Why we make mistakes
A reporter who doesn't make many errors sent me a news story about mistakes and brain function. She knows that I make more mindless goofs than normal. And I don't even hold that against her.
According to the story in the Times, some scientists used an MRI tool to see what is happening in the brain when a mistake is made. Cutting to the chase:
As he and his colleagues report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, no single "blip" or event signals an error. Rather, brain patterns start to change about 30 seconds before an error is committed.
All very interesting. Unfortunately, as the reporter pointed out, the story doesn't tell us how to avoid the careless mistakes. But at least we can explain to readers that the right frontal lobe just became less active.