Brain Scan Shows That Thinking About Math Is As Painful As A Hot Stove Burn, If You're Anxious | Popular Science

Brain Scan Shows That Thinking About Math Is As Painful As A Hot Stove Burn, If You're Anxious | Popular Science

 In the math-anxious brain, the mere thought of solving for X prompts the same neurological response as anticipation of physical pain, according to a new study. Math really does hurt--or at least anticipation of math does. Actually doing the work does not hurt nearly as badly.

"For someone who has math anxiety, the anticipation of doing math prompts a similar brain reaction as when they experience pain--say, burning one's hand on a hot stove,"

The fMRI scans showed the higher a person’s math anxiety, the more anticipation of math activated the posterior insula, an inner brain region associated with registering direct threats to the body and experiencing pain. But interestingly, there was no pain response when the people were actually doing the problems.

“This means that any observed relation between math anxiety and pain would likely be more dependent upon one’s feelings and worries about math (i.e., their psychological interpretation or anticipation of the event) than something inherent in the math task itself,” Beilock and Lyons write.