Ongoing monitoring of mindwandering in avoidant grief through cortico-basal-ganglia interactions

Abstract

An avoidant grief style is marked by repeated and often unsuccessful attempts to prevent thinking about loss. Prior work shows avoidant grief involves monitoring the external environment in order to avoid reminders of the loss. Here we sought to determine whether avoidant grievers also monitor the internal environment in attempts to minimize conscious awareness of loss-related thoughts. Individuals bereaved of a first-degree relative, spouse or partner within the last 14 months participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (N = 29). We first applied machine learning to train neural patterns for attentional control and representation of the deceased (N = 23). The attentional pattern was trained using fMRI data from a modified Stroop task assessing selective attention to reminders of the deceased. The representational pattern was trained using fMRI data from a task presenting pictures and stories of the deceased. We observed spontaneous fluctuations in these processes occurring during a neutral mindwandering fMRI task (N = 27). At higher levels of avoidant grieving, activation of attentional control disrupted the relationship between the representational process and thoughts of loss. These findings show that avoidant grief involves attentional control to reduce the likelihood that deceased-related representations reach full conscious awareness.

Amygdala Functional Connectivity Features in Grief: A Pilot Longitudinal Study

“…This contradictory response may be mediated via interactions between a broader cortical network comprising the default mode, cognitive control, and salience regions and the OFC-basal ganglia subnetwork. 44 Moreover, differential activity in the middle temporal gyrus and the cuneus, additional brain areas seen in our whole cerebrum analyses (Figure S6) have been previously reported in studies of acute grief from romantic rejection 26 and after death of an unborn child. 20 In LLD, frontal lobe hypoactivation and diminished amygdala Fc with the executive control and salience regions are reported, relative to HC individuals.…”

The neurobiological reward system in Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD): A systematic review

“…Schneck et al suggested that these two networks are responsible for the avoid-approach conflict characteristic of avoidant grief, with the d-SA network monitoring for cues related to the deceased in order to prevent the d-MR network activating. Paradoxically, the study found that in the absence of a cue, participants with avoidant grief, as indicated by the IES, had more frequent intrusive thoughts about the deceased than those with normative grief, suggesting that heightened d-SA primes the brain for deceased-related thoughts (Schneck et al 2019b).…”

“…A second study by the same group (Schneck et al 2019b) identified two separate patterns characteristic of avoidant grievers, as indicated by the IES: a frontotemporoparietal network for deceased-related selective attention (d-SA) and the aforementioned basal gangliaorbitofrontal network for mental representation of the deceased (d-MR). Schneck et al suggested that these two networks are responsible for the avoid-approach conflict characteristic of avoidant grief, with the d-SA network monitoring for cues related to the deceased in order to prevent the d-MR network activating.…”

“…Four studies did not explicitly investigate PGD caseness, but rather used the ICG to measure "grief severity" (Schneck et al 2017(Schneck et al , 2018(Schneck et al , 2019a(Schneck et al , 2019b and the Impact of Events Scale (IES) to measure intrusive thoughts and avoidance -a measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. One study of neurobiological correlates of adult attachment style (AAS) in grief (Acosta et al 2018) used the anxiety and avoidance subscales of the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ) to examine attachment style, and the List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire (LTE-Q) to tally affective losses in the past five years.…”

Grief: A Brief History of Research on How Body, Mind, and Brain Adapt

“…However, as a follow up to the last study, a multivoxel pattern analysis was used to identify a pattern of brain activity associated with intrusive deceased-related thoughts. The authors focused on interacting connectivity between the salience network, and the ventral attention and default networks (72). This interaction was different among those high and low in deliberate avoidance as a coping strategy.…”