Math Anxiety: The brain can feel the pain

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago, suggests that worry about math can trigger regions of the brain associated with the experience of physical pain and instinctive risk detection.  Ian Lyons and his team of researchers discovered that in people who experience high levels of anxiety when anticipating math tasks, encountering math increases activity in regions of the brain connected with the feeling of physical pain. The more elevated a person's math anxiety, the greater the appearance of neural activity is.  Researchers analyzed 14 adults who experienced anxiety from math based on their answers from a questionnaire about math.  Further testing revealed these individuals were not generally anxious and that their heightened feelings of anxiety were due to math-specific situations.  The study participants were then tested in an fMRI machine measuring their brain activity as they did math. They were asked to verify equations as well as solve world puzzles.  The fMRI scans showed the worry of upcoming math events triggered a response in the brain similar to physical pain. The higher the anxiety about math, the more math anticipation activated the posterior insula, a piece of tissue deep in the brain located above the ear, and is connected to acknowledging threats to the body as well as physical pain.  The researchers concluded that their findings suggest that it is not the act of performing a mathematical task that prompts this response, but rather the anticipation of math.