Why do mothers never stop grieving for their deceased children? Enduring alterations of brain connectivity and function.

ABSTRACT: A child's death is a profound loss for mothers and affects hundreds of thousands of women. Mothers report inconsolable and progressive grief that is distinct from depression and impacts daily emotions and functions. The brain mechanisms responsible for this relatively common and profound mental health problem are unclear, hampering its clinical recognition and care. In an initial exploration of this condition, we used resting state functional MRI (fMRI) scans to examine functional connectivity in key circuits, and task-based fMRI to examine brain network activity in grieving mothers in response to pictures of their deceased child and as well as recognizable deceased celebrities and unfamiliar individuals. We compared nine mothers who had lost an adult child and aged-matched control mothers

SUBMITTER: Kark SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9478601 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature