Humans & distraction
Your brain is a complex machine made up of different regions, capable of handling many demands and requests at once. Studies have found that as demands to the brain increase — like during tricky driving maneuvers brain activity across different regions increases as well.
Distractions, such as conversations, have been found to increase this load even more, potentially limiting your reaction capacity — which isn't great for collision avoidance. The brains of young drivers are even more complex, governed by reward centres in the brain. This makes teens more likely to partake in risky activities behind the wheel, priming them for distraction.
Humans aren’t designed for multitasking, despite how good at it we think we are. Researchers had drivers perform distracting tasks, such as texting and dialling cell phones, and found that crashes or near-crashes increased. This carries over to other areas of your life, too — neuroscientist Daniel Levitan writes that our mental effectiveness, including decision-making, decreases by about 40% when multitasking.
