HMA individuals show heightened sensitivity to task difficulty but not reward in drift-diffusion modeling of math decisions¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In HDDM regression, the HMA group showed a significantly elevated impact of task difficulty on drift rate compared with the LMA group, while the reward coefficient did not differ between groups. → Jie Liu 2025

Evidence¶

Jie Liu 2025¶

Jie Liu, Zhifeng Li, Jiawang Yang, Hao He & Fang Cui. (2025). The neurocognitive mechanism underlying math avoidance among math anxious people. npj Science of Learning 10:50. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00343-0

q3 · i? · causal · r1

Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Model regression fitted to choices and reaction times from the same fMRI study; drift rate was modulated by trial-by-trial task difficulty and reward. Bayesian posterior tests gave p (HMA < LMA) = 0.01 for the difficulty coefficient and p = 0.46 for reward.

"The HMA group exhibited a significantly elevated impact of task difficulty on drift rate compared to the low math anxiety (LMA) group (p (HMA < LMA) = 0.01, Fig. 3b). The coefficient of reward did not show signi ficant differences between the two groups (p (HMA < LMA) = 0.46, Fig.3c)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Task difficulty sensitivity mediates the relationship between math anxiety and math avoidance tendency — related
• Functional connectivity among six task-difficulty-sensitive ROIs classifies HMA versus LMA individuals at 70.49% accuracy, with PI–MCC, HPC–precuneus and TPJ–NAc edges most diagnostic — related
• Under high task difficulty, HMA individuals accept significantly fewer math problem challenges than LMA individuals, with no group difference under low difficulty — related
• HMA individuals show weaker brain activation discrepancy between high and low task difficulty than LMA peers in valuation and cognitive control regions — related
• Hippocampal, posterior insula and mid-cingulate activation mediate the math anxiety–avoidance relationship via reduced activation discrepancy between difficulties — related
• Exploratory analyses suggest heightened state math anxiety in production paradigms stems from fear of making mistakes rather than response times — related