The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children

Charlotte Hartwright; Chung Yen Looi; Francesco Sella; Alberto Inuggi; Flávia Heloísa Santos; Carmen González-Salinas; Jose García Santos; Roi Cohen Kadosh; Luis Fuentes

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5

The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children

Charlotte Hartwright, Chung Yen Looi, Francesco Sella, Alberto Inuggi, Flávia Heloísa Santos, Carmen González-Salinas, Jose García Santos, Roi Cohen Kadosh, Luis Fuentes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Math Anxiety (MA) is characterized by a negative emotional response when facing math-related situations. MA is distinct from general anxiety and can emerge during primary education. Prior studies typically comprise adults and comparisons between high- versus low-MA, where neuroimaging work has focused on differences in network activation between groups when completing numerical tasks. The present study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify the structural brain correlates of MA in a sample of 79 healthy children aged 7–12 years. Given that MA is thought to develop in later primary education, the study focused on the level of MA, rather than categorically defining its presence. Using a battery of cognitive- and numerical-function tasks, we identified that increased MA was associated with reduced attention, working memory and math achievement. VBM highlighted that increased MA was associated with reduced grey matter in the left anterior intraparietal sulcus. This region was also associated with attention, suggesting that baseline differences in morphology may underpin attentional differences. Future studies should clarify whether poorer attentional capacity due to reduced grey matter density results in the later emergence of MA. Further, our data highlight the role of working memory in propagating reduced math achievement in children with higher MA.

Original language	English
Article number	8500
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5
Publication status	Published - 31 May 2018

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative
Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted
by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2018

Funding: Authors CEH FS, and RCK were supported by the European Research Council (Learning and Achievement,
award number 338065). Authors LJF, FHS, JMGS and CGS were supported by grant PSI2017-84556-P from
Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FEDER funding).

Keywords

math anxiety
brain
voxel based morphometry
attention
psychology
neuroscience
cognition
children
development

Access to Document

10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5Licence: CC BY 3.0

The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2018
Final published version, 1.48 MBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

@article{e0b81183d21a430a896386141db9445d,

title = "The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children",

abstract = "Math Anxiety (MA) is characterized by a negative emotional response when facing math-related situations. MA is distinct from general anxiety and can emerge during primary education. Prior studies typically comprise adults and comparisons between high- versus low-MA, where neuroimaging work has focused on differences in network activation between groups when completing numerical tasks. The present study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify the structural brain correlates of MA in a sample of 79 healthy children aged 7–12 years. Given that MA is thought to develop in later primary education, the study focused on the level of MA, rather than categorically defining its presence. Using a battery of cognitive- and numerical-function tasks, we identified that increased MA was associated with reduced attention, working memory and math achievement. VBM highlighted that increased MA was associated with reduced grey matter in the left anterior intraparietal sulcus. This region was also associated with attention, suggesting that baseline differences in morphology may underpin attentional differences. Future studies should clarify whether poorer attentional capacity due to reduced grey matter density results in the later emergence of MA. Further, our data highlight the role of working memory in propagating reduced math achievement in children with higher MA.",

keywords = "math anxiety, brain, voxel based morphometry, attention, psychology, neuroscience, cognition, children, development",

author = "Charlotte Hartwright and Looi, {Chung Yen} and Francesco Sella and Alberto Inuggi and {Helo{\'i}sa Santos}, Fl{\'a}via and Carmen Gonz{\'a}lez-Salinas and {Garc{\'i}a Santos}, Jose and {Cohen Kadosh}, Roi and Luis Fuentes",

note = "This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2018 Funding: Authors CEH FS, and RCK were supported by the European Research Council (Learning and Achievement, award number 338065). Authors LJF, FHS, JMGS and CGS were supported by grant PSI2017-84556-P from Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FEDER funding).",

year = "2018",

month = may,

day = "31",

doi = "10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5",

language = "English",

volume = "8",

journal = "Scientific Reports",

issn = "2045-2322",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children

AU - Hartwright, Charlotte

AU - Looi, Chung Yen

AU - Sella, Francesco

AU - Inuggi, Alberto

AU - Heloísa Santos, Flávia

AU - González-Salinas, Carmen

AU - García Santos, Jose

AU - Cohen Kadosh, Roi

AU - Fuentes, Luis

N1 - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2018 Funding: Authors CEH FS, and RCK were supported by the European Research Council (Learning and Achievement, award number 338065). Authors LJF, FHS, JMGS and CGS were supported by grant PSI2017-84556-P from Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FEDER funding).

PY - 2018/5/31

Y1 - 2018/5/31

N2 - Math Anxiety (MA) is characterized by a negative emotional response when facing math-related situations. MA is distinct from general anxiety and can emerge during primary education. Prior studies typically comprise adults and comparisons between high- versus low-MA, where neuroimaging work has focused on differences in network activation between groups when completing numerical tasks. The present study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify the structural brain correlates of MA in a sample of 79 healthy children aged 7–12 years. Given that MA is thought to develop in later primary education, the study focused on the level of MA, rather than categorically defining its presence. Using a battery of cognitive- and numerical-function tasks, we identified that increased MA was associated with reduced attention, working memory and math achievement. VBM highlighted that increased MA was associated with reduced grey matter in the left anterior intraparietal sulcus. This region was also associated with attention, suggesting that baseline differences in morphology may underpin attentional differences. Future studies should clarify whether poorer attentional capacity due to reduced grey matter density results in the later emergence of MA. Further, our data highlight the role of working memory in propagating reduced math achievement in children with higher MA.

AB - Math Anxiety (MA) is characterized by a negative emotional response when facing math-related situations. MA is distinct from general anxiety and can emerge during primary education. Prior studies typically comprise adults and comparisons between high- versus low-MA, where neuroimaging work has focused on differences in network activation between groups when completing numerical tasks. The present study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify the structural brain correlates of MA in a sample of 79 healthy children aged 7–12 years. Given that MA is thought to develop in later primary education, the study focused on the level of MA, rather than categorically defining its presence. Using a battery of cognitive- and numerical-function tasks, we identified that increased MA was associated with reduced attention, working memory and math achievement. VBM highlighted that increased MA was associated with reduced grey matter in the left anterior intraparietal sulcus. This region was also associated with attention, suggesting that baseline differences in morphology may underpin attentional differences. Future studies should clarify whether poorer attentional capacity due to reduced grey matter density results in the later emergence of MA. Further, our data highlight the role of working memory in propagating reduced math achievement in children with higher MA.

KW - math anxiety

KW - brain

KW - voxel based morphometry

KW - attention

KW - psychology

KW - neuroscience

KW - cognition

KW - children

KW - development

UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26912-5

UR - https://osf.io/pdfje/

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5

DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-26912-5

M3 - Article

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 8

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

M1 - 8500

ER -

The Neurocognitive Architecture of Individual Differences in Math Anxiety in Typical Children

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this