The media really needs to stop reporting stories on the brain unless they have someone on staff that has a clue what they're talking about. This article is silly. I can only hope, since they got this published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences that the researchers and the study isn't near as silly as TFA is making it sound.

You don't need a portable brain scanner. You just need to warn yourself ahead of time that you may make a mistake, and your brain will naturally kick it into high gear and help you prevent making errors.

abb3w: The catch is, making sure this lasts over a sustained effort. Which means periodic reminders during the course of the effort. Which would optimally occur just as the brain starts seriously slacking.

Of course. I imagine you could ask any military personnel who has ever pulled guard duty how hard sustained vigilance can be. But you'd be surprised what a quick "Hey, you don't want to screw this up so be careful" before you do something can do to reduce the risk of error. Especially if it's something you've done a million times before.

akugyaku: It's good to know that scientists use such scientific terms as "spooked" and "brain fart"

You'd be surprised at the very common language that my supervisors and peers throw use when talking about these types of things. Scientists are people after all.