UC BERKELEY (US) — When we’re looking for something specific, like a lost pet or a contact lens on the floor, the brain redirects various visual and non-visual regions to help.
That means that if we’re looking for a youngster lost in a crowd, the brain areas usually dedicated to recognizing other objects such as animals, or even the areas governing abstract thought, shift their focus and join the search party. Thus, the brain rapidly switches into a highly focused child-finder, and redirects resources it uses for other mental tasks.
“Our results show that our brains are much more dynamic than previously thought, rapidly reallocating resources based on behavioral demands, and optimizing our performance by increasing the precision with which we can perform relevant tasks,” says Tolga Cukur, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley and lead author of the study published in Nature Neuroscience.