Best Practices in Instructional Design & Use of Learning Technologies

Warning: Do not look at the image above if you have math anxiety. A new study from the University of Chicago found that, for people who get anxious at the idea of doing mathematics, just preparing to do a math problem can trigger activity in a part of your brain that registers physical pain.

Researchers studied 14 subjects who suffered from anxiety about doing math — but not generalized anxiety — in an fMRI machine that imaged their brain activity. When the subjects were asked to prepare to do a math problem, they showed significant activity in the posterior insula, an area deep in the brain that is associated with responding to threats and experiencing pain.