Essentials: The Science & Process of Healing from Grief
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the neuroscience of grief, including how the brain maps relationships across three dimensions — space, time, and closeness — and why losing someone requires a remapping of those neural circuits. I describe how grief differs from depression, the role of oxytocin in driving yearning after a loss, and why people move through grief at different rates. I also discuss science-based tools for grieving adaptively, including how to access feelings of attachment while decoupling them from episodic memory. Finally, I explain how foundational biology — particularly sleep and cortisol rhythms — shapes our capacity to navigate the grieving process.
Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com.
Thank you to our sponsors
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) Grief
(00:01:47) Myths of Grief, Kubler-Ross & fMRI
(00:03:56) Brain Mapping Experiment, Proximity
(00:07:05) Inferior Parietal Lobule; Space, Time & Closeness
(00:09:20) Episodic Memory & Remapping After Loss
(00:11:28) Sponsor: Eight Sleep
(00:14:21) Tool: Dedicated Time, Counterfactual Thinking & Guilt
(00:15:52) Oxytocin & Individual Differences in Grief
(00:18:21) Prairie Voles, Monogamy & Nucleus Accumbens
(00:22:30) Sponsor: LMNT
(00:24:48) Vagal Tone, Emotional Disclosure & Bereavement Writing Study
(00:29:40) Cortisol Rhythms, Complicated Grief & Sunlight
(00:33:03) Sponsor: AG1
(00:34:59) Rational Grieving, Neuroplasticity & NSDR
Disclaimer & Disclosures
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Popis podcastu
The Huberman Lab podcast is hosted by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. The podcast discusses neuroscience and science-based tools, including how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health, as well as existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works.
Huberman has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. He is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision, in 2017.
Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell, and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover, and other top media outlets.
In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.