ERIC Number: EJ721466
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Dec
Pages: 18
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0748-1187
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Bereavement and the Brain: Invitation to a Conversation Between Bereavement Researchers and Neuroscientists
O'Connor, Mary-Frances
Death Studies, v29 n10 p905-922 Dec 2005
A recent development by neuroscience is neuroimaging, a method of looking into the "black box" of the brain while people are feeling, doing, and thinking in real time. The first fMRI study of bereavement has recently been published, and the present article summarizes it in non-specialist language, focusing on its theoretical and clinical applications. In an attempt to bridge the gap between bereavement researchers and neuroscientists, the author discusses how these two fields could assist each other in forwarding both fields. Three current debates in the field of bereavement research are outlined, including (a) adaptation in the normal grief process, (b) complicated grief vs. resilience, and (c) meaning-making vs. return-to-baseline models of bereavement. The potential contribution of neuroscientific data to these debates is discussed in several hypothetical examples. These examples stimulate thinking about the reciprocity between 2 questions: What can bereavement teach us about the brain? and What can the brain tell us about bereavement? This article is designed to provide enough background for investigators who are primarily concerned with the brain and those primarily concerned with bereavement to open a dialogue between both of these fields.
Descriptors: Researchers, Brain, Grief, Personality, Interdisciplinary Approach, Models, Neurology, Neuropsychology, Clinical Diagnosis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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