The Neurodevelopmental Basis of Math Anxiety

Abstract

Math anxiety is a negative emotional reaction to situations involving mathematical problem solving. Math anxiety has a detrimental impact on an individual’s long-term professional success, but its neurodevelopmental origins are unknown. In a functional MRI study on 7- to 9-year-old children, we showed that math anxiety was associated with hyperactivity in right amygdala regions that are important for processing negative emotions. In addition, we found that math anxiety was associated with reduced activity in posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions involved in mathematical reasoning. Multivariate classification analysis revealed distinct multivoxel activity patterns, which were independent of overall activation levels in the right amygdala. Furthermore, effective connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex regions that regulate negative emotions was elevated in children with math anxiety. These effects were specific to math anxiety and unrelated to general anxiety, intelligence, working memory, or reading ability. Our study identified the neural correlates of math anxiety for the first time, and our findings have significant implications for its early identification and treatment.

Interactivity Defuses the Impact of Mathematics Anxiety in Primary School Children

“…Lyons and Beilock (2010) found that even thoughts of doing math elicited a negative emotional response from math anxious students. Neuroimaging data show increased activity in regions associated with processing negative emotions (such as the amygdala) when performing arithmetic tasks in high math anxiety participants (Young, Wu, & Menon, 2012) Hembree (1990) conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of math anxiety. The studies reviewed demonstrate that high math anxiety individuals enrol in fewer math courses and earn lower grades when they do study math.…”

Math anxiety: Brain cortical network changes in anticipation of doing mathematics

“…One of the milestone studies (Lyons & Beilock, 2012b) in MA research found that math anxious individuals activate more regions related to pain perception during the anticipation of mathematical processing, like the dorsal part of the posterior insula and mid-cingulate cortex. Moreover, Young, Wu, & Menon (2012) reported that MA activates regions (right amygdala) that regulate negative emotions, while they have also reported that MA inhibits activation in brain regions associated with mathematical reasoning, such as the posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Regarding the impact of MA in the brain's electrophysiology, Suárez-Pellicioni, Núñez-Peña, & Colomé (2013) revealed the relationship between the arithmetic split effect (Ashcraft & Battaglia, 1978) and the P600/P3b component which was more enhanced and delayed during MA state.…”

Understanding and addressing mathematics anxiety using perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience

“…Bishop (2007) reviewed numerous neuroimaging studies to show that these biases towards threatening information are linked to hyperactivity in the amygdala (a part of the brain thought to be involved in processing negative emotions) and reduced activation of the prefrontal cortex (a part of the brain involved in emotion regulation). Young, Wu, and Menon (2012), for example found that activation in the amygdala and deactivation in parts of the prefrontal cortex associated with the regulation of emotion (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) were greater among seven-to nine-year-old children with high MA than among children with low MA. Interestingly, Young and colleagues (2012) also found that children in the high MA group had greater connectivity between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.…”