
How we tune out distractions - hhs
http://news.mit.edu/2019/how-brain-ignores-distractions-0612
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mojuba
Something I noticed a long time ago: I can listen to music and code at the
same time, but I can't listen to music and write an email. Might be that music
and speech are processed by the same area of the brain that can't multitask.
While writing an email, the brain either classifies music as a distraction and
starts filtering it (you don't _hear_ the music while writing human text), or
just signals to turn it off completely. Somehow this is not a problem while
writing code!

So what is special about coding that makes it compatible with music?

My best theory is that coding, though it looks like you are typing text, is
managed by the areas of the brain responsible for _action_ and not speech (and
it is why music can't get in the way). Though programming itself is not
action, it's a planning activity, but something suggests planning an action
and acting should happen in the same area of the brain. When you write a
program, you create a mental model of the future program and imagine how it
will _act_ in various situations. If the input can not be parsed, raise an
error, etc. A "theory of mind" applied to a virtual machine rather than a
human.

Which brings me to another interesting question of why programming comes
"naturally" to some specific type of people, while it can be a challenge to
others: it is those of us who can build and maintain a "theory of mind" of a
machine relatively easy. Similarly to the real "theory of mind" and
sociability that is given to some but not the others.

Anyway, I don't know what the bottom line of this can be, but for one thing,
coding is not what it seems. It is not at all just typing text. In fact as a
coder, you should think more and write less - that's one of my mottos. The
better the mental model of your future machine is, the more elegant and
reliable your code will be.

~~~
ksaj
When writing, I think music can create a mood mismatch. When coding, momentum
is more important than mood.

That's my guess anyway. I found the same thing as you, and came up with that
theory many moons back when I was listening to a speed metal song on
headphones while watching a street performance, and noted how silly the music
made it seem. They were moving so gently and the music really clashed with it
in bizarre ways.

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dredmorbius
The paper in question:

Miho Nakajima, L.Ian Schmitt, Michael M. Halassa, "Prefrontal Cortex Regulates
Sensory Filtering through a Basal Ganglia-to-Thalamus Pathway"

[https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(19)30479-9](https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273\(19\)30479-9)

[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.026](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.026)

[http://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.026](http://sci-
hub.tw/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.026)

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salutonmundo
I wonder why we don't do this when listening recorded audio.

