In what will come as no surprise to the men reading this, it turns out you really do have a decline in brain function when you’re talking to a beautiful girl (or, at least a girl you think is beautiful).

The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive. The reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or ‘cognitive resources’ trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

Most guys will be able to relate to this study. Remember the last time you were out with friends and you saw a pretty girl from across the room? Maybe you decided not to go talk to her because you couldn’t think of anything to say. Maybe a pretty girl approached you to ask you something, and you just sat there with a blank stare on your face. You might think it’s your fault, but really it’s just your brain jumping into reproductive mode.

Each man performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last. The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

All you have to do is convince yourself the girl isn’t really that pretty, then maybe your brain won’t stumble over itself trying to impress her.