collect which they can monetize for advertising you're a scientist heading back from the gritty university frankford explains what effects this has on our brains. this is where distraction happens when i concentrate on one task these brain regions are active. all sensory stimuli are filtered out by this region the so-called d.n.a. blocking access but when there's a stimulus that's very different to other stimuli it gets through and distracts. smartphone and app developers capitalize on they want to create products that permanently grab our attention with push notifications vibrations audio signals and so forth. these are. new stimuli different brain regions are activated and sort of pull power from my ability to concentrate. suddenly i am no longer focused on my one task because my brain is having to process multiple stimuli and that means i can't devote all my mental resources to fulfilling my original task. to a recent study using smartphones can make us feel more restless normally the more someone performs a certain task the better they can do it and as a result their brain signals become calmer