Why do we slip up when anxious?

Washington : The anxiety of being watched can have a disastrous effect on your performance and now a team of neuroscientists has explained why.

The researchers at the University of Sussex have identified the brain network system that causes us to stumble and stall just when we least want to.

Dr Michiko Yoshie and her colleagues Professor Hugo Critchley, Dr Neil Harrison, and Dr Yoko Nagai were able to pinpoint the brain area that causes the performance mishaps during an experiment using functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fMRI).

Scan results showed that an area of the brain that helps us to control our fine sensorimotor functions, the inferior parietal cortex (IPC), became deactivated when people felt they were being observed.

For those with extreme performance anxiety, she said there has been a substantial advancement in brain stimulation techniques such as the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which could activate desired behaviour.

And there are also now various types of neurofeedback training, which can help people to learn how to control their own brain activity.

She added that it’s important to believe that the audience is supporting you and wishing for your successful performance.

The study is published in Scientific Reports. (ANI)