.024

Anika K Smith, Alex R Wade, Kirsty EH Penkman, Daniel H Baker. Dietary modulation of cortical excitation and inhibition. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2017; 026988111769961 DOI: 10.1177/0269881117699613

M Egeland, C Guinaudie, A Du Preez, K Musaelyan, P A Zunszain, C Fernandes, C M Pariante, S Thuret. Depletion of adult neurogenesis using the chemotherapy drug temozolomide in mice induces behavioural and biological changes relevant to depression. Translational Psychiatry, 2017; 7 (4): e1101 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.68

Juha M. Lahnakoski, Iiro P. Jskelinen, Mikko Sams, Lauri Nummenmaa. Neural mechanisms for integrating consecutive and interleaved natural events. Human Brain Mapping, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23591

Image via felixioncool/Pixabay.

Read the original post:
Best and Worst of Neuroscience and Neurology April 2017 - Brain Blogger (blog)

As a Center within the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) at the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Medicine Translational Neuroscience Center (PTNC) is dedicated to accelerating and translating discoveries to transform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions. This year, we held an inaugural PTNC scientific retreat that included 30 basic and clinical neuroscientists across 16 departments and 4 schools at Penn.Generating a collective vision for the neurosciences, the group identified key research priorities that have the greatest potential to transform patient care.Based on this discussion, we identified two thematic areas that provided the focus for the first round of requests for applications a new Translational Neuroscience Initiative(TNI): (1) modulation of neural circuits for preventive health behaviors or recovery from neuropsychiatric or neurological disease, and (2) neuroimmune mechanisms and treatment for neuropsychiatric or neurological disease.In addition, the PTNC is working closely with Penns new Institute for Bioinformaticsto create a neuro-informatics infrastructure to support translational research, and is developing a Translational Neuroscience Pipeline that facilitates industry partnerships. PTNC is also partnering with the MahoneyInstitute for Neurosciences to enhance integration and synergies across the neurosciences at Penn. We welcome faculty within Penns neuroscience community to become members of the PTNC, and look forward to working with you to promote translational neuroscience research at Penn.

Go here to read the rest:
Home | Penn Medicine Translational Neuroscience Center ...

Neuroscience is complex, but a group of scientists and doctors tried to make it easy to understand at Mount Sinai Hospital on May 5.

In celebration of Brain Awareness Week, organizations include Mentoring in Neuroscience Discovery at Sinai, the Friedman Brain Institute, and the Center for Excellence in Youth Education at Mount Sinai hosted its 5th Annual Brain Awareness Fair for local students, their parents, and community members to help them learn about neuroscience. The event took place at Mount Sinai Hospital.

(Photo by Zhiming Zhang/ NY City Lens)

There were more than 30 booths with games and informational activities on topics like memory, perception, traumatic brain injury, and more. More than 500 people filled the decorated Guggenheim Pavilion of the hospital to interact with scientists and doctors who study and treat the brain.

(Photo by Zhiming Zhang/ NY City Lens)

One of the most popular booths was a 3D Virtual Reality Brain Surgery Simulator, shaped like a colorful, giant brain. The exhibit showed visitors what its like to perform brain surgery on patients. Holly Oemke, program manager of Neurosurgery Simulation Core, said the 3D prints children received were examples of real people. The prints aimed to show children how patients brains look like, in order to help them learn the information better.

I hope that the kids learn about more than just what a normal brain does, but the intricacies within the head, Omeke said. More importantly, be excited by science.

(Photo by Zhiming Zhang/ NY City Lens)

Many children who attended did get excited. It was Jonathan Vasquezs first time attending the Brain Awareness Fair. The 10-year-old fifth-grader from PS 171 said the experience he had at the virtual reality booth was his favorite because it made him feel like that he was in a brain, which he found, in his words, cool. He said he would recommend this event to his friends. Theres a lot of cool science stuff, he said. You can go VR, you can control someone else, and you get candy.

Another popular booth was something that involved of all things, dropping eggs, wrapped in plastic, from a three-foot height. The activity was intended to help visitors learn how the parts of the body protect the brain.

(Photo by Zhiming Zhang/ NY City Lens)

Lucy Bicks, 25, a volunteer at the Egg Drop booth, said the visitors are instructed to think of the eggs as their brains and told to construct a helmet with packing materials. After finishing the helmet, they can test its effectiveness by dropping the wrapped egg to the ground to demonstrate the importance of wearing a helmet to prevent people from traumatic brain injury and concussion.

We hope that the people really understand the importance of protecting their brains through helmets, and also the dangers of concussion, Bicks said.

(Photo by Zhiming Zhang/ NY City Lens)

The event was originally scheduled to take place during Brain Awareness Week in March but had to be rescheduled due to inclement weather.

Alyson Davis, program director for Mount Sinais Youth Education Center, said that she hopes that people, especially kids, will be fearless when it comes to science after attending this fair. We really want them to experience something hands-on and first-hand, and thats what gets them excited, Davis said. Hopefully, these kids are the future graduates of our medical schools and graduate schools.

See more here:
Making Neuroscience Fun - NY City Lens

What exactly happens to our brain when we see something move? Well, evolution tells us that to survive we pay attention to anything in our vision that moves. Its innate. And its part of the reason why advertising that moves, while you are moving about your city, town, daily commute, life, is that much more powerful at retaining memory.

As leaders in the outdoor media space, APN Outdoor have no peer in market when it comes to transit advertising and have known for many years that it works.

People see it multiple times a week, it delivers incremental reach, audiences are continuously growing and advertisers love it. However they wanted to reinforce these attributes and prove to advertisers why.

Why does Transit perform so highly on measures of recall, exposure and effectiveness?

In a research collaboration with Neuro-Insight, APN Outdoor paired ethnography, which is the study of observing real people in their real world, with neuroscience, studying the brains reaction to stimulus.

The objective was to compare and identify the key differences between static and moving advertising. As a result they discovered the formula behind the power of movement the Transit Factor.

Movement increases memory encoding in the brain and memory encoding increases ad effectiveness. And transit advertising is 20% higher than all other outdoor formats when it comes to memory encoding.

Key findings:

The study analysed over four billion data points, with subjects exposed to moving and static ads, and the only relative difference was movement. All of the results are being presented around the country as part of a national roadshow. Get in touch with APN Outdoor to learn more about it or send any questions about semiotics, ethnography or the neuroscience to Neuro-Insight and The Lab.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day. Need a job? Visit adnewsjobs.com.au.

More:
The Transit Factor: Driving momentum in outdoor with neuroscience - AdNews

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a neurological disorder such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, a brain tumor or an aneurysm, you want to find the right physicians with the expertise to devise the right treatment plan. That's what you will find at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience. It is the only dedicated hospital for neuroscience in the Philadelphia region.

It's here that the most advanced treatment technologies, world-class specialists and leading-edge research come together. You can take comfort in knowing that Jefferson neurologists, neurosurgeons, radiologists, radiation oncologists and psychiatrists all work together to provide you with the best care possible.

Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience was the first in the Delaware Valley to offer such state-of-the-art technologies as:

In addition, Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience launched Jefferson Expert Teleconsulting (JET) in connection with its Jefferson Neuroscience Network. JET, the region's first university-based high-tech mobile robotic teleconsulting system, allows Jefferson neuroscience specialists to evaluate time-sensitive neurovascular diseases, most notably stroke, in real time and without delay.

At Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, we consistently achieve positive outcomes in neuroscience and are proud to share the following measures of excellence:

Read more:
Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience - Jefferson Health

May I gore you with an inconvenient truth? (See what I did there?)

We sacrifice our power of full presence when we're multitasking, and we do so for a perceived benefit of improved productivity that simply doesn't exist.

Research indicates that multitaskers are actually less likely to be productive, yet they feel more emotionally satisfied with their work, thus creating an illusion of productivity.

This bears repeating. Forget for a moment that multitasking can be incredibly rude, we're not actually accomplishing what we think we are--we've been fooling ourselves.

In fact, research also shows that multitasking, i.e. trying to do two cognitive things at the same time, simply can't be done--the mind doesn't work that way. Even trying to parallel path a cognitive activity and a more automatic activity doesn't really work. That's why the National Transportation Safety Board reports that texting while driving is the equivalent of driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit.

We believe we're effective at multitasking when in reality we're good at what researchers call "task-switching".

Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at MIT, says we simply can't focus on more than one thing at a time.

Period.

But what we can do is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed.

Says Miller, "Switching from task to task, you think you're actually paying attention to everything around you at the same time. But you're actually not." The brain is forced to switch among multiple cognitive tasks as these tasks use the same part of the brain.

The catch here is that this task-switching, despite how fast it occurs, is incredibly unproductive in reality--I mean like Candy Crush unproductive.

In fact, research indicates up to 40 percent of productivity could be lost due to task-switching. It actually takes more time to complete the tasks you're switching between and you make more errors than when you focus on doing one task at a time in order.

A Stanford study confirmed this by showing that those who multitask are indeed worse performers, and struggle because they can't filter out irrelevant information, slowing down completion of the cognitive task at hand.

Additionally, studies have shown that it takes four times longer for the brain to recognize new things (further slowing down task completion) and that we have a much lower retention rate of what we learn while we are multitasking.

The inefficiency of interrupting a task and starting another has long been known by factory managers, who seek to minimize the number of "changeovers" on the assembly lines (a changeover being when you stop running the line to start up production of a new or slightly different product). The task-switching and startup time to get the line running at its previous high speed greatly dampens productivity.

The key is to accept the fundamental fact that the mind can only do one thing at a time.

And ditch the device when you're trying to be in the moment; it's often the primary co-conspirator in our multitasking offenses.

Certainly, this is easier said than done, particularly since brain research indicates that our addiction to texts, Twitter, and Google has a physiological cause--the body's emission of the chemical dopamine (known as the "pleasure seeking molecule"). Our brain gets pleasure when we seek and find new information, so it chemically encourages more such behavior (enter dopamine).

To break this stimulation, experts say turn off the audio and visual cues built into your devices that alert you to the presence of more information.

But mostly, just draw a line in the mental sandbox and commit to one thing at a time.

Read more:
Psychology and Neuroscience Blow-Up the Myth of Effective Multitasking - Inc.com

There are plenty of advice columns, self-help books, and loosely spiritual twenty-somethings devoted to extolling the virtues of living in the present. The advice is intended as an antidote to life spent scrolling absentmindedly through twitter or planning next weekend, while failing to appreciate each momentary experience.

While its certainly well meaning, the catchphrase alone offers limited guidance. After all, a life spent entirely dedicated to making sure the present moment was enjoyable would never go anywhere; no one would subject themselves to New Yorks subway, for example. And neuroscience suggests that, while it may be unfashionable, humans ability to mentally transport ourselves into the future is one of the key distinguishing features of our species.

Dean Buonomano, behavioral neuroscience professor at UCLA and author of the recently-published Your Brain is a Time Machine, says that the human brain is an inherently temporal organ. Not only does it tell the time, it also allows us to mentally project ourselves into the past and the future, he says.

To a certain extent, all animals have a basic ability to predict and prepare for the future. Even worms have circadian rhythms and so instinctively know when its daylight and when predatory birds are more likely to be around. But humans have a far more sophisticated ability to conceive of the futureto sculpt and create futures that we imagine, says Buonomano.

Whats fairly unique about humans is this aspect of mentally projecting ourselves into the past or the futurethe degree to which humans can engage in what we call mental time travel, he explains.

Not all future-orientated activities rely on this projection; humans have hardwired habits just like all other animals. Sex, for example, has potentially significant future consequences; as Buonomano says, we engage in fairly complex behaviors without thinking about what will happen nine months from now.

But our more elaborate ability to envisage the future is key to most human successes. Building houses, cultivating agriculture, studying, and saving for retirement are all done with an eye to the future.

Thats a strange concept for anyone to plant the seed and come back years later. It uses our ability to link events that are separated by days, weeks, and months, says Buonomano. Without this skill, he says, homo sapiens (Latin for wise men) simply wouldnt be sapiensits what makes us wise.

Its not clear exactly which parts of the brain enable this distinctly human activity. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for higher-level cognitive function, is certainly involved. But the thought process is so complexinvolving a conception of the past, imagining the future, and a sophisticated understanding of timethat it inevitably relies on many functions in the brain.

But while the ability to connect present activity with future outcomes is uniquely human, were not always good at this skill. In the 20th century, 100 million people died due to cigarette related causes, says Buonomano. If cigarettes caused cancer a week after people start smoking then that never would have happened. It would have been easy for people to believe that connection. The fallout from climate change is another major example of humans failing to adequately focus on the future.

Another downside, as those who focus on living in the present are well aware, is that our ability to mentally time travel can be draining. Spending too much time reliving the past, focusing on slights or reasons were angry, is not productive, says Buonomano.

The neuroscientist says there are certainly benefits to mindfulness (the meditative practice has a rich history that cannot be reduced to a simple slogan.) Living in the present, he says, can be a valuable call to focus on enjoying current activities, even when theyre done with an eye to future outcomes. And mindfulness should involve being mindful of our mental activities, so that were aware of when projecting ourselves into the future is productive and when its damaging.

In other words, its entirely healthy to focus on enjoying the present moment. But failing to invest in the future simply wouldnt be human.

See the original post:
The neuroscience argument against living in the present - Quartz