Anxiety about math can prompt a response in the brain that’s similar to the one we have when we experience physical pain, according to new research at the University of Chicago. MedicalExpress reports:
“Using brain scans, scholars determined that the brain areas active when highly math-anxious people prepare to do math overlap with the same brain areas that register the threat of bodily harm—and in some cases, physical pain.
‘For someone who has math anxiety, the anticipation of doing math prompts a similar brain reaction as when they experience pain — say, burning one’s hand on a hot stove,’ said Sian Beilock, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and a leading expert on math anxiety.
Surprisingly, the researchers found it was the anticipation of having to do math, and not actually doing math itself, that looked like pain in the brain. ‘The brain activation does not happen during math performance, suggesting that it is not the math itself that hurts; rather the anticipation of math is painful,” added Ian Lyons, the paper’s coauthor.
Brain scans of the study’s participants showed that the anticipation of math caused a response in the brain similar to physical pain.
The higher a person’s anxiety about math, the more anticipating math activated the posterior insula — a fold of tissue located deep inside the brain just above the ear that is associated with registering direct threats to the body as well as the experience of pain.
The work by Lyons and Beilock suggests that, for those with math anxiety, a painful sense of dread may begin long before a person sits down to take a math test. Previous research has shown that highly math anxious individuals tend to avoid math-related situations and even math-related career paths. The current work suggests that such avoidance stems in part from painful anxiety.
This study points to the value of seeing math anxiety not just as a proxy for poor math ability, but as an indication there can be a real, negative psychological reaction to the prospect of doing math. This reaction needs to be addressed like any other phobia, the researchers said.
Rather than simply piling on math homework for students who are anxious about math, students need active help to become more comfortable with the subject, Beilock said. Beilock’s work has shown, for instance, that writing about math anxieties before a test can reduce one’s worries and lead to better performance.” (Read more here.)
That’s a really important take-away at the end: that math anxiety is not something students will just “get over.” This anxiety is real, and it requires interventions that will help them approach the subject with more confidence and equanimity. The alternative, as we know, is a huge population of post-school adults who fear math and avoid it whenever possible — and, most likely, communicate this attitude to their children. (Click here to read my Time.com column about how parents pass their fear of math onto kids.)