Driving while listening to the radio, making breakfast while talking to the family or eating a sandwich while reading a book. Our daily lives are built on multitasking, but are our brains actually doing two things at once, or just switching very quickly between them?
Well, it depends on the type of task.
For cognitively demanding work, science shows it is the latter. However, in a groundbreaking new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center have revealed that we can put certain tasks on autopilot. This enables something much closer to true multitasking.
The Classic Example: From Learner Driver to Expert
Driving is the perfect example of how the brain transforms a difficult task into an automatic one. When you take your driving test, your entire mental and physical energy is concentrated on executing the right combinations of movements and thoughts.
Every Decision Feels Effortful And Demanding
After a decade behind the wheel, however, your brain no longer consciously thinks through every detail in great depth. Instead, much of the work happens automatically. In the new study, researchers found that after extensive practice, the brain can effectively reroute some tasks around its main computing center, like a bypass road around a busy city, to reduce mental overload.
“We have another stepping stone in our understanding of how the brain learns,” says neuroscientist Maximilian Riesenhuber, senior author of the study. “The encouraging part is that you really can learn to multitask. There is actually a way to remodel your brain architecture and use other parts of your brain.”
The Brain’s Bottleneck: Why We Struggle to Multitask
Humans can clearly multitask to some extent without any issue. For example, we can walk and talk at the same time without messing up our leg movements or putting words in the wrong order.
It is when demanding cognitive tasks are involved that we have to keep switching rapidly between them, and productivity takes a significant hit. These complex jobs are handled by the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which offers powerful executive thinking capabilities but can typically only do one thing at a time. Researchers often call this limitation the frontal bottleneck.
To overcome this bottleneck, the Georgetown team used both functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram brain imaging on 11 participants. This combined approach allowed them to measure both where and when brain activity was happening with high precision. Across several weeks, participants completed more than 30,000 mental challenges in which they were asked to sort pictures of cars into two categories. Brain scans were carried out both before and after the extensive training period to track changes.
Brain Reroutes Tasks to Create Autopilot
The key discovery was striking and challenges previous assumptions about learning. The car-sorting task initially activated the prefrontal cortex heavily, indicating high cognitive effort and executive control. However, after training, a significant amount of the work had shifted to the temporal cortex, where the brain manages memory encoding and object recognition.
“Previous studies have shown that parts of the temporal cortex can be activated by particular object categories in experienced observers – birds, cars, even Pokémon – but a limitation of all of those studies is that they only looked after people became experts,” says psychologist Patrick Cox, first author of the study.
“We measure before and after training, so we can see that extensive training essentially put a category-selective area in the temporal lobe that was not there before,” Cox explained. In other words, practice literally built a new specialized processing area in the brain.
The study culminated in a crucial dual-task experiment. Participants were asked to identify cars and simultaneously take on another demanding challenge. The individuals whose brains had offloaded more car-sorting work to the temporal cortex performed significantly better at the second task. Therefore, offloading freed up the prefrontal cortex for other work.
Real-World Implications: From Radiologists to AI
This small-scale study has massive implications for critical real-world scenarios that demand high performance. For instance, consider a radiologist who can accurately classify masses on an X-ray as benign or malignant fairly automatically, often without extensive deliberation, thanks to years of training.
“This has implications for critical real-world scenarios, like when a radiologist can accurately classify masses on an X-ray as benign or malignant fairly automatically,” says Cox. Similarly, pilots, musicians, and athletes all develop this brain bypass through thousands of hours of deliberate practice. More broadly, this research could also help scientists understand compulsive behaviors, where tasks become too automatic, and improve AI development by mimicking how human brains learn to automate expertise. While this is only a small-scale study that will need replication in bigger groups, it opens a new window into learning.
Next, the researchers want to see if there are particular kinds of tasks that are more likely to be offloaded. They aim to identify which types of mental work free up the prefrontal cortex most effectively.
“What we show is that the circuitry actually changes so the brain can do two things at once,” says Riesenhuber. “This really is true multitasking.”
Analysis: Practice Does Not Just Make Perfect, It Rewires
This study fundamentally reframes the old debate about multitasking. It proves that true multitasking is a myth for beginners but becomes a neurological reality for experts. Moreover, it shows that expertise is not just about getting faster; it is about physically remodeling your brain architecture to create efficient bypass routes.
Q&A: What Readers Ask Most
Q: Can humans truly multitask?
For demanding tasks, the brain normally switches quickly rather than doing two things at once due to the frontal bottleneck. However, after extensive practice, the brain can reroute tasks to the temporal cortex, enabling closer to true multitasking.
Q: How long does it take for the brain to put a task on autopilot?
In the Georgetown study, participants completed over 30,000 trials across several weeks, after which brain scans showed significant offloading from prefrontal cortex to temporal cortex, indicating autopilot processing.
FAQ – Optimized for Answer Engine
What is the frontal bottleneck in the brain?
The frontal bottleneck is the limitation of the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive center, which can typically handle only one demanding cognitive task at a time, forcing quick switching that reduces productivity.
How does practice enable true multitasking according to Georgetown study?
Extensive practice shifts task processing from the prefrontal cortex to the temporal cortex, which handles memory and object recognition, freeing up the executive center for a second task simultaneously.
What are examples of true multitasking after training?
Examples include an experienced driver talking while driving, a radiologist automatically detecting tumors on X-rays while discussing a case, or a musician playing an instrument while singing.
Is multitasking bad for productivity?
Multitasking with two demanding, unfamiliar tasks hurts productivity due to constant switching. However, if one task is highly practiced and automated, multitasking becomes efficient and does not reduce performance.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and is based on a study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center.
