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Math Hurts My Brain – Why?
It’s time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes:
Dear A Moment of Science,
I’m not a math person. In fact, anytime I have to deal with numbers, let alone solve an actual math problem‑‑which, thankfully, is not often‑‑it’s almost painful.
What’s going on?
First, you should know that you’re certainly not alone. Lots of people suffer from what’s known as math anxiety. And what’s most interesting is that, according to one study, people with very high levels of math anxiety actually experience pain when confronted with a math challenge. Not metaphorical pain‑‑actual, real pain.
OK, but what does that mean? How can math cause pain?
All in the brain
It’s all in the brain, of course. The researchers compared fourteen people with high math anxiety to fourteen people with low math anxiety. Each group was given a series of word and math problems while an MRI machine scanned their brain activity. Before each problem, either a yellow circle would appear to indicate that they were about to solve a math problem, or a blue square would pop up to signal a word problem.
When people with high math anxiety saw the dreaded yellow circle, the parts of their brain linked to pain perception lit up like a pinball machine. People with low math anxiety didn’t show much or any activity in that part of the brain.
So doing math problems caused real pain. Not exactly. It’s the anticipation of doing math that lit up the pain sensors. Actually doing math didn’t cause any pain‑related brain activity.
數(shù)學(xué)傷大腦
又到了科學(xué)一刻聽眾的來信時間。一位聽眾寫道：
親愛的《科學(xué)一刻》，
我不是很擅長數(shù)學(xué)。事實上，每次我跟數(shù)字一打交道就覺得痛苦不堪，跟別提解決單純的數(shù)學(xué)問題了，不過謝天謝地，這種事不常有。
怎么回事？
首先，你要知道你絕不孤單。許多人都遭受數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥的折磨。最有趣的是，有一項研究表明，嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者當(dāng)面對數(shù)學(xué)挑戰(zhàn)時會實實在在經(jīng)歷疼痛。這種疼痛不是一種想象出來的感覺，而是真實的痛感。
好的，這意味著什么呢？數(shù)學(xué)怎么可能造成疼痛呢？
存于腦中
當(dāng)然，這與大腦有關(guān)。研究人員將14名嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者與14名輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者進行對比。每組人員都拿到一系列的文字與數(shù)學(xué)問題，同時使用核磁共振成像機器對他們的大腦活動進行掃描。在每一個問題出現(xiàn)前，會有一個黃圈出現(xiàn)，指明他們即將解決一個數(shù)學(xué)問題，或是出現(xiàn)一個藍色方框，這是表明彈出的是文字問題。
當(dāng)嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者看到令人懼怕的黃圈時，他們腦部連接痛感的部分立刻如彈球機一般活躍起來。輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者的那部分大腦則沒出現(xiàn)太多這種情況，甚至都沒有任何反應(yīng)。
因此，解決數(shù)學(xué)難題真導(dǎo)致真實的疼痛。并非如此。當(dāng)?shù)弥鉀Q數(shù)學(xué)難題時，疼痛感知神經(jīng)即被激活。事實上在做數(shù)學(xué)題的過程中并沒有觸動任何讓人感知疼痛的腦部活動。
Math Hurts My Brain – Why?
It’s time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes:
Dear A Moment of Science,
I’m not a math person. In fact, anytime I have to deal with numbers, let alone solve an actual math problem‑‑which, thankfully, is not often‑‑it’s almost painful.
What’s going on?
First, you should know that you’re certainly not alone. Lots of people suffer from what’s known as math anxiety. And what’s most interesting is that, according to one study, people with very high levels of math anxiety actually experience pain when confronted with a math challenge. Not metaphorical pain‑‑actual, real pain.
OK, but what does that mean? How can math cause pain?
All in the brain
It’s all in the brain, of course. The researchers compared fourteen people with high math anxiety to fourteen people with low math anxiety. Each group was given a series of word and math problems while an MRI machine scanned their brain activity. Before each problem, either a yellow circle would appear to indicate that they were about to solve a math problem, or a blue square would pop up to signal a word problem.
When people with high math anxiety saw the dreaded yellow circle, the parts of their brain linked to pain perception lit up like a pinball machine. People with low math anxiety didn’t show much or any activity in that part of the brain.
So doing math problems caused real pain. Not exactly. It’s the anticipation of doing math that lit up the pain sensors. Actually doing math didn’t cause any pain‑related brain activity.
數(shù)學(xué)傷大腦
又到了科學(xué)一刻聽眾的來信時間。一位聽眾寫道：
親愛的《科學(xué)一刻》，
我不是很擅長數(shù)學(xué)。事實上，每次我跟數(shù)字一打交道就覺得痛苦不堪，跟別提解決單純的數(shù)學(xué)問題了，不過謝天謝地，這種事不常有。
怎么回事？
首先，你要知道你絕不孤單。許多人都遭受數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥的折磨。最有趣的是，有一項研究表明，嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者當(dāng)面對數(shù)學(xué)挑戰(zhàn)時會實實在在經(jīng)歷疼痛。這種疼痛不是一種想象出來的感覺，而是真實的痛感。
好的，這意味著什么呢？數(shù)學(xué)怎么可能造成疼痛呢？
存于腦中
當(dāng)然，這與大腦有關(guān)。研究人員將14名嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者與14名輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者進行對比。每組人員都拿到一系列的文字與數(shù)學(xué)問題，同時使用核磁共振成像機器對他們的大腦活動進行掃描。在每一個問題出現(xiàn)前，會有一個黃圈出現(xiàn)，指明他們即將解決一個數(shù)學(xué)問題，或是出現(xiàn)一個藍色方框，這是表明彈出的是文字問題。
當(dāng)嚴(yán)重數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者看到令人懼怕的黃圈時，他們腦部連接痛感的部分立刻如彈球機一般活躍起來。輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者的那部分大腦則沒出現(xiàn)太多這種情況，甚至都沒有任何反應(yīng)。
因此，解決數(shù)學(xué)難題真導(dǎo)致真實的疼痛。并非如此。當(dāng)?shù)弥鉀Q數(shù)學(xué)難題時，疼痛感知神經(jīng)即被激活。事實上在做數(shù)學(xué)題的過程中并沒有觸動任何讓人感知疼痛的腦部活動。