It is an experience that turns many chaps into an awkward, mumbling wreck.

Now scientists have confirmed that being in the presence of a pretty woman really does scramble the male brain. A study has revealed that men who spend just a few minutes in the company of an attractive female perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function.

Researchers suggest 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.

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study using 40 male students.

Each performed a standard memory test then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they were attracted to them, the worse their score.

When the task was repeated with female volunteers, however, memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

Hugh Grant plays the tongue-tied suitor opposite Julia Roberts in Notting Hill – a fictional example of the male brain going into meltdown

Psychologist Dr George Fieldman said men are programmed to think about passing on their genes.

He said: ‘When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call “reproductively focused”.

But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211010/Its-official-Why-chatting-pretty-woman-bad-mans-brain.html