May 15, 2006
Dread pool:
Neurofuture has collected a range of recent posts that have been inspired by recent research on the 'neurobiological basis of dread', although a particularly clear description of the study posted to Brain Ethics is, perhaps, a good one that's missing.
The research was probably best summarised in the mainstream media in an article from Science.
The New York Times had slightly different angle on the story and asked the researchers about how you would go about avoiding feelings of dread.
The first study ever to look at where sensations of dread arise in the brain finds that contrary to what is widely believed, dread does not involve fear and anxiety in the moment of an unpleasant event. Instead, it derives from the attention that people devote beforehand to what they think will be extremely unpleasant.
So the solution to dread, the researchers say, is self-distraction.
Link to abstract of original scientific paper.
