It also appears that anxiety and panic interfere with learning and neuronal
growth. For some students, early experiences may have interfered with
learning very basic procedures and developed anxiety attacks as a
conditioned response to math instruction. So the student may be correct in
saying the problem is not with himself (in some sense).
*************************************************
REFERENCES
Early training can modify the stress response:
van den Boom DC, "The influence of temperament and mothering on attachment
and exploration: an experimental manipulation of sensitive responsiveness
among lower-class mothers with irritable infants. "
in Child Dev. 1994 Oct;65(5):1457-77.
There is a simple test for the panic response:
Schwartz EB; Granger DA; Susman EJ; Gunnar MR; Laird B, "Assessing salivary
cortisol in studies of child development. in Child Dev 1998
Dec;69(6):1503-13
Panic attack references
Hoehn T; Braune S; Scheibe G; Albus M ; "Physiological, biochemical and
subjective parameters in anxiety patients with panic disorder during stress
exposure as compared with healthy controls." in
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 1997;247(5):264-74
ABSTRACT: Physiological (heart rate, blood pressure, electrodermal
activity), biochemical (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol) and
subjective parameters (self-rating score) of 33 patients with panic
disorder (diagnoses according to DSM-III-R) before, during and after stress
exposure were compared with those of healthy controls. As stressors a video
containing frightening scenes (FS), mental arithmetic (MA), a video
documenting a patient suffering from a panic attack (PA) and an improvised
speech (IS) were applied. We found significantly higher baseline levels of
electrodermal activity (EDA) and norepinephrine (NE) secretion and a
subsequent further increase during stress exposure in panic disorder
patients as compared with normal controls. The most potent stressors during
the trial proved to be mental arithmetics and improvised speech, which was
evident in both groups. The situation panic attack video appeared to be a
"panic disorder patient-specific" stressor; here we noticed the most
pronounced reactions in the patient group. Panic disorder patients had
significantly higher self-rating scores of the parameters panicky feelings,
anxiety and nervousness at the beginning and throughout the investigation.
We conclude that panic disorder patients have a higher degree of activation
compared with normal controls, which is evident regarding levels of
electrodermal activity and norepinephrine secretion. Furthermore, the panic
attack video appears to be a panic disorder patient-specific stressor.
other citations for the use of mental arithmetic to induce panic
:
Wilkinson DJ; Thompson JM; Lambert GW; Jennings GL; Schwarz RG; Jefferys D;
Turner AG; Esler MD in "Sympathetic activity in patients with panic
disorder at rest, under laboratory mental stress, and during panic attacks"
in Arch Gen Psychiatry 1998 Jun;55(6):511-20
Messenger C; Shean G, "The effects of anxiety sensitivity and history of
panic on reactions to stressors in a non-clinical sample " in J Behav Ther
Exp Psychiatry 1998 Dec;29(4):279-88
Roth WT; Margraf J; Ehlers A; Taylor CB; Maddock RJ; Davies S; Agras WS ;
"Stress test reactivity in panic disorder." in Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992
Apr;49(4):301-10
Albus M; Zahn TP; Breier A; "Anxiogenic properties of yohimbine. II.
Influence of experimental set and setting."in Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin
Neurosci 1992;241(6):345-51
Zucker D; Taylor CB; Brouillard M; Ehlers A; Margraf J; Telch M; Roth WT;
Agras WS, "Cognitive aspects of panic attacks. Content, course and
relationship to laboratory stressors." in Br J Psychiatry 1989
Jul;155:86-91
It is also clear that the stress impairs memory and damages the nervous
system. For example:
Sapolsky RM, "Stress, Glucocorticoids, and Damage to the Nervous System:
The Current State of Confusion." in Stress 1996 Jul;1(1):1-19
ABSTRACT: "An extensive literature demonstrates that glucocorticoids
(GCs), the adrenal steroids secreted during stress, can have a broad range
of deleterious effects in the brain. The actions occur predominately, but
not exclusively, in the hippocampus, a structure rich in corticosteroid
receptors and particularly sensitive to GCs. The first half of this review
considers three types of GC effects: a) GC-induced atrophy, in which a few
weeks' exposure to high GC concentrations or to stress causes reversible
atrophy of dendritic processes in the hippocampus; b) GC neurotoxicity
where, over the course of months, GC exposure kills hippocampal neurons; c)
GC neuroendangerment, in which elevated GC concentrations at the time of a
neurological insult such as a stroke or seizure impairs the ability of
neurons to survive the insult. The second half considers the rather
confusing literature as to the possible mechanisms underlying these
deleterious GC actions. Five broad themes are discerned: a) that GCs induce
a metabolic vulnerability in neurons due to inhibition of glucose uptake;
b) that GCs exacerbate various steps in a damaging cascade of glutamate
excess, calcium mobilization and oxygen radical generation. In a review a
number of years ago, I concluded that these two components accounted for
the deleterious GC effects. Specifically, the energetic vulnerability
induced by GCs left neurons metabolically compromised, and less able to
carry out the costly task of containing glutamate, calcium and oxygen
radicals. More recent work has shown this conclusion to be simplistic, and
GC actions are shown to probably involve at least three additional
components: c) that GCs impair a variety of neuronal defenses against
neurologic insults; d) that GCs disrupt the mobilization of neurotrophins;
e) that GCs have a variety of electrophysiological effects which can damage
neurons. The relevance of each of those mechanisms to GC-induced atrophy,
neurotoxicity and neuroendangerment is considered, as are the likely
interactions among them."
There is mounitng evidence for a genetic component to mathematical
capability
Geary DC, "Mathematical disabilities: cognitive, neuropsychological, and
genetic components." in
Psychol Bull 1993 Sep;114(2):345-62
Knopik VS; Alarcon M; DeFries JC, "Comorbidity of mathematics and reading
deficits: evidence for a genetic etiology." in Behav Genet 1997
Sep;27(5):447-53
Gillis JJ; DeFries JC; Fulker DW, "Confirmatory factor analysis of reading
and mathematics performance: a twin study." in Acta Genet Med Gemellol
(Roma) 1992;41(4):287-300
Light JG; DeFries JC, "Comorbidity of reading and mathematics disabilities:
genetic and environmental etiologies." in J Learn Disabil 1995
Feb;28(2):96-106
Alarcon M; DeFries JC; Light JG; Pennington BF, "A twin study of
mathematics disability." in J Learn Disabil 1997 Nov-Dec;30(6):617-23
Wadsworth SJ; DeFries JC; Fulker DW; Plomin R in "Cognitive ability and
academic achievement in the Colorado Adoption Project: a multivariate
genetic analysis of parent-offspring and sibling data". in Behav Genet 1995
Jan;25(1):1-15
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