Our brains are incapable of multitasking.
That's the claim of the folks at
OnlineUniversities.com, which sent me nifty infographic "Digital Stress and Your Brain". There is a lot of interesting data, but two sentences caught my attention: "Our brains' attention levels are finite. When our brain is overloaded with information, it can trigger a 'fight or flight' reaction. The overload makes the brain feel threatened, so it shuts down higher brain functions that deal with empathy".
So there's explanation. So-called trolls -- you know, like obnoxious commenters -- have overloaded their lobes with too many tasks and in doing lost any feeling for anyone but themselves (being in fight, defensive mode). You'd probably find them to be the best of pals at the local pub. But behind screen and keyboard, they're beasts.
