The Neurodevelopmental Basis of Math Anxiety

Math anxiety is a negative emotional reaction to situations involving mathematical problem solving. Math anxiety has a detrimental impact on an individual’s long-term professional success, but its neurodevelopmental origins are unknown. In a functional MRI study on 7- to 9-year-old children, we showed that math anxiety was associated with hyperactivity in right amygdala regions that are important for processing negative emotions. In addition, we found that math anxiety was associated with reduced activity in posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions involved in mathematical reasoning. Multivariate classification analysis revealed distinct multivoxel activity patterns, which were independent of overall activation levels in the right amygdala. Furthermore, effective connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex regions that regulate negative emotions was elevated in children with math anxiety. These effects were specific to math anxiety and unrelated to general anxiety, intelligence, working memory, or reading ability. Our study identified the neural correlates of math anxiety for the first time, and our findings have significant implications for its early identification and treatment.

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Students’ agency, creative reasoning, and collaboration in mathematical problem solving

Mathematics Education Research Journal ◽

10.1007/s13394-021-00365-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ellen Kristine Solbrekke Hansen

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Mathematical Reasoning ◽

Mathematical Problem ◽

Linear Functions ◽

Shared Understanding ◽

Interaction Patterns ◽

Collaborative Processes ◽

Mathematical Properties ◽

Shared Agency

AbstractThis paper aims to give detailed insights of interactional aspects of students’ agency, reasoning, and collaboration, in their attempt to solve a linear function problem together. Four student pairs from a Norwegian upper secondary school suggested and explained ideas, tested it out, and evaluated their solution methods. The student–student interactions were studied by characterizing students’ individual mathematical reasoning, collaborative processes, and exercised agency. In the analysis, two interaction patterns emerged from the roles in how a student engaged or refrained from engaging in the collaborative work. Students’ engagement reveals aspects of how collaborative processes and mathematical reasoning co-exist with their agencies, through two ways of interacting: bi-directional interaction and one-directional interaction. Four student pairs illuminate how different roles in their collaboration are connected to shared agency or individual agency for merging knowledge together in shared understanding. In one-directional interactions, students engaged with different agencies as a primary agent, leading the conversation, making suggestions and explanations sometimes anchored in mathematical properties, or, as a secondary agent, listening and attempting to understand ideas are expressed by a peer. A secondary agent rarely reasoned mathematically. Both students attempted to collaborate, but rarely or never disagreed. The interactional pattern in bi-directional interactions highlights a mutual attempt to collaborate where both students were the driving forces of the problem-solving process. Students acted with similar roles where both were exercising a shared agency, building the final argument together by suggesting, accepting, listening, and negotiating mathematical properties. A critical variable for such a successful interaction was the collaborative process of repairing their shared understanding and reasoning anchored in mathematical properties of linear functions.

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In Vivo Effective Connectivity Between Mouse Ventral Hippocampal Projections and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Microcircuits

Biological Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.02.314 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 89 (9) ◽

pp. S121-S122

Author(s):

David Kupferschmidt ◽

Thomas Clarity ◽

Rachel Mikofsky ◽

Kirsten Gilchrist ◽

Maxym Myroshnychenko ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Effective Connectivity

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Wen-Dan Decoction Improves Negative Emotions in Sleep-Deprived Rats by Regulating Orexin-A and Leptin Expression

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2014/872547 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Fengzhi Wu ◽

Yuehan Song ◽

Feng Li ◽

Xin He ◽

Jie Ma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Blood Serum ◽

Leptin Receptor ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Field Tests ◽

Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽

Control Group ◽

Orexin A ◽

Therapeutic Mechanisms ◽

Leptin Expression

Wen-Dan Decoction (WDD), a formula of traditional Chinese medicine, has been clinically used for treating insomnia for approximately 800 years. However, the therapeutic mechanisms of WDD remain unclear. Orexin-A plays a key role in the sleep-wake cycle, while leptin function is opposite to orexin-A. Thus, orexin-A and leptin may be important factors in sleep disorders. In this study, 48 rats were divided into control, model, WDD-treated, and diazepam-treated groups. The model of insomnia was produced by sleep deprivation (SD) for 14 days. The expressions of orexin-A, leptin, and their receptors in blood serum, prefrontal cortex, and hypothalamus were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunohistochemistry, and real time PCR. Open field tests showed that SD increased both crossing movement (Cm) and rearing-movement (Rm) times. Orexin-A and leptin levels in blood serum increased after SD but decreased in brain compared to the control group. mRNA expressions of orexin receptor 1 and leptin receptor after SD were decreased in the prefrontal cortex but were increased in hypothalamus. WDD treatment normalized the behavior and upregulated orexin-A, leptin, orexin receptor 1 and leptin receptor in brain. The findings suggest that WDD treatment may regulate SD-induced negative emotions by regulating orexin-A and leptin expression.

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Task-related modulation of effective connectivity during perceptual decision making: dissociation between dorsal and ventral prefrontal cortex

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2013.00365 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Rei Akaishi ◽

Naoko Ueda ◽

Katsuyuki Sakai

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Effective Connectivity ◽

Perceptual Decision Making ◽

Perceptual Decision ◽

Ventral Prefrontal Cortex

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Public awareness, emotional reactions and human mobility in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in China – a population-based ecological study

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s003329172000375x ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Yuchen Li ◽

Yu Zeng ◽

Guangdi Liu ◽

Donghao Lu ◽

Huazhen Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Negative Emotion ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Population Based ◽

Emotional Reaction ◽

Emotional Reactions ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Negative Comments ◽

Restricted Mobility

Abstract Background The outbreak of COVID-19 generated severe emotional reactions, and restricted mobility was a crucial measure to reduce the spread of the virus. This study describes the changes in public emotional reactions and mobility patterns in the Chinese population during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods We collected data on public emotional reactions in response to the outbreak through Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, between 1st January and 31st March 2020. Using anonymized location-tracking information, we analyzed the daily mobility patterns of approximately 90% of Sichuan residents. Results There were three distinct phases of the emotional and behavioral reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak. The alarm phase (19th–26th January) was a restriction-free period, characterized by few new daily cases, but a large amount public negative emotions [the number of negative comments per Weibo post increased by 246.9 per day, 95% confidence interval (CI) 122.5–371.3], and a substantial increase in self-limiting mobility (from 45.6% to 54.5%, changing by 1.5% per day, 95% CI 0.7%–2.3%). The epidemic phase (27th January–15th February) exhibited rapidly increasing numbers of new daily cases, decreasing expression of negative emotions (a decrease of 27.3 negative comments per post per day, 95% CI −40.4 to −14.2), and a stabilized level of self-limiting mobility. The relief phase (16th February–31st March) had a steady decline in new daily cases and decreasing levels of negative emotion and self-limiting mobility. Conclusions During the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the public's emotional reaction was strongest before the actual peak of the outbreak and declined thereafter. The change in human mobility patterns occurred before the implementation of restriction orders, suggesting a possible link between emotion and behavior.

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Assessing Self-regulation Development through Sharing Feedback in Online Mathematical Problem Solving Discussion

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning through ICT ◽

10.4018/978-1-61692-901-5.ch014 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 232-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Bracha Kramarski

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Mathematical Reasoning ◽

Mathematical Problem ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

Mathematical Problem Solving ◽

Social Feedback ◽

Self Regulated Learning ◽

Metacognitive Teaching ◽

Online Feedback

This study examined the relative efficacies of two different metacognitive teaching methods – problem solving (M_PS) and sharing knowledge (M_SK). Seventy-two Israeli sixth-grade students engaged in online mathematical problem solving and were each supported using one of the two aforementioned methods. M_PS students used a problem-solving and feedback process based on the IMPROVE model (Kramarski & Mevarech, 2003). In contrast, M_SK participants were instructed to reflect and provide feedback on the solution without an explicit model. This study evaluated each method‘s impact on the students’ mathematical online problem solving. It also examined self-regulated learning (SRL) processes by assessing students‘ online feedback using a rubric scheme. Findings indicated that M_PS students outperformed the M_SK students in algebraic knowledge and mathematical reasoning, as well as on various measures of sharing cognitive and metacognitive feedback. The M_SK students outperformed the M_PS students on measures of sharing motivational and social feedback.

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