Whistling while you work may not win you many friends - but it could help you do your job better. A leading psychologist claims whistling or singing helps distract the mind from trying too hard and prevents mental overload.

Far from being down to 'just nerves', choking occurs when the brain finds itself with too many pieces of information to process, resulting in 'paralysis by analysis', argues Dr Sian Beilock of the University of Chicago. The same holds true when presenting a vital sales pitch, making an important putt or doing an audition. Dr Beilock, who used brain scans to study what is going on the mind during high pressure situations in the lab, said: 'Choking is sub-optimal performance, not just poor performance.

Even singing helps stop parts of the brain that might interfere with performance from taking over, she said. She has dubbed the phenomenon paralysis by analysis - when people try to control every aspect of what they are doing in a bid to ensure success. The researchers found that the brain can also sabotage performance because too much pressure is put on 'working memory' - part of the prefrontal cortex which focuses explicitly on the task in hand. Although the most talented people usually have the most working memory, anxieties and worries overload it, meaning the brain is no longer able to perform.

相關(guān)中文:

動(dòng)畫(huà)片《白雪公主》里面七個(gè)小矮人倡導(dǎo)的“吹吹口哨愉快工作”,經(jīng)過(guò)科學(xué)的驗(yàn)證竟然是“確有其事”。雖然,在工作的時(shí)候“哼小曲”時(shí)常會(huì)招來(lái)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和同事的不悅,然而有心理學(xué)家研究顯示,工作的時(shí)候哼哼小曲還真的能減少工作壓力,讓您效率倍增呢。

研究者說(shuō),人在壓力特別大的時(shí)候,情緒上總會(huì)出現(xiàn)“窒息”的狀況,比如說(shuō)運(yùn)動(dòng)員在比賽時(shí)候的“最后一擊”,或者人在拍賣喊價(jià)的時(shí)候都是十分緊張的。有專家運(yùn)用 “腦部掃描”測(cè)試人在壓力大的時(shí)候腦部的活動(dòng)狀況,專家總結(jié)到,人在壓力大的時(shí)候出現(xiàn)“令人窒息的情況”屬于“亞情緒表現(xiàn)”。

專家說(shuō),唱歌是一種減輕腦部運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)壓力的方式,因?yàn)槿嗽跒榱巳〉米罱K成功的時(shí)候,在努力的過(guò)程中總想做到樣樣事情“精益求精”,如果這樣的話,腦部的負(fù)荷將是巨大的。另外,人的腦部中有一種區(qū)域叫做“前額皮質(zhì)”(前額葉皮質(zhì)區(qū))這也是人腦用來(lái)掌管推理、判斷、解決問(wèn)題等智力發(fā)展的區(qū)域,壓力大的時(shí)候,人腦的這塊區(qū)域就會(huì)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)不正常。即使是智商非常高的人,在腦部負(fù)荷很大的情況下,也有出現(xiàn)錯(cuò)誤的狀況。