The dictionary definition of the noun form of "dread" is a "great fear or apprehension," and indeed dread is considered a sort of anxiety. One of the many fascinating implications of the study examined here -- "The Neurobiological Substrates of Dread," by Gregory S. Berns, Jonathan Chappelow, Milos Cekic, Caroline F. Zink, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Megan E. Martin-Skurski -- is that dread may bear more neurophysiological resemblance to pain than it does to fear or anxiety. In fact, the study relates, some people will willingly suffer higher levels of physical pain in order to short the amount of time they must suffer the psychic pain of dread.

An extra jolt of voltage may seem a high price for a wait reduction. But the willingness of some people to pay that price, explain our commenters this week, is only one of several intriguing findings in this study that are simultaneously counterintuitive and consistent with everyday experience.