Dr. Steven Novella

All right, all of this means that neuroscientists reveal research that shows a mechanism by which people can learn to perform true multitasking is science.

So what do you guys think?

Everything you said was correct, Kara.

You're offloading.

So this is what they showed.

So where's the bottleneck for multitasking?

It's the frontal lobes.

Exactly.

It's your frontal lobes.

We have only serial attention.

We can only pay attention to one thing at a time, right?

And so when two things require your attention, you have to switch back and forth.

You cannot simultaneously pay attention to two tasks that require a lot of attention, right?

Let's say you guys have all done this.

When you first learn to drive, you have to pay attention fully.

You're fully engaging your frontal lobes to know all the things you got to do.

And then once you've driven for 20 years, you can do anything while you're driving.

You can have a conversation.

You could be listening to the radio.

It doesn't take up any of your frontal lobes because you've offloaded the task of driving to other parts of your brain.