The bonding hormone it's sometimes called
And also opioids, are very densely shuttled back and forth
Between neurons and this nucleus accumbent region
The thing that seems strange initially was
Why would you get more of this reward
Circuitry activated in people who aren't doing as well
They're looking at a photo at someone that they yearn for
And yearning is maybe another way of saying craving
So, it seems and we don't have longitudinal studies
That show this but
You can interpret the result
That most of us as we come to understand
The world without our loved ones
Our brain is able to recognize that the photo of this person
Doesn't any longer predict
That we're going to see them
That as much as we may have memories and good memories
When we look at a photograph
It's not the same as cueing us to try and reach out for them
For the people who have complicated grief
They do seem to persist in really wanting that person
Although they cognitively know the person is gone
They persist in wanting them to be there
It's an overwhelming feeling
And in fact the activation in this region was correlated
So those who had higher activation in this area
Also told us they had the highest levels of yearning
When we just asked them
How much do you yearn on a daily basis for your deceased loved one