Neural synchronization as a hypothetical explanation of the psychoanalytic unconscious

Cognitive scientists have tried to explain the neural mechanisms of unconscious mental states such as coma, epileptic seizures, and anesthesia-induced unconsciousness. However these types of unconscious states are different from the psychoanalytic unconscious. In this review, we aim to present our hypothesis about the neural correlates underlying psychoanalytic unconscious. To fulfill this aim, we firstly review the previous explanations about the neural correlates of conscious and unconscious mental states, such as brain oscillations, synchronicity of neural networks, and cognitive binding. By doing so, we hope to lay a neuroscientific ground for our hypothesis about neural correlates of psychoanalytic unconscious; parallel but unsynchronized neural networks between different layers of consciousness and unconsciousness. Next, we propose a neuroscientific mechanism about how the repressed mental events reach the conscious awareness; the lock of neural synchronization between two mental layers of conscious and unconscious. At the last section, we will discuss the data about schizophrenia as a clinical example of our proposed hypothesis.     

Orienting of attention: Then and now

It is nearly 35 years since I gave the 7th Sir Frederick Bartlett lecture at Oxford University. This was published as a paper entitled “Orienting of attention in the quarterly journal”. The topic was then primarily in psychology, but now equally often in neuroscience. This paper summarizes the background of the reaction time methods used in the original paper and findings that emerged later on the sensory consequences of orienting, mainly in the visual system. It then discusses the brain network that is the source of the sensory amplification and other brain networks that are involved in attention. Next, it reviews studies of the development of attentional networks in early life. Finally, it indicates how the new tools available to explore the human brain can lead to further progress.     

Bio-inspired cognitive model of motor learning by imitation

Learning, and even more so by imitation, is an essential Cognitive Functions because it is carried out throughout life and allows us to adapt our behaviors from other beings through observation. In this work, we propose a model, and implementation of the cognitive function of imitation motor learning (IML), based on psychological and neuroscientific evidence. According to the evidence, learning by imitation includes imitation of action and imitation of action over an object sub-processes. The imitation of action consists of the movement of the limbs. The imitation of action over an object consists of the interaction with an object within the environment. We achieve an implementation of the proposed model for IML and endow a virtual entity with it. In order to validate the proposal, we use a case study to analyze the sub-processes performance. From results, we conclude that both imitation of action and imitation of action over an object sub-processes play an essential role in getting the agent to interact with stimuli within the environment.     

The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism impacts victim's moral emotions following interpersonal transgression

Immoral behaviors make individuals abominate and punish transgressors. Inspired by the associations between the Val66Met polymorphism of brain‐derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) gene and emotional responses following negative events, we investigated whether this polymorphism was also associated moral emotions such as punishment and forgiveness following interpersonal transgression. To do so, we categorized 340 individuals according to the BDNF Val66Met and assessed moral emotions by using 12 hypothetic scenarios in different conditions of intention and interpersonal consequence. The results indicated that this polymorphism was significantly associated with moral aversion and punishment towards transgressors. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed less aversion and punishment than the Met carriers, regardless of intention and interpersonal consequence. Moreover, this polymorphism was associated with forgiveness. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed more forgiveness than the Met carriers. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of the BDNF Val66Met to moral emotions.     

Bio-inspired cognitive architecture of episodic memory

Memory and learning are essential functions in human beings as they allow us to acquire and store in the brain representations of thoughts, experiences, and behaviors, which are required for problem-solving in our daily life and mainly for survival. Episodic memory is a type of memory that provides the ability to re-experience events in one’s life, and it is associated with their conscious recollection. Since episodic memory can represent our experiences about the environment, similar to a mental journey, it is desired in systems that attempt to create human-like behavior. Currently, the main problem is that state of the art proposals do not consider neuroscientific evidence like memory dynamics for forgetting or bottom-up inputs, and most of them do not consider episodic memory as a different memory but as part of general declarative memory. We consider these omissions to limit the generation of human-like behavior. In this work, we propose a bio-inspired cognitive architecture of episodic memory. Neuroscientific evidence provides us with the brain structures associated with this type of memory, the connections, and the operations these areas perform. We hypothesize that virtual entities endowed with our episodic memory cognitive architecture will plan and make decisions in a more human-like fashion. To test the capabilities of the proposal, we endowed a virtual creature with a distributed and concurrent implementation of our architecture, and it was given two tasks. The first task validated the functions of the memory independently, and in the second task, the creature used episodic memory to solve a planning problem. From the results of these experiments, we validate our proposal and show that it is possible to create a system that behaves as the human brain does.     

The neural basis of syntactic deficits in primary progressive aphasia

Patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) vary considerably in terms of which brain regions are impacted, as well as in the extent to which syntactic processing is impaired. Here we review the literature on the neural basis of syntactic deficits in PPA. Structural and functional imaging studies have most consistently associated syntactic deficits with damage to left inferior frontal cortex. Posterior perisylvian regions have been implicated in some studies. Damage to the superior longitudinal fasciculus, including its arcuate component, has been linked with syntactic deficits, even after gray matter atrophy is taken into account. These findings suggest that syntactic processing depends on left frontal and posterior perisylvian regions, as well as intact connectivity between them. In contrast, anterior temporal regions, and the ventral tracts that link frontal and temporal language regions, appear to be less important for syntax, since they are damaged in many PPA patients with spared syntactic processing.     

The contribution of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to the presurgical assessment of language function in children

Before performing neurosurgery, an exhaustive presurgical assessment is required, usually including an investigation of language cerebral lateralization. Among the available procedures, the intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT) was formerly the most widely used. However, this procedure has many limitations: it is invasive and potentially traumatic, especially for children. To overcome these limitations, neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been used. Again, these methods are difficult to use with children, who must remain motionless during data acquisition. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive functional imaging technique that is easily applied to pediatric and cognitively limited patients. It has been used recently in epileptic children for presurgical assessment of expressive and receptive language brain lateralization. The aim of this review is to present the contribution of fNIRS to the presurgical assessment of language function in children with neurological diseases.     

How the brain responds to any: an MEG study

The word any may appear in some sentences, but not in others. For example, any is permitted in sentences that contain the word nobody, as in Nobody ate any fruit. However, in a minimally different context any seems strikingly anomalous: ^*Everybody ate any fruit. The aim of the present study was to investigate how the brain responds to the word any in such minimally different contexts - where it is permitted (licensed) and where it is not permitted (unlicensed). Brain responses were measured from adult readers using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The results showed significantly larger responses to permissible contexts in the left posterior temporal areas between 400-500 ms and 590-660 ms. These results clarify the anatomy and timing of brain processes that contribute to our judgment that a word such as any is or is not permitted in a given context.     

Differential effects of differing intensities of acute exercise on speed and accuracy of cognition: A meta-analytical investigation

The primary purpose of this study was to examine, using meta-analytical techniques, the differential effects of differing intensities of acute exercise on speed and accuracy of cognition. Overall, exercise demonstrated a small, significant mean effect size (g = 0.14, p < 0.01) on cognition. Examination of the comparison between speed and accuracy dependent variables showed that speed accounted for most of the effect. For speed, moderate intensity exercise demonstrated a significantly larger mean effect size than those for low and high intensities. For speed of processing during moderate intensity exercise, central executive tasks showed a larger effect size than recall and alertness/attention tasks; and mean effect size for counterbalanced or randomized studies was significantly greater than for studies in which a pre-exercise followed by during or post-exercise protocol was used. There was no significant difference between mean effect sizes when testing took place post-exercise compared to during exercise for speed but accuracy studies demonstrated a significantly larger mean effect size post-exercise. It was concluded that increased arousal during moderate intensity exercise resulted in faster speed of processing. The very limited effect on accuracy may be due to the failure to choose tests which are complex enough to measure exercise-induced changes in accuracy of performance.     

Love and Power,and the Development of the Brain,Mind, and Agency

In drawing on my own research and collaborative work with Karl Pribram, I show that love (affective attachment) and power (social control) play a central role in psychosocial evolution. When these relations are coupled in a self-regulating system of cooperative interactions, brain growth is stimulated, mind and agency develop, and stable forms of collective social organization are generated. Focusing on the endogenous dynamics of social collectives, the article is organized in four parts. (A "social collective" is defined as a durable arrangement of relations among two or more individuals that is distinguished by shared membership and collaboration in relation to a common function or goal.) Part I summarizes evidence from developmental neuropsychology and social science to show that stable psychosocial organization, across the human life span, is associated with social interaction organized along two dimensions. One dimension involves love, positive affective attachment, and the second involves power, social regulation of the aroused affective energy. Part II draws on Piaget's theory of cooperation and Bradley and Pribrams' theory of communication to describe how mind and agency are generated, and how stable organization is produced, respectively, from the relations involved in the arousal and regulation of affective energy. Combining elements of the two theories, Part III presents a sketch of a holographic model of collective organization in which goal-directed behavior is generated by a feed-forward process involving imaging and information processing of interaction along the two dimensions. Part IV shows how the model accounts for the emergence of human agency within the context of a more general evolutionary theory, such as Laszlo's. The article concludes with a discussion of my approach for building a "fully human theory of evolution."