@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {8809},
      author = {Lyons, Ian M. and Beilock, Sian L.},
      title = {When Math Hurts: Math Anxiety Predicts Pain Network  Activation in Anticipation of Doing Math},
      journal = {PLOS ONE},
      address = {2012-10-31},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {<p>Math can be difficult, and for those with high levels  of mathematics-anxiety (HMAs), math is associated with  tension, apprehension, and fear. But what underlies the  feelings of dread effected by math anxiety? Are HMAs’  feelings about math merely psychological epiphenomena, or  is their anxiety grounded in simulation of a concrete,  visceral sensation – such as pain – about which they have  every right to feel anxious? We show that, when  anticipating an upcoming math-task, the higher one’s math  anxiety, the more one increases activity in regions  associated with visceral threat detection, and often the  experience of pain itself (bilateral dorso-posterior  insula). Interestingly, this relation was not seen during  math performance, suggesting that it is not that math  itself hurts; rather, the anticipation of math is painful.  Our data suggest that pain network activation underlies the  intuition that simply anticipating a dreaded event can feel  painful. These results may also provide a potential neural  mechanism to explain why HMAs tend to avoid math and  math-related situations, which in turn can bias HMAs away  from taking math classes or even entire math-related career  paths.</p>},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/8809},
}