43% of students around the world believe they are not good at math, and
59% of students worry because they think math classes are difficult. One of the factors that
can influence mathematical performance in children is mathematics anxiety (AM), in
addition mathematical anxiety has cognitive markers and effect on the autonomic nervous
system. Like anxiety, cognitive responses are also related to modulations of HRV Heart Rate
Variability. In this context, physical exercise has a direct impact on general anxiety,
cognition, school performance, and HRV. The aim of this paper is to investigate the acute
implications of physical exercise on cognitive, academic and HRV performance of children
with high mathematical anxiety. METHODS: 99 elementary school students between 10
and 12 years old divided by level of mathematical anxiety (high AM = HMA; low AM =
AML) and then randomized into control or exercise groups, forming 4 groups: HMA-Ex;
HMA-Re; LMA- Ex and LMA- Re. All participants performed a mathematical performance
test followed by a Flanker test, and after 20 minutes of moderate exercise or complete rest,
this sequence was repeated. During all tests and students were being monitored by a heart
monitor to analyze HRV. Comparisons were made between the moments before and after the
experimental conditions for different levels of AM. RESULTS: The number of absolute
performance and mean complexity attributes in mathematical performance were higher after
the experimental condition only for the LMA-Ex group (p <0.05; p <0.05, respectively). The
reaction time for incongruent conditions is shorter after the experimental condition for HMAEx
(p <0.05), HMA-Re (p <0.05) and LMA-Ex (p <0.05) groups. The reaction time was
shorter for congruent conditions after experimental conditions for HMA-Re (p <0.05) and
LMA-Ex (p <0.05) groups. Conflict cost decreased after experimental condition for HMARe
(p <0.05), LMA-Ex (p <0.05) and LMA-Ex (p <0.05) groups. Intra-Individual Standard
Deviation decreased after the experimental condition in the LMA-Ex group (p <0.05). There
was an increase in the Poincaré Plot SD2 / SD1 index in the HMA-Ex (p <0.05) and LMAEX
(p <0.05) groups, as well as a decrease in the LMA-Re (p <0.05) group. . SampEn
increases in the LMA-Re group (p <0.05). There was still a reduction in the LF index for the
HMA-Re group (p <0.05). There was a mean increase in RR intervals for the HMA-Re (p
<0.05) and LMA-Re (p <0.05) groups and the RMSSD variable for the same groups (HMARe:
p <0.05; LMA -Re: p <0.05). SDNN reduces the LMA-Re group (p <0.05) and increases
the HMA-Re group (p <0.05). CONCLUSION In the Mathematical Performance there was
significant difference between before and after the experimental condition only for the LMAEx
group. All children who exercised showed improvement in reaction time and children
who rested with high anxiety also improved. In IIV, among children who were at rest, those
with low anxiety improved their IIV and children with high mathematical anxiety showed no
differences. For HRV, exercise decreased vagal modulation for children with high and low
anxiety, however, in resting groups there was a decrease in vagal tone for children with low
mathematical anxiety and sympathetic activation for children with high anxiety.
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