[zozin]

Hasn't this been debunked for a while? To prove this all you need to do is have test subjects listen to a podcast or audiobook and then distract them with something for a second or two and the results will undoubtedly show that the vast majority of listeners stopped paying attention and what was heard was not comprehended/absorbed. Humans tend to think they are capable of more than they really are.

[krageon]

I can write a comment on hackernews and have a verbal conversation at the same time (i.e. typing noises happen when mouth noises happen, no pausing or swapping) just fine. If that's not multitasking, I don't know what is. I will grant you most folks I've met or asked about it cannot do it.

[kaba0]

That works more like your brain feeding in a few words, and typing itself is muscle memory that requires no active attention. If a word doesn’t look right, it “throws an interrupt”, and you will look into it with active thought, and then quickly returning to your speech — which yet again can talk “automatically”, while it has a full buffer.

Pretty much the exact same way as modern hardware works.

[krageon]

There are two options: Either you made this up out of whole cloth, or you are decades ahead of neuroscience and have single-handedly managed to find a way to prove how brains work. I think the former is a lot more plausible.

[hosh]

Although rare, there are humans capable of parallel thoughts.

[milesvp]

What’s interesting is you can see the seperate patterns on an fmri. It’s also known that people advanced in certain kinds of meditation are very likely to show dual gamma waves. I think it’s suspected that it’s something that can be trained, although it’s very possible only people with the ability are drawn to practice these meditations.

[kaba0]

It sounds very interesting, could you please expand on it/give me some keywords I can look into it?

[milesvp]

Well, I've been looking, and mostly what I've been able to find is references to papers that show strong correlation with Buddhist monks and exceptional gamma waves. The paper I'm thinking of may have not been reproducible, and fallen off the radar. I would have seen it no later than 2011. I might be quoting a book on neuroscience as well (I went through a phase where I was looking at neuroscience for inspiration for AI research). I think the idea was that people who meditate while doing certain types of "mindless" tasks seem to be able to hold 1 wave around that task, while holding another wave around other thoughts. What I can't remember is if this was a one gamma wave per hemisphere scenario, or 2 for the whole brain.

If you're interested at least in consciousness and brain waves, you could do worse than to look into reading some of the references in "States of Consciousness: Experimental Insights into Meditation, Waking, Sleep and Dreams" Dean Cvetkovic & Irena Cosic Editors