Did anyone else have the same experience? A new study suggests that the brain has problems listening and looking at the same time! The parts of the brain that handle visual input are less effective when the mind is also processing audio input, and vice versa. According to Steven Yantis, a Johns Hopkins University psychologist, directing attention to listening effectively 'turns down the volume' on input to the visual parts of the brain.

The Brain (Courtesy: ScienceBob)In the study, people aged 19 to 35 watched a rapidly changing display of letters and numbers while listening to three voices speak other letters and numbers. The scientists recorded brain activity. When the test subjects paid attention to the screen, activity decreased in the parts of their brain responsible for listening.
Surprisingly, when a subject was told to shift attention from vision to hearing, the brain's parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex produced a burst of activity. The scientists assume it was a signal to initiate the shift of attention. Experts had previously thought those parts of the brain were only involved in processing visual information.
This has interesting implications. For example, talking on the phone while driving might reduce your awareness of your surroundings. But again, we do not find watching movies to be problematic just because there is a lot of dialogue. So, the scientists perhaps need to flesh this out a little bit more:).