Just The Thought Of Doing Math Causes Physical Brain Pain
Many people, even if they are terrible spellers, will never cop to actually being a bad speller. But few need any prompting to formally address the world about their hatred or fear of mathematics. Is it the fractions? The infinite values? All the parentheses? Whatever the reason, an understanding of math at any level isn’t ingrained in everyone.
Well, according to a study by Sian Beilock and Ian Lyons, the brain associates math anxiety with physical pain, such as slamming your head against a desk because you can’t solve for n. Schoolhouse Rock didn’t set us up for this. Should we be subjecting ourselves to math? Oof.
The brain associates math anxiety with physical pain
Beilock, a psychology professor from UnChicago, and Lyons, a PhD graduate in psychology from UChicago and postdoctoral scholar at Ontario’s Western University, published a study in a 2012 issue of PLoS One.
For it, they used 14 adults whose math-weariness was gauged by a series of questions dealing with their anxiety over receiving a math book, walking to math class, or realizing math requirements for graduation.
Honestly, just typing that last part made our stomachs turn a little. It’s worth noting that these are people whose anxieties are mostly limited to math-related instances. No casually nervous Nellies allowed.
The volunteers’ brain activity was tested using an fMRI machine as they were given math and word problems to verify, such as testing the validity of set equations and figuring out whether a series of letters spell a word when the letters are reversed. (TOBOR? Only a Giant Freakin’ one.)
The fMRI results showed the posterior insula, a tissue fold found deep in the brain that registers physical threats and pain, was activated as the subjects’ anxieties grew. Interestingly enough, when the actual math was being performed, any sign of math anxiety was absent. We’d compare it to the fear of riding a roller coaster or airplane, while recognizing a lack of displeasure while actually doing those things.
The mere mention of math, rather than any actual problems to solve, will cause the brain to react as if actual harm is being done to the body
When combined with the men’s other work in this field, this study proves that the mere mention of math, rather than any actual problems to solve, will cause the brain to react as if actual harm is being done to the body.
If you are a math-anxious person, then just thinking about the the task is going to elicit something like pain in the brain. But it could be good to know the latter part of the study that if you can just clear that first hurdle, it kind of is just a downhill ride from there. The math itself might be the actual easiest part.
And this unfortunate process can begin as early as the first grade. It’s hard to imagine anyone getting worked up over borrowing and carrying over, but it happens, and can affect the rest of a person’s life.
So take a deep breath, remember that 1+1=2 and get going on the math. Once you’ve digested you have to do the problem, the rest might be kind of easy.
