Blank. Nothing. Zip.
When the subconscious mind identifies a potential threat either to the physical body or to the ego, it automatically activates the ‘Flight and Fight’ response. It’s (the subconscious) trying to make sure you can be as fast as you can be to take flight, or, as strong as you can be to fight. It’s a fascinating response and it’s probably saved your life on more than one occasion. Truly.
One of the many alterations the body undergoes is the heightened sensitivity of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). This is accomplished by blood rushing to the senses causing us to ‘turn red’ and or touch our face. Now that the senses are heightened they are collecting a lot more data and they’re amassing it pretty quickly. The brain needs to speed up to process the overwhelming amount of data pouring in. The increase in the brain activity (speed) causes us to speak faster which in turn causes us to ‘Um and Err’ a lot more.
The brain gives the processing of the data top priority, and that’s the problem. The brain will devote as much of its resources to processing the data as it can spare. The more data, the more brain power required. The brain foregoes other aspects of conscious thought to maximise processing power, that would be our (1) Memory – where we stored the presentation via rehearsals and practice, and (2) Imagination – that ever handy ability to ‘Think on our Feet’. Hence we cannot access our memory nor do we have the mental agility to track to it (the memory). The mind, for all intents and purposes, just went blank.
Immediately following the presentation, once we are seated and the supposed threat is over, the brain has no further use for the data it has amassed and processed. So it dumps it. Normal brain function returns and the memory and imagination are again accessible. That’s why we get that sudden realization a few seconds after we’re seated that we forget to mention this, that and the other.