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Study design
Researchers combined human psychophysics, electrophysiology in monkeys performing perceptual tasks and recurrent neural-network models. The experiments compared decisions when the relevant task was clear with decisions when cues left the task uncertain, and included behavioral, physiological and causal tests.
What the findings show
People and monkeys made less accurate perceptual decisions under task uncertainty. The neural evidence supported a feature-interference account: irrelevant features were represented more strongly and different features became more entangled. In experiments that manipulated neural activity, reducing the interfering signal improved performance, supporting a causal contribution in the tested task.
Limits
The findings concern two perceptual tasks and specific laboratory conditions. They do not show that all everyday multitasking errors share this mechanism, and results from monkeys or computational models cannot by themselves establish how human cognition works in other settings.
This sourced news summary and translation were prepared with AI assistance. Source links, the news date and research limitations are disclosed; this is not a claim of independent medical expert review. News production method.
Sources
- Feature interference underlies a neuronal basis for the behavioral cost of task uncertainty — Nature Neuroscience ·
Research news is not medical advice or a recommendation to use a substance. Read findings in the context of the study design, participants and limitations. Editorial standards.
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