Scientists have proved what students have long suspected: Maths equations can actually trigger physical pain.

Scientists have proved what students have long suspected: Maths equations can actually trigger physical pain.

Regions of the brain linked with the experience of physical suffering were activated in those fearful of maths when they were presented with a tough equation, researchers have found.

The higher a person's anxiety of a maths task, the more it increases activity in regions of their brain associated with visceral threat detection, and often the experience of pain itself, according to researchers Ian Lyons and Sian Beilock, from the University of Chicago, who had their study published in the journal Plos One.

However, they say their study examines the pain response associated with anticipating an anxiety-provoking event, rather than the pain associated with a stressful event itself.

A maths task itself is not painful but merely the thought of it is highly unpleasant to certain people.

"Math can be difficult, and for those with high levels of mathematics-anxiety (HMAs), math is associated with tension, apprehension and fear," the authors said in their paper titled, When Math Hurts.

"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.

"These results may also provide a potential neural mechanism to explain why (people with) HMAs tend to avoid math and math-related situations, which in turn can bias (those with) high levels of mathematics-anxiety away from taking math classes or even entire math-related career paths."

"We provide the first neural evidence indicating the nature of the subjective experience of math-anxiety."

The researchers used 14 people with HMAs and 14 who had low levels of maths anxiety.

The subjects were then asked to complete word tasks and maths tasks.

Other forms of psychological stress, such as social rejection or a traumatic break-up, can also elicit feelings of physical pain.

(Read by CJ Henderson. CJ Henderson is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

(Agencies)

科學(xué)家已經(jīng)證實了學(xué)生們長期以來的猜測：數(shù)學(xué)問題真的會導(dǎo)致疼痛感。

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)遇到難解的數(shù)學(xué)問題時，產(chǎn)生的恐懼可能激活大腦中主管生理痛的區(qū)域。

一個人對數(shù)學(xué)題越焦慮，與感官威脅偵測有關(guān)的大腦區(qū)域就越活躍，感受到的疼痛就越劇烈。這項研究是由芝加哥大學(xué)的研究者伊恩-里昂和西恩-貝洛克做出的，研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《公共科學(xué)圖書館—綜合》雜志上。

但研究者表示，他們的研究考察了參與一項可引發(fā)焦慮的事情導(dǎo)致的疼痛反應(yīng)，而不是可引發(fā)焦慮的事情本身導(dǎo)致的疼痛反應(yīng)。

數(shù)學(xué)題本身并不會讓人感到疼痛，但思考數(shù)學(xué)題會使一些人非常不愉快。

研究員在名為《數(shù)學(xué)傷害》的研究報告中說：“數(shù)學(xué)題可能很難解答，對那些患有高度數(shù)學(xué)焦慮感的人們來說，數(shù)學(xué)可以使人感到緊張、憂慮和恐懼。”

“有趣的是，這種關(guān)系不會體現(xiàn)在數(shù)學(xué)成績中。這意味著數(shù)學(xué)本身不會讓人難受，但對它的思考可令某些人非常痛苦?！?/P>

“這一研究成果為我們提供了一種潛在的神經(jīng)機(jī)制，用來解釋為什么有數(shù)學(xué)焦慮感的人不想做數(shù)學(xué)題，也不想解決與數(shù)學(xué)有關(guān)的問題。這也導(dǎo)致一些患有數(shù)學(xué)焦慮感的人們不想上數(shù)學(xué)課，也不想從事與數(shù)學(xué)有關(guān)的全部職業(yè)?！?/P>

“我們首次提供了能夠證實數(shù)學(xué)焦慮感主觀體驗特性的神經(jīng)學(xué)證據(jù)?！?/P>

受調(diào)查者中，14人對數(shù)學(xué)問題有強(qiáng)烈的恐懼感，另外14人則恐懼感不明顯。

之后研究人員要求他們解答詞匯問題和數(shù)學(xué)問題。

社會排斥或創(chuàng)傷性精神崩潰等其他心理壓力也可能引發(fā)生理痛。

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