title: Neural sources of performance decline during continuous multitasking.
abstract: Multitasking performance costs have largely been characterized by experiments that involve two overlapping and punctuated perceptual stimuli, as well as punctuated responses to each task. Here, participants engaged in a continuous performance paradigm during fMRI recording to identify neural signatures associated with multitasking costs under more natural conditions. Our results demonstrated that only a single brain region, the superior parietal lobule (SPL), exhibited a significant relationship with multitasking performance, such that increased activation in the multitasking condition versus the singletasking condition was associated with higher task performance (i.e., least multitasking cost). Together, these results support previous research indicating that parietal regions underlie multitasking abilities and that performance costs are related to a bottleneck in control processes involving the SPL that serves to divide attention between two tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Francisco, USA. Electronic address: adam.gazzaley@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Al-Hashimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Zanto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco USA; Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Francisco, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gazzaley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059906:Neuroimaging; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D018910:Video Games
keywords: Attention; Cognitive control; Multitasking