Math Anxiety Linked With Differences In Brain Functioning, Study Finds

Math anxiety is a real thing, a new brain imaging study by Stanford researchers has confirmed.

In a study in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that there is increased activity in the brain region linked with fear in the brains of second and third graders with math anxiety. Because of the increased activity in the fear brain region, there was decreased activity in their brain regions linked with problem-solving.

The study included 46 students who had both low and high math anxiety -- meaning, they felt stress and anxiety when doing math problems. The students all had similar IQ levels, working memory, math and reading abilities and levels of general anxiety. The researchers had them fill out a questionnaire to analyze their level of math anxiety.

Then, the students did addition and subtraction math problems while the researchers conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans.

The researchers found that for the kids with math anxiety, the amygdala (which is linked with fear) and a part of the hippocampus (which plays a part in forming memories) had increased activity. Meanwhile, brain regions associated with working memory and number reasoning had decreased activity.

"The same part of the brain that responds to fearful situations, such as seeing a spider or snake, also shows a heightened response in children with high math anxiety," study researcher Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, said in a statement.

Outside of the brain scans, researchers also found that the kids with math anxiety worked more slowly and less accurately on the math problems, compared with kids without math anxiety.

"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," the researchers wrote in the study.

According to a Washington Post article last year, math anxiety is not just having a disdain for math -- it's actually feeling anxiety, stress and other negative feelings when you are doing math.

"When engaged in mathematical problem-solving, highly math-anxious individuals suffer from intrusive thoughts and ruminations," Daniel Ansari, principal investigator for the Numerical Cognition Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario, told the Washington Post. "This takes up some of their processing and working memory. It's very much as though individuals with math anxiety use up the brainpower they need for the problem" on stressing out.

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Comments

[x jmp]

10:36 AM on 07/18/2012

Does mindfulness meditation, which reduces the size of the amygdala according to Sarah Lazar's research, reduce math anxiety?

[benji85]

08:21 AM on 03/27/2012

Part of the problem is that we instill in people that all math is difficult. Some of the higher math concepts can get to that level, but put the right teachers in place and people can see the connections between the material and it's real life application.

[stilllearning2b]

06:22 AM on 03/27/2012

I am an algebra teacher who used to suffer from math anxiety myself. The biggest problem I have with my students is not the anxiety; I can work with that. Rather, their difficulties stem from their inability or unwillingness to persist, even when the going gets tough. As soon as they are the slightest bit uncomfortable, they throw their pencils down and give up. That is much more difficult for me to work with.
http://lessonsfromtheendofamarriage.com

[Yelena Berenshteyn]

10:02 PM on 03/26/2012

All of math anxiety is made up. You can't separate learning math from learning other subjects.

[SwiftJonathan]

11:04 PM on 03/26/2012

That's the wrong conclusion. The right conclusion would be that kids can feel anxious about all subjects they are being taught. And if you are asking for my experience, I did, at one point or another, feel anxious about everything I had to learn. That anxiety just didn't permeate my life to the point where I could not learn effectively.

[OldTart]

10:41 AM on 03/28/2012

Obviously you have not experienced it but I have. Well into my adult life. Then I saw that it is like a language - a language with logic and one I could learn. Math is very different from other subjects, especially to those of us who have above average word recognition and intelligence. I have an extraordinarily high IQ so I believe my personal experience, not to mention scientific research, trumps your opinion.

[krondool]

07:37 PM on 03/26/2012

We're not all good at all things. Stop giving excuses to children to just give up. That's all these fool studies do. If something is hard, work harder. So some kids will take two minutes to do a problem another kid can do in his head. Stop telling them it's not their fault, that just encourages them to give up. It is there fault, so it takes you longer, keep working harder and you can still achieve the same grade. And who knows, maybe your english comprehension, or athletic ability, or overall intelligence is better then the other child's...this just goes to prove we're all different.
I had the hardest time teaching my daughter math because every teacher and counselor wants to tell the precious little angel that it's not her fault, you're ADD, or right-brained, or suffer from (fill in random illness, usually treatable with a pill). The ONLY real answer is..okay, math isn't your strong suit, you're just going to have to work harder. It took almost ten years to overcome this ingrained belief that she can find some pill that will make her 'want' to do her homework. What we don't need is more shrinks making it harder and harder to teach our children so they can sell more freaking pills.

[SwiftJonathan]

09:04 PM on 03/26/2012

The problem here is, indeed, not your daughter, but your inability to send her to a quality school. Yes, it is expensive, as in $20,000+ a year, but it is worth it.

Welcome to a world where only the top 1% can afford anything that would resemble a "normal" school.

:-)

[MatthewD4444]

09:23 PM on 03/26/2012

your comment isn't really that helpful and who says she didn't send the daughter to a "quality" school.. just because you have to pay extra for it doesn't mean it is better by any means..

[benji85]

08:17 AM on 03/27/2012

I don't see it as an excuse to give up, but rather a possible step to finding a solution at overcoming their fear.

[krondool]

07:51 PM on 03/27/2012

That's because you're looking at is as an adult. Put yourself in their shoes. You're young and immature, something's hard, someone tells you it's not your fault...what would you do?

[SwiftJonathan]

10:05 PM on 03/27/2012

The problem is that to tell a kid that it's not their fault and then to leave them alone with the problem is easier than to actually help them to learn how to solve it.

[Leon Engelun]

07:36 PM on 03/26/2012

here is a math problem that always works. Take the number 15873 and multiply it by any number between 1 and 9. Now take that number and multiply it by 7. Your answer should come up to be a whole bunch of the first number you used to multiply with.
For example 15873 X 2 X 7 = 2222222. Try again using 3 ... 15873 X 3 X 7 = 333333.

[Tumbriller]

10:34 PM on 03/27/2012

15873 x 7 = 111111
111111 x Y = YYYYYY, -1 < Y < 9, Y integer
Duh.
Try it with 15873015873
Duh again.
This is fun!

[Clara B Grimes]

11:55 PM on 03/28/2012

You go Tumbriller, you show him that all of HP readers are not stupid. Between you and I, I hated math, but you have to pass it, if you want to graduate.

[Leon Engelun]

07:30 PM on 03/26/2012

kids don't like math because they have to think. They like credit cards better.

[wstarhopper]

05:35 PM on 03/26/2012

Iam a 60 year old male. I have had this condition since I was in second grade. How do I know this? Because I had a second grade teacher who could instantly come up with any answer to any math question no matter how simple or complex. Me on the other hand I have to stop and think about things. Because I could not come up with the answers as fast as she could she would have the other kids laugh at me. I was not the only kid that got treated this way in her class. Even today I still have a very hard time overcoming the "block" that I have with almost any math problem

[Carpenter Aunt]

07:14 PM on 03/26/2012

When I took ground school for flying many years ago, the instructor would ask a question like "if the winds aloft are 10 mph at 2000 feet, and the winds aloft are 40 miles per hour at 5000, then what are the wind aloft at 3000 feet? (Probably a bad example, but work with me.) It was easy for some of us in the class to realize there is 3000 feet difference in altitude, and 30 mph difference in wind speed, and do the problem in our heads within a couple of seconds. The poor instuctor would calculate on his calculator for half a minute to see if the answer we blurted out was correct. I guess it's just a little harder for some than others.

[stargazer320]

07:48 PM on 03/26/2012

Why wouldn't the "winds aloft" be 20 mph for 3000 feet, 10 more mph per each additional 1000 feet?

[Tumbriller]

10:42 PM on 03/27/2012

Your second grade teacher was a felon. Hmph.

[livingbettertherapy]

05:05 PM on 03/26/2012

You might be cut out to do something completely different with your life if you find the right teacher. Why do such a high percentage of math students have math anxiety? Many of the teachers are simply not speaking the language of their students. Many students really begin to experience anxiety in middle and high school when confronted with algebra. Unfortunately, many algebra teachers follow the style of teaching promoted by many obtuse algebra textbook authors who know how to do it but don't know how to explain it to most of the general population. What happens then? Many students get frustrated and become deceived into believing they are dumb. Think it's impossible to learn something difficult? Like surfing, guitar, algebra, etc.? You may be able to learn it from a different teacher with a different teaching style. Can't learn algebra? Read Realm of Algebra by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. When I was very young, I didn't understand algebra at all until I read this book. When I returned to class, a student asked the instructor about the theory behind a certain equation. She couldn't explain it. I raised my hand and explained the theory in a way that everyone in the class could understand. I went from algebra anxiety to learning how to do equations but even understanding the theory. When the teacher is interesting, the student will appear. If the students aren't getting it, change the way you're teaching it.

[Carpenter Aunt]

07:09 PM on 03/26/2012

I took geometry, algebra, calculus, trig, statistics, probability, and a few I can't remember, but algebra has always been my favorite.

[vwatson524]

03:04 PM on 03/26/2012

As a professional engineer, I was asked by my boss if I would be interested in being a math tutor at a local school district. The first group of students I got were 4th-6th graders who had been promoted to the next higher grade just because it was easier to do that. My students were on the first level of algebra and they just didnt get it-Then on further study I found out that these kids had no understanding of basic arithmetic and somehow were moved on to basic,simple linear equations and were completely lost-not because they were dense but were never able to master the simple rules of arithmetic. We set up a workshop after school and one by one these students had the lightbulb go on and some of them became very confident in their math skills-

[MatthewD4444]

09:27 PM on 03/26/2012

also add to that the fact that most of them do not their multiplication tables to the extent they don't have to resort to "tricks" to remember things like 9 x9

[SwiftJonathan]

02:45 PM on 03/26/2012

In the end, most of the problems in US schools can be attributed to a "too little, too late" strategy. The need to bring all kids up to the same level is an obstacle to teaching the smart kids as much as they can handle and it is frustrating to the not so smart kids at the other end of the spectrum. That's why every rational school system in the world is tiered. By dividing students into at least two or three groups of different ability one can teach much closer to the full ability of each individual group.

[Carpenter Aunt]

07:07 PM on 03/26/2012

A tiered system sounds good. I was in school to learn, and things came very easy for me. I was in the advanced math, science, and anything else that was college bound. I remember having to waste time in class because of kids who could not keep up. It was not their fault, it is just how it was. I'm sure it was even harder for them, not being able to catch onto something easily, and then having to watch those who got it immediately. It must have made them feel inferior. Poor kids.

[SwiftJonathan]

09:12 PM on 03/26/2012

This became pretty clear to me when we were doing track and field in school once. One of the fastest kids overtook me on the second lap and he bumped into me pretty hard. When we were done he apologised and he said something that I never forgot:

"This is what I feel like every day in math class."

He was right. It is painful. Much more so for him than it ever was for me.

[Bioniclepluslotr]

02:26 PM on 03/26/2012

I think math is easy because the stuff is set in stone. Not like english where everything is subjective.

[SwiftJonathan]

02:32 PM on 03/26/2012

Only high school math is easy. Real math is extremely hard, even for the most gifted people. And there is actually a mathematical proof that one can not "mechanise" math, so your assertion that it is set in stone is false.

[Bioniclepluslotr]

03:44 PM on 03/26/2012

high school? i'm in college math.

[Carpenter Aunt]

07:04 PM on 03/26/2012

What is REAL math? I loved math all my life, and it was one of my two minors in college. I don't remember ever taking fake math.

[Shyla22]

02:16 PM on 03/26/2012

How about because math class was endlessly boring and was always taught by people with short fuses?

[SwiftJonathan]

02:34 PM on 03/26/2012

You had the wrong math teacher, then. My high school math teacher was a very curvy young woman who liked to show up in a body-tight jumpsuit. That would get everybody's attention, trust me.

[MyNinja]

03:48 PM on 03/26/2012

All I had was the baseball coach who used to yell at us because he couldn't understand why we didn't get stuff the students in his college level math classes ate for breakfast...

[michelv]

11:51 PM on 03/26/2012

But I bet not on math! :-)

[Carpenter Aunt]

07:02 PM on 03/26/2012

My math classes were some of my favorite classes, and had some of my favorite teachers. I was in the higher math classes, which included Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trig. Out of 2500 students in my high school, there were only 7 kids in my math class my senior year. That is all that made it to the highest math class, and yes, we were all nerds. There were only two of us gals in the class. We were high achievers, but because we were all college bound, we did not have any disruptive kids in the class. We were all there to learn, but we let our hair down and had a good time as well. I think the teachers were more relaxed and had fun as well, because we never caused them any trouble.

[Shyla22]

09:00 AM on 03/27/2012

I'm there with you... I had honors in every flippin' subject EXCEPT math, but I always ofund it difficult to grasp in the allotted time. Once I get it, I'm good and it's a breeze but it takes far longer to get to that point than anyone (including myself) had the patience for. I only had one math teacher who was an honestly nice lady and was willing to answer all my repeated questions. The others all seemed constantly angry, stressed and on the brink of a meltdown lol

[morrowrgm]

02:06 PM on 03/26/2012

I can understand why 1-6th grade kids get frustrated with math. Basic math is no longer taught through memorization such as the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables. 1st through 4th graders have to use paragraphs and/or discriptive concepts to figure out how to subtract 30 from 39. And in some cases they have to draw those concepts to show how they arrive at their answer. And if that isn't enough considerable time is spent taking the kids out of the math encvironment so that they can be taught how to pass the upcoming state exams so that the school doesn't get a failing score, etc.

[SwiftJonathan]

02:42 PM on 03/26/2012

The new math is, indeed, based on some wrong assumptions. Now, memorisation, of course, is only the very first step to mental calculation skills. The numerous methods (known since antiquity) that allow people to mentally calculate medium size results have always been taught. They were just not taught graphically but by using formulas. Everybody needs to know how to do (a+1) squared and (a+1)*(a-1) and similar formulas quickly.
Where the problem comes in, IMHO is that they are spending way too much time on the graphical methods for multiplication and division, which are really only interesting to the designers of fast binary hardware multiplier units. At some point these methods will cause more confusion than they can provide help. The time used to teach these unnecessary parlour tricks should, instead, be used to teach kids how to apply math to real world problems.

The teaching to the test, of course, has basically destroyed the US school system. It's a good proof why politics in schools is disastrous.

[ycplum]

03:23 PM on 03/26/2012

In the making of music with musical instruments, it has been said that you need to practice (on what ever your chosen instrument maybe) till making the notes/chords, etc. you want is firmly embbeded into muscle memory. Only in this way can you concentrate solely on making music when you play, instead of making the sound.

[krondool]

07:43 PM on 03/26/2012

Destroyer of Worlds?

[wakohnen]

01:17 PM on 03/26/2012

It wasn't too long ago that ADHD wasn't heard of. Now that there has been a name put on it, it seems that everyone uses it as an excuse why their child isn't learning. It is the perfect cover for parents that do not make enough time to work with their children on schoolwork. BigPharma came up with a drug to treat this so of course it is becoming more popular. Are we to believe that we have more brain damaged children today than we did 30 years ago? If thats the case, God help this country. Today it is math anxiety, tomorrow it will be english anxiety or science anxiety. My dad would have called it "kick in the butt" anxiety if i didn't get my homework done, but he was always there to help if I needed it. Of course there are some who actually do have a form of ADHD but in my opinion, it is being used as an excuse way too much.

[MyNinja]

03:53 PM on 03/26/2012

I agree with you, right now my FORMER roommate (and I love saying FORMER) is sitting some where trying to convince everyone and himself that he has Aspergers syndrome. When really he just needed a slap in the face from Mom or Dad for talking out of place or not respecting elders when he was younger. I've never met anyone who felt so entitled to do what ever he wanted.

[krondool]

07:46 PM on 03/26/2012

Unfortunately we're raising an entire generation that way. I got so mad at teachers and counselors that kept trying to convince my daughter she 'couldn't' do math without some freaking pill. Boy did she hate me for a couple of years there. Sometimes you have to remember it's not your job as a parent to be their friend, it's our job to raise them. She's now a sophmore in college getting a veterinary degree, and we couldn't be closer. She thanks me every week for being the 'mean' person in her life.