Sunday, May 8, 2011

Was I Dropped On My Head?

Sometimes I walk to another part of the house or office and forget what I was going there for. I'll pause and replay what I was thinking and doing just a couple minutes before and my reason for moving usually returns to me. But every once in a while I'm left to wait for my, "Oh, yeah!" moment to show up.

A recent study took at look at the brain and distractions.

To investigate distractibility, the team compared the brains of easy and difficult-to-distract individuals.

They assessed each person's distractibility by quizzing them about how often they fail to notice road signs, or go into a supermarket and become sidetracked to the point that they forget what they came in to buy. The most distractible individuals received the highest score.


One possible result of their study.

Those who are easily distracted from the task in hand may have "too much brain".

YES!

But wait.

[Dr Ryota Kanai, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience] suggests that a greater volume of grey matter may indicate a less mature brain, perhaps reflecting a mild developmental malfunction.

Oh, crap.

4 comments:

Shan said...

My mom has a theory about how to remember what you got off the couch for. It's that going back and sitting again can help you recall what you intended to do. However, getting up and walking away can recreate the goal loss. Her solution? To stand there and hold onto her ass until she remembers. She says it simulates sitting.

In case you were wondering, we heard a LOT of the pole lock jokes when I was a kid. A lot.

Anonymous said...

I was dropped on my head, but rather than make me more prone to distraction, the injury actually resulted in a greater focus on task. I am in many ways like a freight train on a track, chasing the light of it's own headlamp through the dark night. In fact, I sometimes actually chant chug-chug-chug aloud as I tenaciously pursue a thought, and once, overhearing me and misunderstanding, some frat boys introduced me to beer, a golden frothy liquid that caused me to roll down the embankment, I mean that literally, I was literally rolling down an embankment, until I ended up in this little creek. The water was very cool, and the sun was hot, and I lay with my damaged head pillowed by soft mud, watching clouds, some of which looked like animals.

Anyway, sorry, what was the topic?

And have you seen where I put my keys?

Hank Greer said...

Anonymous, you are killin' today.

And thanks for all the pole jokes.

Hank Greer said...

Shan,

I don't see myself simulating sitting at work for very long. Or at home for that matter. I don't think I need more people thinking there's something wrong with me.

"It's okay. I'm just pretending to sit down." :-)