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Dr. Martin Goldstein: “In Medical Decisions, Dread Is Worse Than Fear”

  • The Atlantic
  • New York, NY
  • (April 15, 2014)

In the spring of 2007, Martin Goldstein, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues worked on a functional MRI study of anticipatory anxiety, also known as dread. To understand how dread differs from fear, consider the difference between waiting in the lounge for a painful dental procedure and actually watching the drill coming at your mouth. Dr. Goldstein and his team were among the first to identify the activation of a collar-shaped brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in dread. They have studied this region in both healthy and pathological states. Learn more