Math anxiety – When the emotional brain paralyzes the thinking brain

Math anxiety as a mental and even physiological condition that occurs when confronted with math problems may be associated with a negative attitude towards math and difficulties in performing math activities. It manifests itself as an emotional response to a perceived threat in the form of mathematical stimuli, resulting in a state comparable to that experienced in the other forms of anxiety disorders. Over the last years, math anxiety as an issue in education attracts increased attention from both educators and researchers, emphasizing the importance of emotions in the learning process. This review article presents a literature study that aims to provide an overview of the research of the field, ranging from the initial studies of the concept of math anxiety to the latest research exploring the mechanisms of manifestation of math anxiety in the example of studies of brain activity under mathematical stimuli. Moreover, the review describes the most studied family, school, and social factors that have been claimed to play an important role in the origin of math anxiety, also the tools used to measure the level of math anxiety in different age groups. Finally, it examines the main proposed explanations of the relations between math anxiety and students’ math achievement.