Neurobiological Substrates of Dread
Berns and colleagues use functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses while people wait for a mild electric shock. Many people prefer to get an adverse outcome over with quickly, and some dreaded it so much that they chose a stronger shock over waiting. These extreme dreaders were distinguishable from mild dreaders by how fast activity rose in posterior parts of the cortical pain matrix, even when no decision was required. The authors conclude that dread comes partly from the attention paid to the expected physical response and not only from fear or anxiety.
Berns and colleagues use functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses while people wait for a mild electric shock. Many people prefer to get an adverse outcome over with quickly, and some dreaded it so much that they chose a stronger shock over waiting. These extreme dreaders were distinguishable from mild dreaders by how fast activity rose in posterior parts of the cortical pain matrix, even when no decision was required. The authors conclude that dread comes partly from the attention paid to the expected physical response and not only from fear or anxiety.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-11-04.
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Berns, G. S., Chappelow, J., Cekic, M., Zink, C. F., Pagnoni, G., & Martin-Skurski, M. E. (2006). 'Neurobiological Substrates of Dread.' Science, 312(5774), 754-758. doi:10.1126/science.1123721.