How many windows are open on your computer right now? Most of us are running a few websites, not to mention our email, Facebook, Twitter, a word processor, a spreadsheet and maybe a few other random software applications. Then, close by we might have a cellphone and maybe an eBook reader and an iPod or iPad.

Or maybe we are doing the dishes while at the same time solving a few other problems we didn't have the time or energy to cognitively handle while working, taking care of the kids or going to school.

In fact, people are often better problem-solvers when they can "break set." Think of those times when you couldn't remember someone's name only to have it pop into your mind a few minutes later, after you stopped trying.

We all do it: texting while walking, sending emails during meetings, chatting on the phone while cooking dinner. In today's society, doing just one thing at a time seems downright luxurious, even wasteful. There is "good" multitasking and "bad" multitasking, and controversy about the value of multitasking at all.

But just how does the brain handle executing multiple diverse tasks simultaneously?

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center, led by senior study investigator and neuroscientist Michael Halassa, M.D., Ph.D., claim that a shell-shaped region in the center of the mammalian brain, known as the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), is likely responsible for the ability to routinely and seamlessly multitask.

They suggest the process is done by individual TRN neurons that act like a "switchboard," continuously filtering sensory information and shifting more or less attention onto one sense while relatively blocking out distracting information from other senses, including sound.

In their research with mice, the investigators showed that TRN neurons controlling sound were less active when the mice were led to focus on a visual flash of light to get a milk reward. In contrast, when the mice were made to pay attention to a sound and ignore the flash of light, researchers say TRN neurons that controlled vision were more active, suppressing the visual signals in order to pay more attention to the sound. Earlier research by the same team of scientists showed that different TRN neurons controlled specific senses.

According to Halassa, who is an assistant professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at NYU Langone and its Druckenmiller Neuroscience Institute, this latest research finding supports a newly emerging model of how the brain focuses attention on a particular task. Filtering out distracting or irrelevant information is a vital function because we need to be able to focus on one thing and suppress other distractions to perform everyday functions such as driving, talking on the phone and socializing.

Previous research at NYU and elsewhere had identified the TRN region of the brain and its individual neurons as possible regulators of the brain's ability to multitask but had until now been unable to successfully prove the hypothesis. In fact, Nobel laureate Francis Crick hypothesized as early as 1984 that the TRN might function like a gate for the flow of sensory information.

However, scientists had faced technical struggles in accurately recording signals from the small anatomical structure of the TRN deep within the brain. There was also no method of isolating behavior associated with the TRN until Halassa's research team designed a novel experimental setup to do so.

According to Halassa, the new research sets the stage for more detailed studies on the complex behavior involved in how the mammalian brain pays attention to what's important and especially how those neural circuits are broken in cases of attention-deficit diseases, such as ADHD, autism and schizophrenia.