Reading a little about this:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060501/full/060501-9.html#B1
I must admit, when I initially saw the headline I pictures scientists probing a region of the brain and the subject stating "Yeah, that makes me feel dread", or something like that.
Instead, what they did was administer an electric shock to the soles of various subjects feet, tell them they were going to do it again in x amount of minutes and measure which of the subjects were eager to get it over with sooner - which was most of them.
So the dread region appears to be closely related to the regions responsible for pain (according to the article) and explains why we fear visits to the dentists, jabs, operations etc, and wish they were over and done with. The anticipation is more than the event kind of thing.
I'm not happy that their study proved anything to us. Their discovery isn't a huge leap of the imagination is it?
I was hoping that they had found a way to remove the Dread Zone surgically. (I live in a state of almost permanent dread, though that could be confused with paranoia)
What IS the point of dread? Does it help us to function? Mentally prepare us for an unpleasant event?
How would you function if you had a large dread region or if it was constantly stimulated due to a brain surgery? Would you be nervous all the time about everything or would you spend the rest of your life dreading an unspecified event?
Are our personalities decided by the sizes and strengths of the different emotional sectors in our brain? (What's the name of the branch of study dedicated to that btw?)
Could we exercise certain emotions to make them stronger?
Woah there horsey. Let's stick to DREAD.
― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 05:49 (nineteen years ago)
reggae jokes in 3, 2, 1, ...
― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 06:05 (nineteen years ago)
i heard one of the scientists talking about this, he was saying that to him the major point was that they found that dread is based in the attention zone of the brain, more or less. it's a form of hyperattentiveness (attention surplus disorder?). but attention can be controlled, by distracting the brain in a number of different ways. and that people who are heavy dreaders can learn those ways (which actually are the things that most people already do to deal with dread), and learn how to not let that kind of negative anticipation accumulate and gnaw at them. pretty interesting stuff. i love brain science.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 06:15 (nineteen years ago)
It's difficult though to distract yourself, say you're in a waiting room for example. I would normally have a book with me, but my concentration would be shot to pieces and my mind would keep wavering back to the appointment.
Little of the dread I feel relates to physical pain though, most of mine is the 'sunday night feeling', churning stomach, sweaty palms etc.
Is there a great difference between dread and anxiety?
― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 06:27 (nineteen years ago)
I've never read that. I shall.
I'm obsessed with death, I suppose many of us are. I'm more afraid of losing somebody close though than with dying myself. I can get quite irrational about it. If I can't get in touch with somebody I love I assume they're dead. I wake up in the night to make sure my partner is still alive, I feel that if I can't bother rousing myself to do this then I'll find him lying dead beside me in the morning.
I guess that's a kind of dread 'cause I know I'm going to lose a loved one at some point, but it's also probably borderline psychotic...
― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 10:26 (nineteen years ago)
the dread region appears to be closely related to the regions responsible for painunless you're a lazy bum like myself, then waking up to the weekly cleaning of your apartment can bring dread.
― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Thursday, 11 May 2006 05:28 (nineteen years ago)