Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety is known to dysregulate the salience, default mode, and central executive networks of the human brain, yet this phenomenon has not been fully explored across the STEM learning experience, where anxiety can impact negatively academic performance. Here, we evaluated anxiety and large-scale brain connectivity in 101 undergraduate physics students. We found sex differences in STEM-related and clinical anxiety, with longitudinal increases in science anxiety observed for both female and male students. Sex-specific relationships between STEM anxiety and brain connectivity emerged, with male students exhibiting distinct inter-network connectivity for STEM and clinical anxiety, and female students demonstrating no significant within-sex correlations. Anxiety was negatively correlated with academic performance in sex-specific ways at both pre- and post-instruction. Moreover, math anxiety in male students mediated the relation between default mode-salience connectivity and course grade. Together, these results reveal complex sex differences in the neural mechanisms driving how anxiety is related to STEM learning.

A bibliometric analysis covering the relevant literature on science anxiety over two decades

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Assessment of knowledge, perception, attitude, and use of performance-enhancing substances among students of Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt: a pilot study

“…This finding pinpoints that the common trend of striving for fitness and an ideal body shape and weight has produced a shift in the prevalence of the PESs' use according to gender in Egypt. Moreover, STEM-related anxiety affects females' students more frequently than males and the manifestations include unease, avoidance, or fear of learning science or math topics (Gao et al 2020;Gonzalez et al 2019).…”

Neurociência e Ensino de Física: limites e possibilidades em um campo inexplorado

“…Comoúltimo exemplo do uso de neuroimagem em pesquisas com Ensino de Física, outro estudo interessante investiga outro tema pouco explorado naárea, a ansiedade gerada por conteúdos científicos e matemáticos (chamados de STEM 3 ) [79]. Gonzales e colaboradores (2019) investigaram os cérebros de 101 estudantes na Universidade da Flórida, 55 homens e 46 mulheres, que concluíram um curso introdutório de Física necessário para aqueles que pretendem fazer uma graduação naárea de exatas, em cursos como Química, Física, Engenharia ou Matemática.…”