Brain freeze - what it is and how to avoid it.

 “With too much information, people’s decisions make less and less sense.”

Newsweek magazine published an article recently that looked at the effect of attempting to absorb too much information.  

The study created a problem that overtaxed people's decision making abilities. Participants considered an incredibly complex array of information in order to solve the problem set.  As the information provided increased, even experts become anxious and mentally exhausted. In fact, the more information they try to absorb, the fewer of the desired items they got and the more they overpaid or made critical errors.

At the same time as the participants were attempting to solve the set problem, the researchers were scanning their brain activity. They found that as the information load increased, so did activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead that is responsible for decision making and control of emotions. However as the researchers gave the participants more and more information, activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex suddenly fell off, as if a circuit breaker had popped. 

In effect  - information overload or brain freeze - is a very real cognitive issue.

For Unified Inbox, we are looking at ways to make information more manageable and less prone to overload.  Many of the smart services contained within Unified Inbox are aimed squarely at freeing people from the tyranny of an overwhelming message stream.