A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in
the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply
to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? Scientists at the University of
California, Berkeley, have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search,
various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a
person, animal or thing.
That means that if we’re looking for a youngster lost in a
crowd, the brain areas usually dedicated to recognizing other objects such as
animals, or even the areas governing abstract thought, shift their focus and
join the search party. Thus, the brain rapidly switches into a highly focused
child-finder, and redirects resources it uses for other mental tasks.