http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Most people believe they can multitask effectively, but a University of Utah study indicates that people who multitask the most – including talking on a cell phone while driving – are least capable of doing so. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-frequent-multitaskers-bad-motorists-overrate.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:28:56 EST news278184526 The pattern of blood flow in the prefrontal cortex in the brains alters with age during multi-tasking, finds a new study in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Neuroscience. Increased blood volume, measured using oxygenated haemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) increased at the start of multitasking in all age groups. But to perform the same tasks, healthy older people had a higher and more sustained increase in Oxy-Hb than younger people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-copes-multi-tasking-age.html Neuroscience Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:00:02 EST news277661639 (Medical Xpress)—Using multiple forms of media at the same time – such as playing a computer game while watching TV – is linked to symptoms of anxiety and depression, scientists have found for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-multiple-media-tied-depression-anxiety.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:05:34 EST news273845122 Working mothers may have to juggle more tasks than their husbands, but the long-held belief that women are better than men at multitasking is a myth, according to new Swedish research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-men-women-multitaskers-swedish.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:29:13 EST news270282537 In a new study that has implications for distracted drivers, researchers found that people are better at juggling some types of multitasking than they are at others. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-multitasking-dangerous.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:35:17 EST news262265685 (Medical Xpress) -- Need to do some serious multitasking? Some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful, new research from the University of Washington shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mindful-multitasking-meditation-calm-stress.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:50:01 EST news258877408 Ancient wisdom tells us to "stop and smell the roses" and to "live for the moment." Given our busy lives, it's no surprise that this advice is often easier said than done. Many of us multitask not only our physical chores, but our mental ones as well. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-probing-mindfulness.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 21 May 2012 08:09:25 EST news256806551 People aren't very good at media multitasking - like reading a book while watching TV - but do it anyway because it makes them feel good, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-multitasking.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:50:08 EST news255005955 Our obsession with multiple forms of media is not necessarily all bad news, according to a new study by Kelvin Lui and Alan Wong from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Their work shows that those who frequently use different types of media at the same time appear to be better at integrating information from multiple senses - vision and hearing in this instance - when asked to perform a specific task. This may be due to their experience of spreading their attention to different sources of information while media multitasking. Their study is published online in Springer's Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-multitasking-bad.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:48:46 EST news253442918 (Medical Xpress) -- Too much screen time can be detrimental to girls 8 to 12 years old, but there is a surprisingly straightforward alternative for greater social wellness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-multitasking-social-emotional-tweenage-girls.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:52:39 EST news246876741 (Medical Xpress) -- Historically, perceptual and response rates when multitasking have been interpreted as being limited by independent bottlenecks. While a more recent view suggests that a common bottleneck might be the cause, experimental evidence for its existence have not been determinative. Recently, however, researchers at Vanderbilt University used time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – where both the topography and temporal sequence of cortical activation across brain regions is examined – to identify a unified attentional bottleneck – a network of regions that apparently limits the speeds at which perceptual encoding and decision-making can occur. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-fast-thought-perception-limited-neocortical.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:59:42 EST news233395134 Young people with autism may find it difficult to multitask because they stick rigidly to tasks in the order they are given to them, according to research led by an academic at the University of Strathclyde. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-inflexibility-pupils-autism-problems-multitasking.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:11:45 EST news232632692 Multitaskers who think they can successfully divide their attention between the program on their television set and the information on their computer screen proved to be driven to distraction by the two devices, according to a new study of media multitasking by Boston College researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-media-multitasking-multi-distracting.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 02 May 2011 04:13:19 EST news223528374 Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have pinpointed a reason older adults have a harder time multitasking than younger adults: they have more difficulty switching between tasks at the level of brain networks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-multitasking-reveals-glitch-aging-brain.html Neuroscience Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:57:19 EST news221756228