Do you break down when you are under pressure? Here is the cause according to a scientific study

Who has never felt that pang in the stomach before an important event, that fear of not being good enough? Whether during an exam, a sports competition or a professional presentation, pressure can play tricks on us.

But what actually happens in our brains when we crack under pressure? American researchers carried out the investigation and published their results in a study published in the journal Neuron.

The brain under pressure: when anticipation collapses

The team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh studied the behavior of monkeys faced with computerized tasks with varying rewards. Each success was rewarded, with winnings ranging from small to exceptional “jackpots”. The primates were informed in advance of the value of the reward using a visual cue.

The results were striking: the larger the promised reward, the better the monkeys performed. However, in trials where the jackpot was at stake, their performance dropped sharply. For what ? The researchers recorded the activity of neurons in the primary motor cortex, a region involved in movement planning.

The “neural bias”

They found that neural activity increased in proportion to the value of the reward, thereby optimizing movement preparation. But faced with the jackpot, this activity collapsed. This phenomenon, called “neural bias,” suggests that under extreme pressure, attention becomes excessively focused on the expected outcome rather than on the execution of the task itself.

This discovery explains why, in high-stakes situations, even the most trained can falter. Optimal anticipation of movements is disrupted, making execution less precise. In other words, stress linked to the importance of the reward or the expected result deviates our brain from its optimal functioning.

So how do you avoid cracking under pressure?

One avenue put forward by researchers would be to provide real-time feedback on our brain activity. By being aware of this “neural bias”, it would be possible to refocus our attention on the task at hand rather than on the result, thus promoting consistent performance, even under pressure.