Brain Study Points to Poten­tial Treat­ments for Math Anx­i­ety (Edu­ca­tion Week):

• “The study, pub­lished this morn­ing in the jour­nal Cere­bral Cor­tex, is a con­tin­u­a­tion of work on highly math-anxious peo­ple being con­ducted by Sian L. Beilock, asso­ciate psy­chol­ogy pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago, and doc­toral can­di­date Ian M. Lyons. In prior research, Beilock has found that just the thought of doing math prob­lems can trig­ger stress responses in peo­ple with math anx­i­ety, and adult teach­ers can pass their trep­i­da­tion about math on to their students.”
• “Stu­dents who were anx­ious about math but per­formed well any­way showed high activ­ity in the frontal and pari­etal regions of the brain when they learned a math prob­lem was com­ing up; these are not the areas of the brain asso­ci­ated with cal­cu­lat­ing num­bers, but those asso­ci­ated with cog­ni­tive con­trol, focus, and reg­u­lat­ing neg­a­tive emo­tions. Stu­dents who acti­vated these parts of the brain before attempt­ing the math prob­lem got 83 per­cent of the prob­lems cor­rect, nearly the same as the 88 per­cent accu­racy of stu­dents with low math anx­i­ety. By con­trast, highly anx­ious stu­dents whose brains did not reg­is­ter activ­ity in those regions got only 68 per­cent of the math ques­tions correct.”
• “This study really sug­gests we can devise inter­ven­tions that can help stu­dents reap­praise the sit­u­a­tion and con­trol emo­tions before they even get into a task,” Beilock said. “It shows how some math anx­ious peo­ple are able to engage brain power to succeed.”

To read study: Click Here (opens PDF).

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