Eli5: Why can’t we truly multitask? Why is our “multitasking” just setting something aside real quick to do something else? Why can’t our limbs perform different tasks at once?
In: Biology
Each area of your brain can only do one thing at a time; you simply don’t have any spare brain matter to devote to doing two or more similar tasks (which is not something like talking and walking, which are two different tasks in two different parts of the brain).
In an average person, the parts of your brain that control your limbs (one for each limb) could theoretically multitask, except they’re also busy coordinating with each other and with other parts of your brain. There are people who are split-brained, who’ve had a surgical procedure done that splits the connection between your right and left halves of your brain (usually done to stop seizures). In those cases, they sort of can multitask, with each side of their body able to act independently of the other. However, it’s more like they’re two individual people sharing a body rather than one person able to do two things, as their limbs can now start disagreeing with each other.
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