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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(lái)信時(shí)間。一位聽眾寫道：
親愛(ài)的《科學(xué)一刻》，
我不是很擅長(zhǎng)數(shù)學(xué)。事實(shí)上，每次我跟數(shù)字一打交道就覺(jué)得痛苦不堪，跟別提解決單純的數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題了，不過(guò)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(xiàng)研究表明，嚴(yán)重?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者當(dāng)面對(duì)數(shù)學(xué)挑戰(zhàn)時(shí)會(huì)實(shí)實(shí)在在經(jīng)歷疼痛。這種疼痛不是一種想象出來(lái)的感覺(jué)，而是真實(shí)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?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者與14名輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者進(jìn)行對(duì)比。每組人員都拿到一系列的文字與數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題，同時(shí)使用核磁共振成像機(jī)器對(duì)他們的大腦活動(dòng)進(jìn)行掃描。在每一個(gè)問(wèn)題出現(xiàn)前，會(huì)有一個(gè)黃圈出現(xiàn)，指明他們即將解決一個(gè)數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題，或是出現(xiàn)一個(gè)藍(lán)色方框，這是表明彈出的是文字問(wèn)題。
當(dāng)嚴(yán)重?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者看到令人懼怕的黃圈時(shí)，他們腦部連接痛感的部分立刻如彈球機(jī)一般活躍起來(lái)。輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者的那部分大腦則沒(méi)出現(xiàn)太多這種情況，甚至都沒(méi)有任何反應(yīng)。
因此，解決數(shù)學(xué)難題真導(dǎo)致真實(shí)的疼痛。并非如此。當(dāng)?shù)弥鉀Q數(shù)學(xué)難題時(shí)，疼痛感知神經(jīng)即被激活。事實(shí)上在做數(shù)學(xué)題的過(guò)程中并沒(méi)有觸動(dòng)任何讓人感知疼痛的腦部活動(dòng)。
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(lái)信時(shí)間。一位聽眾寫道：
親愛(ài)的《科學(xué)一刻》，
我不是很擅長(zhǎng)數(shù)學(xué)。事實(shí)上，每次我跟數(shù)字一打交道就覺(jué)得痛苦不堪，跟別提解決單純的數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題了，不過(guò)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(xiàng)研究表明，嚴(yán)重?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者當(dāng)面對(duì)數(shù)學(xué)挑戰(zhàn)時(shí)會(huì)實(shí)實(shí)在在經(jīng)歷疼痛。這種疼痛不是一種想象出來(lái)的感覺(jué)，而是真實(shí)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?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者與14名輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者進(jìn)行對(duì)比。每組人員都拿到一系列的文字與數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題，同時(shí)使用核磁共振成像機(jī)器對(duì)他們的大腦活動(dòng)進(jìn)行掃描。在每一個(gè)問(wèn)題出現(xiàn)前，會(huì)有一個(gè)黃圈出現(xiàn)，指明他們即將解決一個(gè)數(shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題，或是出現(xiàn)一個(gè)藍(lán)色方框，這是表明彈出的是文字問(wèn)題。
當(dāng)嚴(yán)重?cái)?shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者看到令人懼怕的黃圈時(shí)，他們腦部連接痛感的部分立刻如彈球機(jī)一般活躍起來(lái)。輕度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮癥患者的那部分大腦則沒(méi)出現(xiàn)太多這種情況，甚至都沒(méi)有任何反應(yīng)。
因此，解決數(shù)學(xué)難題真導(dǎo)致真實(shí)的疼痛。并非如此。當(dāng)?shù)弥鉀Q數(shù)學(xué)難題時(shí)，疼痛感知神經(jīng)即被激活。事實(shí)上在做數(shù)學(xué)題的過(guò)程中并沒(méi)有觸動(dòng)任何讓人感知疼痛的腦部活動(dòng)。