It turns out that dull tasks really do numb the brain.
Researchers have discovered that as people perform monotonous tasks, their brain shifts toward an at-rest mode whether they like it or not.
And by monitoring that area of the brain, they were able to predict when someone was about to make a mistake before they made it, a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed.
“There’s this thing that’s probably intrinsic where your brain says I do need to take a little break here and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said study author Tom Eichele of Norway’s University of Bergen.
“Probably everyone knows that feAeling that sometimes your brain is not as receptive or as well performing and you didn’t do anything to actually induce that,” he said.
When that happens, blood flows into the part of the brain which is more active in states of rest. And since this state begins about 30 seconds prior to a mistake being made, it could be possible to design an early-warning system which could alert people to be more focused or more careful, Eichele said.
That could significantly improve workplace safety and also improve performance in key tasks such as airport security screening.
“We might be able to build a device [that could be placed] on the heads of people that make these easy decisions,” he said.
“We can measure the signal and give feedback to the user that well, your brain is in the state where your decisions are not going to be the right one,” he said.
Eichele and his colleagues in the US, the UK and Germany were able to detect these brain patterns with magnetic-resonance imagery scans, which are not portable.
The next step is to see if more mobile electroencephalography (EEG) devices are able to detect the phenomenon.
A prototype of a wireless, mobile and lightweight EEG amplifier is in development and could be ready for the market in 10 to 15 years, he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS