You can tell the scientific reason or just share your experience with the subject it’s really fun to read always.

I come up with pretty clever names and ideas when programming but if someone is watching best I can do is muscle memory.

If I wrote an essay while someone else is watching it would look like a middle-schooler wrote it.

Same situation when I am in an exam room with 5 other people is completely fine.

Hell I used to work at a warehouse but I attempted to tape a box the sticky part up one time because the supervisor is watching.

He just looked tired after seeing tip of the tape get dragged across a box like some cat toy.

Is it magic?

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    5 days ago

    We have two distinct brain networks whose activity is mutually exclusive: the default mode network (DMN) and the frontoparietal network (FPN, AKA central executive or task positive network). The DMN handles social relationships (among other things), while the FPN handles complex problem-solving—so if you’re engaged in what your brain thinks is a social interaction, it activates the DMN and deactivates the FPN.

    • Acamon@lemmy.world
      9·
      7 days ago

      That’s really interesting. I’ve got adhd, and I hadn’t read about the role the DMN plays in adhd until I followed up on your comment. It’s given me a lot think about. Thanks!

    • rickdg@lemmy.world
      8·
      7 days ago

      So what’s happening in the brain of people who perform well in these circumstances? 🤔

      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        2 days ago

        Two likely possibilities:

        • They’re tuning out the social aspects of the situation enough that the DMN can disengage, or
        • They’re so habituated to the task that they no longer need to consciously think about it (what OP calls “muscle memory”).

        Or in theory, they might have learned the skill in such a way that the DMN can do it without the FPN—like if they treat it as a form of storytelling.