And now, from the "If Sudiegirl is writing about the brain, does that mean she's working without tools?" file and Yahoo! News...

To the left is a brain...to the right, THE BRAIN. You know, he still hasn't taken over the world yet. What would this world be like if he'd actually succeed at what he sets out to do? I'm not sure, myself.

Anyhoo, this article just kind of tickled my funny bone, as all things scientific do to me, because all the smarty-pants things I wanna say just start tumbling around like Chevy Chase doing his best Gerald Ford imitation.

So here we go...

Scatterbrained? You Need a Thought Bouncer
By Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor, LiveScience.com

Thu Nov 24, 8:00 AM ET

When you forget a face or can't find your car keys, it's not because your brain is out of storage space. You just aren't filtering out other thoughts well enough, a new study finds. (Well, isn't that the same thing? And why is it MY responsibility to filter out thoughts? Stuff should just quit bombarding me, that's all...)

The research contradicts a popular notion that memory capacity is solely dependent on how much information you can cram into your noggin. (Well, then, that screws up that "Far Side" cartoon that's always my favorite, where the guy with the tiny head asks to be excused from class because his brain is full...bummer.)

Rather, it shows that if you can disregard some of what you see, you'll do a better job remembering the visual input you deem important. (Well, if I do that, then I'm going to only see Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera characters...oh yeah, and Brad Pitt. But wait a minute...I already disregard many things I see, such as parking tickets, Martha Stewart and notices from collection agencies. It doesn't help.)

Ignore this. (Done and done.)

Researchers measured brainwaves as objects popped into the minds of the test subjects, who watched colored rectangles appear on a computer screen. In one experiment, researchers told the subjects to focus on two red rectangles and ignore two blue ones. (Sounds easy enough...)

Without exception, one group had all the rectangles in mind, while another group of individuals -- who were already deemed to have high memory capacity -- consistently excelled at dismissing the blue rectangles. (Well, what does that prove, other than the members of the blue rectangle group are brown-nosing teacher's pets?)

"People differed systematically, and dramatically, in their ability to keep irrelevant items out of awareness," said study leader Edward Vogel of the University of Oregon. (I guess it must depend on what kinds of things people can ignore, huh? For example, I can ignore a phone ringing at home, but I can't ignore a half-price sale at Staples.)

Vogel thinks of this ability to focus as akin to having a thought bouncer in the brain, managing crowd control. The results, detailed in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Nature, suggest ways to improve memory abilities. (I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but the image of the "thought bouncer" looking like someone from the movie "Roadhouse" is what I get. Either that, or Chris Farley in his "Wayne's World" cameo. Either way, some thug that only lets someone into the Sudiegirl Brain if they're on the list. Otherwise, they wait at the Subway across the street.)

"Being 'scatterbrained' is often a symptom of a hectic modern life in which we are often overcommitted, overworked, and inundated with information," Vogel told LiveScience. "Given such an environment, it would not be surprising if many of our important cognitive control processes become overtaxed and less efficient. Attentional training may be able to improve one's ability to bounce irrelevant information from awareness." (Oh great...more training. Just what I need. I haven't even figured out my DVR yet, and you want me to train my brain to filter stuff? Why can't I just tape a Mr. Coffee filter to my forehead and call it good instead of you yahoos making me work?)

Imagine that. (No. I'd rather imagine me and Brad Pitt playing naked Jello Twister. And if my brain has filtered that out, I am going to reach inside my ear, pull it out, then stomp on it.)

Not that the lack of a bouncer is necessarily bad thing. (Yeah it is...let's go back to the "Roadhouse" scenario.)

"There may be advantages to having a lot of seemingly irrelevant information coming to mind," Vogel points out. "Being a bit scattered tends to be a trait of highly imaginative people." (Uh-huh. Yeah right. It hasn't gotten me that cartoon voice job yet that I dream of...)

But for those who would like to do better at keeping track of their thoughts, help might be on the way. Vogel's team is working on focusing drills based on the new research. (Well, how about the "gun to the head" focusing drill? Or the "If I can't find that computer file in 15 seconds, I'm going to be working at Pizza Hut" drill?)

Other work by Vogel's University of Oregon colleague Michael Posner has found that five days of attention training helped children develop their memory bouncer and raise scores on general intelligence tests. (Yeah, but if they forget to clean their rooms, then what? Also, do they grow out of their filter, or does it have to be replaced before they hit puberty?)

"It appears that these functions can be improved through training, at least during childhood," Vogel says. (Gee, it seems kind of like some super-race, Nazi eugenics memory experiment to me...)

"Interestingly, there has been some recent evidence that similar improvements can also be seen in adults who have been trained on certain video games." (Maybe Kevin Federline and his infatuation with all things X-Box may be on to something!)

Sudiegirl's final opinion?

Well, I'm just thinking of the line from a song on "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy"...

"You can't think twice if you don't have a brain."

Sudiegirl the cerebral...