Brain Lessons: Information Overload causes you to make Mistakes

Don't go out and buy a new day planner or learn a five-step decision-making process -- they won't work. If they did, we would all be much happier and more effective. The truth is that to improve our thinking abilities, we need to understand the root of our problem -- our brains. Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University, conducted a study that measured people's brain activity while they addressed increasingly complex problems (i.e., noise). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure changes in blood flow, she found that as people received more information, their brain activity increased in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead that is responsible for making decisions and controlling emotions. But when the information load became too much, it was as though a breaker in the brain was triggered, and the prefrontal cortex suddenly shut down. As people reach information overload, Dimoka explained, "They start making stupid mistakes and bad choices because the brain region responsible for smart decision making has essentially left the premises." These breaker moments are becoming more and more frequent in most people's lives. The underlying issue is that most of the activities we do throughout the day contribute to the load. In any given day, you will likely find yourself at the supermarket selecting a cereal from among too many choices, at the office responding to never-ending emails, and at home multitasking on daily chores. All of these tasks with the associated information input begin to chisel away at your mental resources, leaving you flustered and even helpless when faced with making far more important decisions. Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230925#ixzz2r4eNRCdZ