This Wired science article is the latest in a series of reports I’ve seen going around the web lately, saying that for some people, the anticipation of doing even simple math activates the same regions of the brain that are responsible for physical pain. So math anxiety isn’t just something that people make up to make themselves feel better (not that I ever really thought it was); it has an actual neurological basis.

I’ll be honest, I just don’t get math anxiety. I know I have a bit of a tendency to act like it doesn’t exist; for example, this entire blog is meant for people who actually look forward to digging into the math (or other source material) behind an interesting result. I make no apologies for the fact that I use a ton of math here. But this is all just because I would actually like math anxiety not to exist. Whether it’s a matter of education, or cultural bias, or some sort of mental condition that could be treated with drugs or therapy (I sort of doubt that last case, but who knows), I hope that someday we can live in …