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Emotion regulation in prolonged grief disorder in later life: Protocol and rationale for a longitudinal neuroimaging study.

Overview

Authors: Gyujoon Hwang1, Nutta-on P. Blair1, Volkan Emre Arpinar2, B. Douglas Ward1, Timothy L. McAuliffe1, Stacy A. Claesges1, Andrew S. Nencka2, Yang Wang2, Charles F. Reynolds3, Elliot A. Stein4, Joseph S. Goveas1
ORCID iDs: Gyujoon Hwang, Joseph S. Goveas
  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States
  2. Department of Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States
  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA, United States
  4. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD, United States
Institutions: Medical College of Wisconsin (United States); University of Pittsburgh (United States); National Institute on Drug Abuse (United States)
Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), volume 4, article IMAG.a.1271
Dates: received 10 January 2026; accepted 10 May 2026; published online 16 June 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1162/imag.a.1271 · PMID 42318033 · PMCID PMC13274567 · OpenAlex W7161940817
Open access: diamond, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: dead link
Categories: fMRI (modality), human (organism), cognitive (subfield)
Methods: Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Statistics, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: bereavement, acute grief, prolonged grief disorder, integrated grief, neuroimaging, functional MRI, task fMRI, resting-state functional connectivity, older adults
Journal subjects: Data Resource
Topic: Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (Clinical Psychology, Psychology), according to OpenAlex
Funding: HHS | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (R01MH122490)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 103 references in the paper

Abstract

Bereavement is a near-universal experience in late life, yet only some older adults develop prolonged grief disorder (PGD). While most transition from acute grief (AG) to integrated (adaptive) grief, the neurobiological substrates underlying divergent trajectories are unclear. Emotion regulation dysfunction is hypothesized to play a central role in PGD pathogenesis, but longitudinal neuroimaging data in bereaved adults are lacking. This study aims to identify functional brain circuit measures of emotional regulation that predict pathological versus adaptive grief trajectories, aligning with the Research Domain Criteria (RDoc) framework for the Negative Valence System (Loss) construct. This single-site, 1-year longitudinal study aims to enroll 170 adults aged 50–89 years: 115 with AG and 55 age- and gender-equated non-bereaved participants. Participants will complete comprehensive psychiatric, neuropsychological, and psychosocial assessments, alongside neuroimaging both at study baseline and after 12 months. Functional neuroimaging includes resting-state fMRI, a face–shape matching task probing emotion processing, and a stop-signal task probing inhibitory control. Functional neuroimaging data are acquired using a harmonized Human Connectome Project protocol on a GE Signa Premier 3T MRI scanner. We present a comprehensive overview of the eligibility criteria, clinical study procedures, and neuroimaging protocol. Baseline findings from 103 AG and 40 non-bereaved participants thus far enrolled show that the groups are demographically matched and provide high-quality neuroimaging data and robust task performance. This study is among the first longitudinal neuroimaging investigations of AG in older adults and may identify early biomarkers of PGD risk, potentially guiding precision prevention and intervention strategies for bereaved older adults.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

organizations/DREAM-research

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link is dead, verified on 27 September 2026
Evidence: found in the paper
Software Heritage: not archived
Found in: “Data and Code Availability”
Not found: README, license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 27 September 2026: the link is dead
  • 27 September 2026: the link is dead
At the source: github.com/organizations/DREAM-research

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

  • 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
  • 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
  • no match between paragraphs and code yet;
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Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data management, accessibility, and repository

Clinical data are managed using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), a secure web-based application supporting validated data entry, audit trails, and data import/export. Imaging data are archived, shared, and processed using XNAT (Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit). Only personnel with study approval can access these data. Neuroimaging and clinical data will be made available through the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) in accordance with the National Institute of Mental Health data sharing policy. No HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) protected information is transferred to the NDA.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Data and Code Availability

The 12-month longitudinal neuroimaging and clinical data described in the current manuscript are available upon reasonable request. Codes related to future data analysis will be made available via the DREAM (Developing Resilience to Ease Anguish in Mourning) Research GitHub repository (https://github.com/organizations/DREAM-research).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 11 authors, 9 keywords, 1 funder, 103 references.

Cite

This paper

Hwang, G., Blair, N.-o. P., Arpinar, V. E., Ward, B. D., McAuliffe, T. L., Claesges, S. A., Nencka, A. S., Wang, Y., Reynolds, C. F., Stein, E. A., & Goveas, J. S. (2026). Emotion regulation in prolonged grief disorder in later life: Protocol and rationale for a longitudinal neuroimaging study. Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 4, IMAG.a.1271. https://doi.org/10.1162/imag.a.1271

BibTeX

@article{hwang2026emotion,
author = {Hwang, Gyujoon and Blair, Nutta-on P. and Arpinar, Volkan Emre and Ward, B. Douglas and McAuliffe, Timothy L. and Claesges, Stacy A. and Nencka, Andrew S. and Wang, Yang and Reynolds, Charles F. and Stein, Elliot A. and Goveas, Joseph S.},
title = {{Emotion regulation in prolonged grief disorder in later life: Protocol and rationale for a longitudinal neuroimaging study}},
journal = {Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
volume = {4},
pages = {IMAG.a.1271},
publisher = {MIT Press},
issn = {2837-6056},
doi = {10.1162/imag.a.1271},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1162/imag.a.1271},
pmid = {42318033},
pmcid = {PMC13274567}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Hwang, Gyujoon
AU - Blair, Nutta-on P.
AU - Arpinar, Volkan Emre
AU - Ward, B. Douglas
AU - McAuliffe, Timothy L.
AU - Claesges, Stacy A.
AU - Nencka, Andrew S.
AU - Wang, Yang
AU - Reynolds, Charles F.
AU - Stein, Elliot A.
AU - Goveas, Joseph S.
TI - Emotion regulation in prolonged grief disorder in later life: Protocol and rationale for a longitudinal neuroimaging study
T2 - Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
J2 - Imaging Neurosci (Camb)
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/16
VL - 4
SP - IMAG.a.1271
SN - 2837-6056
PB - MIT Press
DO - 10.1162/imag.a.1271
UR - https://doi.org/10.1162/imag.a.1271
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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