title: Mathematics anxiety reduces default mode network deactivation in response to numerical tasks.
abstract: Mathematics anxiety is negatively related to mathematics performance, thereby threatening the professional success. Preoccupation with the emotional content of the stimuli may consume working memory resources, which may be reflected in decreased deactivation of areas associated with the default mode network (DMN) activated during self-referential and emotional processing. The common problem is that math anxiety is usually associated with poor math performance, so that any group differences are difficult to interpret. Here we compared the BOLD-response of 18 participants with high (HMAs) and 18 participants with low mathematics anxiety (LMAs) matched for their mathematical performance to two numerical tasks (number comparison, number bisection). During both tasks, we found stronger deactivation within the DMN in LMAs compared to HMAs, while BOLD-response in task-related activation areas did not differ between HMAs and LMAs. The difference in DMN deactivation between the HMA and LMA group was more pronounced in stimuli with additional requirement on inhibitory functions, but did not differ between number magnitude processing and arithmetic fact retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria ; Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria ; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pletzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria ; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria ; Neuroscience Institute and Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler Clinic, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kronbichler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, IWM-Knowledge Media Research Center, University of Tuebingen Tuebingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Christoph
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Nuerk
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria ; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Hubert H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kerschbaum
keywords: BOLD-response; default mode network; inhibition; mathematics anxiety; number processing; processing efficiency; working memory