The Learning of Programmed- and Feedback-Based Processes Controlling the Production of a Positioning Response in Two Dimensions

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the learning of the programmed- and feedback-based processes controlling the production of a slow, self-paced positioning response in two dimensions (direction and extent) in the horizontal plane. Both experiments had two phases: an acquisition phase of 60 trials with KR, followed by a KR withdrawal phase of 20 trials. In Experiment 1, one group (N=15) had visual feedback about the ongoing movement and the other group (N=15) did not. In Experiment 2, one group (N=15) practiced initiating the response in the criterion direction and moving the criterion extent, whereas, the other group (N=15) practiced initiating the response in the criterion direction and moving randomly varied extents. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that the learning of a programmed-based process is a gradually acquired freedom from visual feedback. Experiment 2 revealed that a programmed-based process can be learned independent of a feedback-based process.     

Central Nervous System Complications of Sickle Cell Disease in Children: An Overview

Complications involving the central nervous system are among the most devastating manifestations of sickle cell disease. Although overt stroke occurs in 1 in 10 children with Hemoglobin SS, “silent cerebral infarcts” are even more frequent. Both are associated with significant neuropsychological deficits. The end result of these effects on the CNS often is diminished school performance. The use of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography screening allows the identification of patients at high risk for clinical stroke as well as stroke prevention by chronic transfusion. However, definitive prophylaxis and treatment for most CNS complications of sickle cell disease have yet to be determined.     

Implicit affectivity and rapid processing of affective body language: An fMRI study

Previous research has revealed affect‐congruity effects for the recognition of affects from faces. Little is known about the impact of affect on the perception of body language. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of implicit (versus explicit) affectivity with the recognition of briefly presented affective body expressions. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, has been found to be more predictive of spontaneous physiological reactions than explicit (self‐reported) affect. Thirty‐four healthy women had to label the expression of body postures (angry, fearful, happy, or neutral) presented for 66 ms and masked by a neutral body posture in a forced‐choice format while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants' implicit affectivity was assessed using the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test. Measures of explicit state and trait affectivity were also administered. Analysis of the fMRI data was focused on a subcortical network involved in the rapid perception of affective body expressions. Only implicit negative affect (but not explicit affect) was correlated with correct labeling performance for angry body posture. As expected, implicit negative affect was positively associated with activation of the subcortical network in response to fearful and angry expression (compared to neutral expression). Responses of the caudate nucleus to affective body expression were especially associated with its recognition. It appears that processes of rapid recognition of affects from body postures could be facilitated by an individual's implicit negative affect.     

The role of prediction in mental processing: A process approach

Although prediction plays a prominent role in mental processing, we have only limited understanding of how the brain generates and employs predictions. This paper develops a theoretical framework in three steps. First I propose a process model that describes how predictions are produced and are linked to behavior. Subsequently I describe a generative mechanism, consisting of the selective amplification of neural dynamics in the context of boundary conditions. I hypothesize that this mechanism is active as a process engine in every mental process, and that therefore each mental process proceeds in two stages: (i) the formation of process boundary conditions; (ii) the bringing about of the process function by the operation – within the boundary conditions – of a relatively ‘blind’ generative process. Thirdly, from this hypothesis I derive a strategy for describing processes formally. The result is a multilevel framework that may also be useful for studying mental processes in general.     

Impaired configural body processing in anorexia nervosa: Evidence from the body inversion effect

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) suffer from severe disturbances of body perception. It is unclear, however, whether such disturbances are linked to specific alterations in the processing of body configurations with respect to the local processing of body part details. Here, we compared a consecutive sample of 12 AN patients with a group of 12 age‐, gender‐ and education‐matched controls using an inversion effect paradigm requiring the visual discrimination of upright and inverted pictures of whole bodies, faces and objects. The AN patients presented selective deficits in the discrimination of upright body stimuli, which requires configural processing. Conversely, patients and controls showed comparable abilities in the discrimination of inverted bodies, which involves only detail‐based processing, and in the discrimination of both upright and inverted faces and objects. Importantly, the body inversion effect negatively correlated with the persistence scores at the Temperament and Character Inventory, which evaluates increased tendency to convert a signal of punishment into a signal of reinforcement. These results suggest that the deficits of configural processing in AN patients may be associated with their obsessive worries about body appearance and to the excessive attention to details that characterizes their general perceptual style.     

Parallel associative processing in the dorsal striatum: segregation of stimulus-response and cognitive control subregions

Although evidence suggests that the dorsal striatum contributes to multiple learning and memory functions, there nevertheless remains considerable disagreement on the specific associative roles of different neuroanatomical subregions. We review evidence indicating that the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is a substrate for stimulus–response habit formation – incremental strengthening of simple S–R bonds – via input from sensorimotor neocortex while the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) contributes to behavioral flexibility – the cognitive control of behavior – via prefrontal and limbic circuits engaged in relational and spatial information processing. The parallel circuits through dorsal striatum interact with incentive/affective motivational processing in the ventral striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex leading to overt responding under specific testing conditions. Converging evidence obtained through a detailed task analysis and neurobehavioral assessment is beginning to illuminate striatal subregional interactions and relations to the rest of the mammalian brain.     

工作记忆中央执行成分对估算表现的影响

工作记忆中央执行成分在计算加工的诸多过程中发挥重要影响。以82名大学生为被试,采用双任务实验范式考察工作记忆中央执行成分对估算表现的影响。结果发现：1）估算过程需要中央执行成分的参与,增加中央执行成分负荷会导致估算准确率下降;2）无论是否增加中央执行负荷,问题大小效应在估算中均不明显;3）乘法个位数大小顺序会影响估算值的准确性,在有中央执行负荷时数字顺序效应明显。     

Language deficits in pre-symptomatic Huntington's disease: evidence from Hungarian

A limited number of studies have investigated language in Huntington’s disease (HD). These have generally reported abnormalities in rule-governed (grammatical) aspects of language, in both syntax and morphology. Several studies of verbal inflectional morphology in English and French have reported evidence of over-active rule processing, such as over-suffixation errors (e.g., walkeded) and over-regularizations (e.g., digged). Here we extend the investigation to noun inflection in Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric agglutinative language with complex morphology, and to genetically proven pre-symptomatic Huntington’s disease (pre-HD). Although individuals with pre-HD have no clinical, motor or cognitive symptoms, the underlying pathology may already have begun, and thus sensitive behavioral measures might reveal already-present impairments. Indeed, in a Hungarian morphology production task, pre-HD patients made both over-suffixation and over-regularization errors. The findings suggest the generality of over-active rule processing in both HD and pre-HD, across languages from different families with different morphological systems, and for both verbal and noun inflection. Because the neuropathology in pre-HD appears to be largely restricted to the caudate nucleus and related structures, the findings further implicate these structures in language, and in rule-processing in particular. Finally, the need for effective treatments in HD, which will likely depend in part on the ability to sensitively measure early changes in the disease, suggests the possibility that inflectional morphology, and perhaps other language measures, may provide useful diagnostic, tracking, and therapeutic tools for assessing and treating early degeneration in pre-HD and HD.     

Amygdala and “emotional” modulation of the relative use of multiple memory systems

The basolateral amygdala modulates the cognitive and habit memory processes mediated by the hippocampus and caudate nucleus, respectively. The present experiments used a plus-maze task that can be acquired using either hippocampus-dependent “place” learning or caudate-dependent “response” learning to examine whether peripheral or intra-basolateral amygdala injection of anxiogenic drugs would bias rats towards the use of a particular memory system. In Experiment 1, adult male Long–Evans rats were trained to swim from the same start point to an escape platform located in a consistent goal arm, and received pre-training peripheral injections of the α₂-adrenoceptor antagonists yohimbine (2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg), RS 79948-197 (0.05, 0.1, or 0.2 mg/kg), or vehicle. On a drug-free probe trial from a novel start point administered 24 h following acquisition, vehicle treated rats predominantly displayed hippocampus-dependent place learning, whereas rats previously treated with yohimbine (2.5, 5.0 mg/kg) or RS 79948-197 (0.1 mg/kg) predominantly displayed caudate-dependent response learning. In Experiment 2, rats receiving pre-training intra-basolateral amygdala infusions of RS 79948-197 (0.1 μg/0.5 μl) also predominantly displayed response learning on a drug-free probe trial. The findings indicate (1) peripheral injections of anxiogenic drugs can influence the relative use of multiple memory systems in a manner that favors caudate-dependent habit learning over hippocampus-dependent cognitive learning, and (2) intra-basolateral amygdala infusion of anxiogenic drugs is sufficient to produce this modulatory influence of emotional state on the use of multiple memory systems.     

How Change Happens: Controlling Images,Mutuality, and Power

SUMMARY

Change is inevitable but it can go in a positive direction toward growth or in a negative direction. Extending Patricia Hill Collins' concept of controlling images (2000), we can see how these images interact with relational images and strategies of disconnection to obstruct growth on both the societal and the personal level. In therapy, change is defined as movement-in-relationship toward better connection; and increased connection leads to growth. Several aspects of therapy that lead to deeper and wider connection are explored, especially increasing the patient's power. Prior versions of parts of this article were presented at the Jean Baker Miller Summer Training Institutes in 2001 and 2002 and at the 2002 Learning from Women Conference sponsored by the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute and the Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As therapists, we're “in the business” of change–change for the better. That's our goal. Another word for change for the better is growth. Change is the essence of life. It is most obvious in children but it is a necessity through all of life. Change will occur inevitably but it can go in a positive or a negative direction. Further, I believe change toward growth creates pleasure. We feel most alive and zestful when we are engaged in this expanding activity.