A decade has passed since the last published review of math anxiety, which was carried out by Ashcraft and Ridley (2005). Given the considerable interest aroused by this topic in recent years and the growing number of publications related to it, the present article aims to provide a full and updated review of the field, ranging from the initial studies of the impact of math anxiety on numerical cognition, to the latest research exploring its electrophysiological correlates and brain bases from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Finally, this review describes the factors and mechanisms that have been claimed to play a role in the origins and/or maintenance of math anxiety, and it examines in detail the main explanations proposed to account for the negative effects of math anxiety on performance: competition for working memory resources, a deficit in a low-level numerical representation, and inhibition/attentional control deficit.Keywords Math anxiety . Numerical cognition . Brain correlates . fMRI . ERPs . Working memory . Inhibitory deficit . Attentional control deficit . Numerical magnitude representation As far as we know, the tutorial review carried out by Ashcraft and Ridley (2005) and published in Campbell's Handbook of Mathematical Cognition is the only general review carried out in the field of math anxiety to date. Given that several studies have been conducted since then, this review article aims to examine the current state of knowledge about math anxiety, ranging from the initial studies of the effect of math anxiety on numerical cognition (conducted by Ashcraft and collaborators), through to the most recent publications on the bases of math anxiety from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. This review also updates the main explanations for the effects of math anxiety on math performance, including a recent account on which our discussion of the latest findings on this topic is based and that has not previously been examined in a review.With this objective in mind, we begin by defining math anxiety and examining its relationship with other variables. We then explore the principal proposed explanations for its negative effects on performance (competition for working memory [WM] resources, inhibitory/attentional control deficit, and deficit in low-level numerical processing), as well as the main theories regarding its origin and maintenance (exposure to negative experiences, genetic factors, the role of math ability, attention, WM, and error processing). We end the review by examining the brain correlates of math anxiety-specifically, the findings of research using event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-and also by making certain recommendations that teachers, parents, and psychologists might take into account in order to help children reduce their levels of mathematical anxiety.

Numerical comparison tasks are widely used to study the mental representation of numerical magnitude. In study, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 26 high math-anxious (HMA) and 27 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals were presented with pairs of single-digit Arabic numbers and were asked to decide which one had the larger numerical magnitude. The size of the numbers and the distance between them were manipulated in order to study the size and the distance effects. The results showed that both distance and size effects were larger for the HMA group. As for ERPs, results showed that the ERP distance effect had larger amplitude for both the size and distance effects in the HMA group than among their LMA counterparts. Since this component has been taken as a marker of the processing of numerical magnitude, this result suggests that HMA individuals have a less precise representation of numerical magnitude.

This study examines whether math anxiety and negative attitudes towards mathematics have an effect on university students' academic achievement in a methodological course forming part of their degree. A total of 193 students were presented with a math anxiety test and some questions about their enjoyment, self-confidence and motivation regarding mathematics, and their responses were assessed in relation to the grades they had obtained during continuous assessment on a course entitled "Research Design".Results showed that low performance on the course was related to math anxiety and negative attitudes towards mathematics. We suggest that these factors may affect students' performance and should therefore be taken into account in attempts to improve students' learning processes in methodological courses of this kind.

This study uses event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of numeric conflict monitoring in math-anxious individuals, by analyzing whether math anxiety is related to abnormal processing in early conflict detection (as shown by the N450 component) and/or in a later, response-related stage of processing (as shown by the conflict sustained potential; Conflict-SP). Conflict adaptation effects were also studied by analyzing the effect of the previous trial’s congruence in current interference. To this end, 17 low math-anxious (LMA) and 17 high math-anxious (HMA) individuals were presented with a numerical Stroop task. Groups were extreme in math anxiety but did not differ in trait or state anxiety or in simple math ability. The interference effect of the current trial (incongruent-congruent) and the interference effect preceded by congruence and by incongruity were analyzed both for behavioral measures and for ERPs. A greater interference effect was found for response times in the HMA group than in the LMA one. Regarding ERPs, the LMA group showed a greater N450 component for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity, while the HMA group showed greater Conflict-SP amplitude for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity. Our study showed that the electrophysiological correlates of numeric interference in HMA individuals comprise the absence of a conflict adaptation effect in the first stage of conflict processing (N450) and an abnormal subsequent up-regulation of cognitive control in order to overcome the conflict (Conflict-SP). More concretely, our study shows that math anxiety is related to a reactive and compensatory recruitment of control resources that is implemented only when previously exposed to a stimuli presenting conflicting information.

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