Mathematics Anxiety Is Associated With Attentional and Memory-Related Neural Activity During Numerical Cognition

Mathematics achievement can be influenced by negative emotions and expectations related to numerical tasks. Individuals with high mathematics anxiety often show poorer numerical performance. This study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying different levels of numerical processing associated with mathematics anxiety using number line estimation and arithmetic verification tasks during fMRI. Participants were classified into high (n = 22, age = 23.09 ± 2.22) and low (n = 24, age = 22.67 ± 3.29) mathematics anxiety groups based on detailed screening prior to scanning. Trait and test anxiety were also assessed to capture broader anxiety-related characteristics. Before the fMRI session, participants completed assessments of calculation performance and digit span, and a mock MRI session was used to reduce scanner-related stress. Participants completed task and control conditions for each numerical task during fMRI. Neuroimaging data were analyzed using 2 × 2 whole-brain voxel-wise ANOVA. Group differences in task-related brain activation were further examined both before and after statistically controlling for trait and test anxiety. Results showed that low mathematics anxiety was associated with greater frontal eye field activity during number-space mapping and stronger supramarginal gyrus activity during arithmetic computation compared with high mathematics anxiety. Controlling for trait and test anxiety helped clarify which neural effects remained associated with mathematics anxiety after accounting for variance shared with broader anxiety-related factors. Overall, attentional and memory-related effects remained associated with mathematics anxiety after this adjustment, whereas additional effects involving motor processes and cognitive control were attenuated, suggesting that these effects may partly reflect variance shared with broader anxiety-related constructs.