Abstract
Mathematics anxiety is negatively related to mathematics performance, thereby threatening the professional success. Preoccupation with the emotional content of the stimuli may consume working memory resources, which may be reflected in decreased deactivation of areas associated with the default mode network (DMN) activated during self-referential and emotional processing. The common problem is that math anxiety is usually associated with poor math performance, so that any group differences are difficult to interpret. Here we compared the BOLD-response of 18 participants with high (HMAs) and 18 participants with low mathematics anxiety (LMAs) matched for their mathematical performance to two numerical tasks (number comparison, number bisection). During both tasks, we found stronger deactivation within the DMN in LMAs compared to HMAs, while BOLD-response in task-related activation areas did not differ between HMAs and LMAs. The difference in DMN deactivation between the HMA and LMA group was more pronounced in stimuli with additional requirement on inhibitory functions, but did not differ between number magnitude processing and arithmetic fact retrieval.
Highlights
Mathematics anxiety is a negative emotional response toward number manipulation, characterized by high arousal and physiological reactivity and resulting in avoidance of situations requiring mathematical reasoning (Richards and Suinn, 1972; Dew et al, 1984)
We found stronger deactivation within the default mode network (DMN) in low mathematics anxiety (LMAs) compared to high mathematics anxiety (HMAs), while BOLD-response in task-related activation areas did not differ between HMAs and LMAs
Procedure In order to identify individuals who would subsequently participate in the neuroimaging study, we evaluated mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance in a large sample of 127 participants recruited in introductory psychology courses and via adverts
Summary
Mathematics anxiety is a negative emotional response toward number manipulation, characterized by high arousal and physiological reactivity and resulting in avoidance of situations requiring mathematical reasoning (Richards and Suinn, 1972; Dew et al, 1984). Mathematics anxiety has been observed to negatively influence mathematical performance as measured by standardized achievement tests (Dew et al, 1984; Cooper and Robinson, 1989; Engelhard, 1990; Hembree, 1990; Musch and Broder, 1999; Miller and Bichsel, 2004), the empirical relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematical performance is of moderate strength (see Ashcraft, 2002 for a review; view DiLullo, 1997 for a meta-analysis). Mathematical skills are a far better predictor of mathematical performance than mathematics anxiety (Musch and Broder, 1999), since not all individuals with high mathematics anxiety (HMAs) are impaired (Lyons and Beilock, 2011, 2012). The assessment of mathematical skills in HMAs is always
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
