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. 2008 Aug 15;42(2):969-72.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.04.256. Epub 2008 May 10.

Craving love? Enduring grief activates brain's reward center

Mary-Frances O'Connor  1 , David K Wellisch, Annette L Stanton, Naomi I Eisenberger, Michael R Irwin, Matthew D Lieberman
Affiliations

Craving love? Enduring grief activates brain's reward center

Mary-Frances O'Connor et al. Neuroimage. .

Abstract

Complicated Grief (CG) occurs when an individual experiences prolonged, unabated grief. The neural mechanisms distinguishing CG from Noncomplicated Grief (NCG) are unclear, but hypothesized mechanisms include both pain-related activity (related to the social pain of loss) and reward-related activity (related to attachment behavior). Bereaved women (11 CG, 12 NCG) participated in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, during grief elicitation with idiographic stimuli. Analyses revealed that whereas both CG and NCG participants showed pain-related neural activity in response to reminders of the deceased, only those with CG showed reward-related activity in the nucleus accumbens (NA). This NA cluster was positively correlated with self-reported yearning, but not with time since death, participant age, or positive/negative affect. This study supports the hypothesis that attachment activates reward pathways. For those with CG, reminders of the deceased still activate neural reward activity, which may interfere with adapting to the loss in the present.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of picture/word composites presented to subject.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A) Nucleus accumbens activity (10, 20, −6) in response to grief-related vs. neutral words that was significantly greater in the Complicated Grief group compared to the Noncomplicated Grief group (pictured at p < .05). B) Bar graph showing nucleus accumbens activity (10, 20, −6) in response to grief-related vs. neutral words for those with Complicated and Noncomplicated Grief.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Positive correlation between self-reported yearning and BOLD activity in the NA (10, 20, −6; N=23) for each subject.
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