Hippocampal, posterior insula and mid-cingulate activation mediate the math anxiety–avoidance relationship via reduced activation discrepancy between difficulties¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? For the HPC and PI, all three indirect pathways (via difficulty sensitivity, via brain activity, and the chain path) were significant; for the MCC, paths 1 and 3 were significant but path 2 was not. → 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 · r2

Chain mediation models with mean activation from 8 mm spheres around six ROIs as M2. The PI model showed significant indirect effects (path 1 = 0.18, path 2 = 0.09, path 3 = 0.02), while the MCC path 2 "was not significant"; path 3 effects were small (0.02–0.05).

"Similarly, for the PI, the indirect effect for all the three pathways were significant. The effect value is 0.18 for indirect path1 (95%CI: (0.00–0.33]), 0.09 for indirect path 2 (95% CI: [0.02 –0.16]), and 0.02 for indirect path 3 (95% CI: (0.00–0.06]). But for the MCC, the indirect path 1 and path 3 were signi ficant, while the indirect path 2 (X-M2-Y) was not significant."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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• 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
• HMA individuals show weaker brain activation discrepancy between high and low task difficulty than LMA peers in valuation and cognitive control regions — related
• HMA individuals show heightened sensitivity to task difficulty but not reward in drift-diffusion modeling of math decisions — related