Explaining the phenomenon of 'weak mentality' when under pressure

Complete failure in critical situations that require performance is not uncommon. Experiments on monkeys have shown that stress-induced 'crashes' are associated with reduced activity in nerve cells.

'We see this phenomenon everywhere, in sports and outside of sports ,' said Steven Chase, a neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Chase and colleagues studied what happens in the brain that causes performance to plummet, and published their results in the journal Neuron on September 12.

The phenomenon of collapsing under pressure is not unique to humans . Just as a tennis player may miss a crucial shot, monkeys may also underperform in high-reward situations.

The phenomenon of collapse under pressure does not only occur in humans. (Illustration photo).

The psychological "jackpot" situation

The team set up a computer test in which rhesus macaques received a reward after quickly and accurately moving a cursor to a target. Each trial was marked with a sign indicating whether the reward would be small, medium, large, or a 'jackpot.' 

Jackpot rewards are rare and of exceptional value, creating a "bet more, win more" situation .

Using a small chip implanted in the monkeys' brains and covered in electrodes, the team monitored how neural activity changed when different rewards were received. The chip was placed in the motor cortex, a region of the frontal lobe that controls movement.

The researchers found that in the ' jackpot' situations, activity in neurons involved in motor preparation decreased. Motor preparation is the brain's way of calculating how to complete a movement – ​​similar to aiming an arrow at a target before firing. The decrease in motor preparation meant that the monkeys' brains were not ready, and therefore they performed less efficiently.

This result 'helps us understand that reward-driven behavior is not linear ,' said Bita Moghaddam, a behavioral neuroscientist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

To some extent, 'you don't necessarily perform better as the rewards increase,' Moghaddam says . She says it would be interesting to see how other brain regions respond in jackpot situations, since it's possible that multiple brain regions are involved.

Maintain performance

The researchers then looked at why motor preparation declines in high-stakes situations.

An analysis of the relationship between reward motivation and neural preparation with monkey motor performance showed that as reward increased, neural activity reached a peak in preparation.

For larger rewards, anticipation begins to 'go downhill,' pushing the brain out of its optimal performance zone. Researchers call this the 'neural bias' hypothesis .

Chase said the team was also interested in whether the stress-induced 'psychological collapse' could be avoided , or whether the brain research could help optimize motor performance.

However, he asserted that the research team first needs to study this phenomenon more in humans.