Summary of Mary-Frances O'Connor's The Grieving Brain

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 When I am explaining the neurobiology of grief, I start with a metaphor that is based on a familiar experience. However, you have to accept a premise in order for the metaphor to make sense. The premise is that someone has stolen your dining room table.
#2 We know a lot about how the brain creates virtual maps. We have found the location in the hippocampus where the brain map is stored. The brain constantly walks you between these two worlds.
#3 We use brain maps to find our loved ones, predict where they are, and search for them when they are gone. The mismatch between the virtual map we always use to find them, and the reality after they die, is one reason grief overwhelm us.
#4 The first mobile creatures needed to find food, a basic necessity of life. The neural map was developed to know where to go to fulfill that need. Later, as mammals developed, another need arose: for other members of the species to care for them, defend them, and mate with them.

Sujets

• Neuroscience
• Life science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669357735
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Mary-Frances O'Connor's The Grieving Brain
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When I am explaining the neurobiology of grief, I start with a metaphor that is based on a familiar experience. However, you have to accept a premise in order for the metaphor to make sense. The premise is that someone has stolen your dining room table.

#2

We know a lot about how the brain creates virtual maps. We have found the location in the hippocampus where the brain map is stored. The brain constantly walks you between these two worlds.

#3

We use brain maps to find our loved ones, predict where they are, and search for them when they are gone. The mismatch between the virtual map we always use to find them, and the reality after they die, is one reason grief overwhelm us.

#4

The first mobile creatures needed to find food, a basic necessity of life. The neural map was developed to know where to go to fulfill that need. Later, as mammals developed, another need arose: for other members of the species to care for them, defend them, and mate with them.

#5

The human brain has the ability to map out its environment, and humans use these maps to find food and locate their loved ones. These three dimensions are here, now, and close.

#6

The baby learns about the dimensions of here, now, and close when he is in contact with his caregiver. He is soothed and happy when he has physical contact with his caregiver, and he cries when there is no contact.

#7

The brain has three dimensions to keep track of those we love: here, now, and close. If a person dies, the brain cannot predict this possibility, because it is outside the brain’s experience. The action required in response to their absence is to go look for them, cry out, text, call, or any other means to get their attention.

#8

Grief is the heart of the process, and it is common to search for your loved ones after they have died. But if you are overwhelmed with missing them, and you seek out something to remind you of them, this is fine. If, years after the death of your daughter, you have kept her bedroom exactly the way it was the day she died, with the same sheets on the bed, untouched since she threw them off while stepping out of bed, this can be problematic.

#9

The importance of a map of where our loved ones are presents some empirical questions: do people use the same virtual map when asked where their deceased loved ones are as they do when asked where their living loved ones are. Does confidence in the whereabouts of our loved ones and in our future access to them provide comfort in the wake of loss.

#10

Through neuroscience, we may be able to understand how the brain allows us to experience life. Understanding what is soothing to those who are searching for a deceased loved one may spark some novel ideas about how to provide comfort to other bereaved people.

#11

The brain is a remarkably good prediction machine. It is able to take in information and compare it to what has happened before, and what it has learned through experience. It often just fills in information that is not actually there.

#12

Our brains make predictions based on our lived experience. When we wake up one morning and find that our loved one is no longer in the bed next to us, the idea that she has died is not true in terms of probability. We need new lived experiences for our brains to develop new predictions, and this takes time.

#13

The brain learns whether we intend to learn or not. It does not wait patiently until we say, Hey, Siri, and then begin encoding whatever happens next. Our brain continuously logs the information we receive through all our senses, building up a vast store of probabilities and likelihoods.

#14

The third dimension of how we map where our loved ones are is closeness. It is understood by the brain in a similar way to time and space. People can reliably indicate how close they are to their loved one by choosing the set of circles that fits their relationship best.

#15

Closeness is a dimension that is difficult for the brain to understand after someone has died. If a loved one dies, we may feel that we are no longer close, but our brain cannot believe it is because closeness no longer applies. Instead, it may believe it is because they are upset with us or that we are being distant.

#16

The opposite of closeness is the absence of our partner. Absence sets off emotional alarm bells, revealing the calm and comfort of closeness that we miss. Unexpected absence alarms us even more.

#17

Grief is a mixture of sadness and anger.