14 DAY TRIAL // It would seem that millions of people (myself included) are not crazy! Fortunately, a new study revealed the biological underpinnings of the anxiety many of us experience when faced with the dreaded prospect of solving a mathematical problem.
As an interesting side-note, math-induced behavioral disorders have been known to exist for at least 50 years, and yet very few scientists ever investigated them. The latest research shows that math anxiety is in fact a biological event similar to other forms of anxiety, PsychCentral reports.
The work was carried out by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who used brain scans to look at neural activity patterns in students who were asked to solve simple math problems. Areas of the brains associated with controlling fear activated in those with math anxiety.
“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,” scientist Vinod Menon, PhD, explains.