Misleading title, the study didn't demonstrate anything about the amount of brain activity, but the locale of brain activity. From the study; > Players who wer

Misleading title, the study didn't demonstrate anything about the amount of brain activity, but the locale of brain activity. From the study; > Players who were successful under pressure showed most of their activity in the motor cortex of the brain. This is the part of the brain active during movement. > Players who were unsuccessful showed elevated activity in the pre-frontal cortex and left temporal cortex areas of the brain. If anything, this demonstrates the difference between "computational cognition" vs "embodied cognition", latter being more adaptive in this particular task. That said, I find the explanation of the researchers dubious; we don't know if doing prefrontal computation is hampering motor performance or it is simply trying to compensate a deficiency in the procedural knowledge of the player. Considering the fact that half of the participants were selected from inexperienced players, and the average participant age was around 22, the latter is the more likely explanation.