The Brain on Grief, Love, Reward, and Pain Revealed

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Moving from kind of social and cultural to kind of more neurological, um what is actually happening in the brain when we're grieving or going through that process of grieving?

[00:00:08]Uh several If you look in the brain of people who are experiencing grief, um so typically these are studies done in people who've been recently bereaved, for example. Uh what we see are several areas of the brain lighting up. Um and two areas in particular are lighting up. One is your areas that are associated with strong emotion, uh similar areas that light up, for example, during experiences of of love.

[00:00:33]Um areas light up that have to do with reward and and yearning. So, the same areas that, for example, light up to encourage you to eat when you're hungry are also lighting up there. And and very interestingly, the other area of the brain that lights up is the same area that lights up when you have experience of physical pain.

[00:00:50]Uh so, it's the aversive area. It's an area that's saying to your body, "This is really unpleasant."