Many of us have been in this scenario: you have been practicing a piece of music for months, and at this point, you could probably play it in your sleep. Or you have been rehearsing your figure skating routine for the entire season, and you haven’t fallen on a jump for months now. A soon as you step in front of the audience and feel hundreds of eyes watching you, however, every note flies out of your head and every jump collapses onto the ice.
At the University of Sussex’s Sackler Centre and Brighton and Sussex Medical school, researchers led by Michiko Yoshie, Hugo Critchley, Neil Harrison, and Yoko Nagai discovered the area of the brain that causes the anxiety. The mechanism in your brain that causes this much-dreaded stage fright involves specific areas in the brain: the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS).
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Using a machine called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to observe activity in the subjects’ brains, the researchers gave participants tasks during which the participants had to exert precise amounts of force while gripping the object. During the first trial, the participants could see videos of two people evaluating their performance. During the second, they could see videos of the two people evaluating someone else—this group was the control group, so that the researchers could see how their motor control differed between being observed and unobserved.
In the study, published in Scientific Reports trial, when subjects thought they had an audience, the inferior parietal cortex (IPC), an area of the brain that controls precise exertion of force was deactivated. So, the subjects had less control over the exertion of force.
The region was also deactivated when the subjects thought their audience had a negative reaction. However, it reactivated when the subjects reported believing that their audience approved of their performance. Because of these observations, it was thought that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the area in the brain that controls a person’s observation of other people’s facial expressions and inference about other people’s thoughts, also works with the part of the brain that controls precise motor control.
Since the researchers have identified the areas and mechanisms that cause stage fright, they also have suggestions for how to prevent or minimize stage fright. For example, believing that the audience is supportive can go a long way towards stopping your brain from deactivating its control of force exertion.
The researchers also suggest that performing in front of supporters before an actual public performance could familiarize your brain with not deactivating the precise motor control region, allowing you to function normally even in front of a large audience.
Stage fright is a common problem among people, but it’s not unavoidable. By tracing the causes of stage fright back to its roots, performers—whether musical, athletic or otherwise—can find ways to prevent such anxiety.
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