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Review
. 2022 Feb:43:317-322.
doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.019. Epub 2021 Aug 20.

Grieving as a form of learning: Insights from neuroscience applied to grief and loss

Mary-Frances O'Connor  1 , Saren H Seeley  2
Affiliations
Review

Grieving as a form of learning: Insights from neuroscience applied to grief and loss

Mary-Frances O'Connor et al. Curr Opin Psychol. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Recent grief research suggests that the influential cognitive stress theory should be updated with evidence from cognitive neuroscience. Combining human and animal neuroscience with attachment theory, we propose that semantic knowledge of the everlasting nature of the attachment figure and episodic, autobiographical memories of the death are in conflict, perhaps explaining the duration of grieving and generating predictions about complications in prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Our gone-but-also-everlasting model emphasizes that grieving may be a form of learning, requiring time and experiential feedback. Difficulties before loss, such as spousal dependency or pre-existing hippocampal volume, can prolong learning and predict PGD. Complications such as avoidance, rumination, and stress-induced hippocampal atrophy may also develop after loss and create functional or structural mechanisms predicting PGD.

Keywords: Bereavement; Grief; Neuroscience; Nucleus accumbens; Prolonged grief disorder; fMRI.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Graphical depiction of the complications that may precede or result from the death of an attachment figure, using trajectories described in [40,47].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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