Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 5 May 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5774, pp. 754 - 758
DOI: 10.1126/science.1123721
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Neurobiological Substrates of Dread

Gregory S. Berns,* Jonathan Chappelow, Milos Cekic, Caroline F. Zink, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Megan E. Martin-Skurski

Given the choice of waiting for an adverse outcome or getting it over with quickly, many people choose the latter. Theoretical models of decision-making have assumed that this occurs because there is a cost to waiting—i.e., dread. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the neural responses to waiting for a cutaneous electric shock. Some individuals dreaded the outcome so much that, when given a choice, they preferred to receive more voltage rather than wait. Even when no decision was required, these extreme dreaders were distinguishable from those who dreaded mildly by the rate of increase of neural activity in the posterior elements of the cortical pain matrix. This suggests that dread derives, in part, from the attention devoted to the expected physical response and not simply from fear or anxiety. Although these differences were observed during a passive waiting procedure, they correlated with individual behavior in a subsequent choice paradigm, providing evidence for a neurobiological link between the experienced disutility of dread and subsequent decisions about unpleasant outcomes.

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, 101 Woodruff Circle, Suite 4000, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gberns{at}emory.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Behavioral and Neural Effects of Delays during Intertemporal Choice Are Independent of Probability.
J. B. Engelmann and A. M. Brooks (2009)
J. Neurosci. 29, 6055-6057
   Full Text »    PDF »
Why the brain talks to itself: sources of error in emotional prediction.
D. T. Gilbert and T. D. Wilson (2009)
Phil Trans R Soc B 364, 1335-1341
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neural Correlates of Speeded as Compared with Delayed Responses in a Stop Signal Task: An Indirect Analog of Risk Taking and Association with an Anxiety Trait.
C.-s. R. Li, H. H.-A. Chao, and T.-W. Lee (2009)
Cereb Cortex 19, 839-848
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neural Dissociation of Delay and Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice.
C. C. Luhmann, M. M. Chun, D.-J. Yi, D. Lee, and X.-J. Wang (2008)
J. Neurosci. 28, 14459-14466
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Rupture and Repair of Cooperation in Borderline Personality Disorder.
B. King-Casas, C. Sharp, L. Lomax-Bream, T. Lohrenz, P. Fonagy, and P. R. Montague (2008)
Science 321, 806-810
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy.
R. L. Waber, B. Shiv, Z. Carmon, and D. Ariely (2008)
JAMA 299, 1016-1017
   Full Text »    PDF »
Does It Look Painful or Disgusting? Ask Your Parietal and Cingulate Cortex.
F. Benuzzi, F. Lui, D. Duzzi, P. F. Nichelli, and C. A. Porro (2008)
J. Neurosci. 28, 923-931
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Prospection: Experiencing the Future.
D. T. Gilbert and T. D. Wilson (2007)
Science 317, 1351-1354
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
When Fear Is Near: Threat Imminence Elicits Prefrontal-Periaqueductal Gray Shifts in Humans.
D. Mobbs, P. Petrovic, J. L. Marchant, D. Hassabis, N. Weiskopf, B. Seymour, R. J. Dolan, and C. D. Frith (2007)
Science 317, 1079-1083
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cerebral Blood Flow in Immediate and Sustained Anxiety.
G. Hasler, S. Fromm, R. P. Alvarez, D. A. Luckenbaugh, W. C. Drevets, and C. Grillon (2007)
J. Neurosci. 27, 6313-6319
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Time Horizons, Discounting, and Intertemporal Choice.
P. Streich and J. S. Levy (2007)
Journal of Conflict Resolution 51, 199-226
   Abstract »    PDF »
Grateful Dread: The Neurobiology of Getting It Over With.
(2006)
Journal Watch Psychiatry 2006, 2
   Full Text »
Some frontiers in social science..
W. P. Butz and B. B. Torrey (2006)
Science 312, 1898-1900
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Minerva.
(2006)
BMJ 332, 1222
   Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)