You Can Train Your Brain to Go on Autopilot

Your brain may be able to juggle more than you think. A small Georgetown study suggests we can, over time, train one part of the brain to run a task on autopilot so another part of the brain can focus on something else, essentially enabling multitasking, reports NBC News. Long viewed as a "one-thing-at-a-time" operator, the prefrontal cortex initially handled participants' work in an app-like game that involved sorting thousands of car images into two categories. After five to 10 weeks and more than 30,000 repetitions, brain scans showed the sorting job had largely shifted to the temporal cortex, which is tied to long-term memory.

"We have another stepping stone in our understanding of how the brain learns," says lead researcher Maximilian Riesenhuber, who likens the shift to the brain automating a skill—much like experienced drivers chatting while navigating, or gymnasts relying on muscle memory. Not everyone rewires at the same pace, however, and frustration can make the process more difficult, neurologists say, as emotions themselves consume mental resources.

The findings published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience hint that with enough focused practice—even later in life—people can expand what they can competently do at once. Experts warn, however, that leaning too heavily on tools like AI to handle complex work could blunt that process: If software does the learning, your brain may never get good enough at a skill to multitask with it.