<p>Researchers at the University of California found that the brains of aged people find it difficult to switch back after a distraction.<br /><br />And by the time they resume their original pattern of thinking, it could have gone from their heads, the Telegraph reported.<br />For the study, the researchers recruited 40 volunteers, half of whom were aged around </p>.<p>70 years while the other half were around 25 years.<br /><br />Their brains were scanned while they were asked to memorise a picture of nature on a screen for 14 seconds. At random intervals a face was flashed up on the screen.</p>.<p>Each volunteer was then asked to describe the face and then recall the scene from nature.</p>.<p>The brain scans showed that activity in the brain switched during the distracting facial image in both volunteers -- but it happened much more slowly in the elderly.<br /><br />They also had more problems recalling the original natural scene.</p>.<p>The researchers believe the slow switching affects short-term, or "working" memory -- the capacity to hold and manipulate information in the mind for a period of time.</p>.<p>Working memory is the basis of all mental operations, from learning a friend's telephone number, and then entering it into a smart phone, to following the train of a conversation, to conducting complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning.</p>.<p>Professor Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and co-author, said: "The impact of distractions and interruptions reveals the fragility of working memory.</p>.<p>"This is an important fact to consider, given that we increasingly live in a more demanding, high-interference environment, with a dramatic increase in the accessibility and variety of electronic media and the devices that deliver them, many of which are portable.<br /><br />"Our findings suggest the negative impact of multitasking on working memory is not necessarily a memory problem, per se, but the result of an interaction between attention and memory."<br /><br />His team is now exploring the potential of software brain-training programs to help older people improve their ability to mentally process tasks simultaneously.<br /><br />The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</p>
<p>Researchers at the University of California found that the brains of aged people find it difficult to switch back after a distraction.<br /><br />And by the time they resume their original pattern of thinking, it could have gone from their heads, the Telegraph reported.<br />For the study, the researchers recruited 40 volunteers, half of whom were aged around </p>.<p>70 years while the other half were around 25 years.<br /><br />Their brains were scanned while they were asked to memorise a picture of nature on a screen for 14 seconds. At random intervals a face was flashed up on the screen.</p>.<p>Each volunteer was then asked to describe the face and then recall the scene from nature.</p>.<p>The brain scans showed that activity in the brain switched during the distracting facial image in both volunteers -- but it happened much more slowly in the elderly.<br /><br />They also had more problems recalling the original natural scene.</p>.<p>The researchers believe the slow switching affects short-term, or "working" memory -- the capacity to hold and manipulate information in the mind for a period of time.</p>.<p>Working memory is the basis of all mental operations, from learning a friend's telephone number, and then entering it into a smart phone, to following the train of a conversation, to conducting complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning.</p>.<p>Professor Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and co-author, said: "The impact of distractions and interruptions reveals the fragility of working memory.</p>.<p>"This is an important fact to consider, given that we increasingly live in a more demanding, high-interference environment, with a dramatic increase in the accessibility and variety of electronic media and the devices that deliver them, many of which are portable.<br /><br />"Our findings suggest the negative impact of multitasking on working memory is not necessarily a memory problem, per se, but the result of an interaction between attention and memory."<br /><br />His team is now exploring the potential of software brain-training programs to help older people improve their ability to mentally process tasks simultaneously.<br /><br />The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</p>