Dorsal posterior cingulate cortex responds to negative feedback information supporting learning and relearning of response policies.

Many challenges in life come without explicit instructions. Instead, humans need to test, select, and adapt their behavioral responses based on feedback from the environment. While reward-centric accounts of feedback processing primarily stress the reinforcing aspect of positive feedback, feedback's central function from an information-processing perspective is to offer an opportunity to correct errors, thus putting a greater emphasis on the informational content of negative feedback. Independent of its potential rewarding value, the informational value of performance feedback has recently been suggested to be neurophysiologically encoded in the dorsal portion of the posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC). To further test this association, we investigated multidimensional categorization and reversal learning by comparing negative and positive feedback in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. Negative feedback, compared with positive feedback, increased activation in the dPCC as well as in brain regions typically involved in error processing. Only in the dPCC, subarea d23, this effect was significantly enhanced in relearning, where negative feedback signaled the need to shift away from a previously established response policy. Together with previous findings, this result contributes to a more fine-grained functional parcellation of PCC subregions and supports the dPCC's involvement in the adaptation to behaviorally relevant information from the environment.

Gender and transgender: a metapsychological contribution to the genesis of the sexual ego.

Transsexuality or transgender has become an increasingly visible and widespread phenomenon in recent years. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it has so far not been possible to understand the lack of identification with one's own anatomical body. The author distinguishes between the formation of an early body ego as a result of primary identification and that of a sexual ego as part of secondary identifications. Identical and trans-identical orientation could arise against the background of how, when gender difference is discovered, the primary identification is processed, 'translated', in an 'après-coup' movement.

Dorsal posterior cingulate cortex encodes the informational value of feedback in human-computer interaction.

In communication between humans as well as in human-computer interaction, feedback is ubiquitous. It is essential for keeping up the dialogue between interaction partners, evaluating the adequacy of an action, or improving task performance. While the neuroscientific view on feedback has largely focused on its function as reward, more general definitions also emphasise its function as information about aspects of one's task performance. Using fMRI in a computer-controlled auditory categorisation task, we studied the neural correlates of the informational value of computer-given feedback independent of reward. Feedback about the correctness of a decision, compared with feedback only indicating the registration of a decision, increases activation of the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, supporting this region's role in adapting to behaviourally relevant information. Both conditions elicit equally strong activation of the dorsal striatum which does not support an interpretation of feedback information as a type of reward. Instead, we suggest that it reflects a more fundamental aspect of human interaction behaviour, namely the establishment of a state that enables us to continue with the next step of the interaction.

Machine learning identifies the dynamics and influencing factors in an auditory category learning experiment.

Human learning is one of the main topics in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The analysis of experimental data, e.g. from category learning experiments, is a major challenge due to confounding factors related to perceptual processing, feedback value, response selection, as well as inter-individual differences in learning progress due to differing strategies or skills. We use machine learning to investigate (Q1) how participants of an auditory category-learning experiment evolve towards learning, (Q2) how participant performance saturates and (Q3) how early we can differentiate whether a participant has learned the categories or not. We found that a Gaussian Mixture Model describes well the evolution of participant performance and serves as basis for identifying influencing factors of task configuration (Q1). We found early saturation trends (Q2) and that CatBoost, an advanced classification algorithm, can separate between participants who learned the categories and those who did not, well before the end of the learning session, without much degradation of separation quality (Q3). Our results show that machine learning can model participant dynamics, identify influencing factors of task design and performance trends. This will help to improve computational models of auditory category learning and define suitable time points for interventions into learning, e.g. by tutorial systems.

A Cognitive Modeling Approach to Strategy Formation in Dynamic Decision Making.

Decision-making is a high-level cognitive process based on cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory. Real-life situations require series of decisions to be made, with each decision depending on previous feedback from a potentially changing environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of dynamic decision-making, we applied the method of cognitive modeling on a complex rule-based category learning task. Here, participants first needed to identify the conjunction of two rules that defined a target category and later adapt to a reversal of feedback contingencies. We developed an ACT-R model for the core aspects of this dynamic decision-making task. An important aim of our model was that it provides a general account of how such tasks are solved and, with minor changes, is applicable to other stimulus materials. The model was implemented as a mixture of an exemplar-based and a rule-based approach which incorporates perceptual-motor and metacognitive aspects as well. The model solves the categorization task by first trying out one-feature strategies and then, as a result of repeated negative feedback, switching to two-feature strategies. Overall, this model solves the task in a similar way as participants do, including generally successful initial learning as well as reversal learning after the change of feedback contingencies. Moreover, the fact that not all participants were successful in the two learning phases is also reflected in the modeling data. However, we found a larger variance and a lower overall performance of the modeling data as compared to the human data which may relate to perceptual preferences or additional knowledge and rules applied by the participants. In a next step, these aspects could be implemented in the model for a better overall fit. In view of the large interindividual differences in decision performance between participants, additional information about the underlying cognitive processes from behavioral, psychobiological and neurophysiological data may help to optimize future applications of this model such that it can be transferred to other domains of comparable dynamic decision tasks.

'Translation' and 'transformation' in the analytic situation: Freud-Bion-Laplanche.

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche's theory of a 'general seduction' the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends 'enigmatic messages' to the child, it is the analyst's task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new 'translations' for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame--which represents and supports attachment--and the 'sexual'--which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of 'incorrect' translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction--this is a self-construction of the patient--but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud's notions and the 'transformation processes' through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche's model and the interpretation strategy with case material.

Infantile bisexuality and the 'complete oedipal complex': Freudian views on heterosexuality and homosexuality.

In the psychoanalytical discussion of what is 'mature' sexuality we speak of the 'genital' stage and the 'resolution' of the oedipal complex in the form of identification with the parent of the same sex and a heterosexually-directed object choice. A close reading of Freud's texts about sexuality shows that such a normative view cannot be corroborated by his viewpoint. He suggests that infantile sexuality is bisexually orientated, the final object choice due to repression of either homosexual or heterosexual desires. As Freud puts it, genital heterosexuality occurs out of necessity for procreation. In order to enrich the present psychoanalytical discussion about homosexuality and bisexuality the author returns to Freud's theories in this context.

The question of "representation" in the psychoanalytical and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Some theoretical aspects and therapy considerations.

This paper compares the cognitive-behavioral and psychoanalytical approaches with respect to the way in which each of them conceives of representation and deals with the issues that this involves. In both of them conscious and latent (unconscious) representations play a crucial role. Highlighting similarities and differences facilitate communication on a theoretical level but also prove helpful to the clinical practitioners involved. We try to put forward an attempt at comparison, with the idea of going beyond the - obviously important - differences in vocabulary. In this attempt at comparison, we have successively compared the definitions of representation and the respective therapeutic interventions proposed by each approach. There are no doubt many overlapping elements in the way in which the workings of the mind are conceived of in these approaches, particularly as regards their links with affects. We next developed the implications of representation deficits in pathology, suggesting the important role played by elements that are avoided, suppressed from memory or repressed, and with respect to the need to treat such material in a specific manner so as to ensure some progress as to the symptoms presented. We finally summarized common and distinct aspects of the two perspectives. The very fact that two approaches that follow very distinct methodologies reach the same conclusion concerning the importance of distortions and failures of representation in generating mental distress strengthens, in our view, the epistemological reliability of the role of representation in psychopathology.

The destiny of an unacknowledged trauma: the deferred retroactive effect of après-coup in the hidden Jewish children of wartime Belgium.

For almost 45 years, the experience of Jewish children who were hidden during World War II was considered to be of little importance, particularly with respect to what had taken place in the concentration camps. Their very history was ignored in the many accounts of the Holocaust. It was only at the end of the 1980s that their experience began to be thought of as potentially traumatic. In this paper, the authors report on their psychoanalytical research project concerning the psychological outcomes of those experiences that had remained concealed for such an extraordinarily long latency period. The results are based on the analysis of 60 accounts and on psychoanalytically-oriented group work. The authors show that the trauma experienced by those hidden children was triggered by the retroactive effect of a deferred action [après-coup].

[Pioneer times of psychoanalysis in Belgium: Julien (Johan) Varendonck]. / Pionierzeiten der Psychoanalyse in Belgien: Julien (Johan) Varendonck.

This article presents the life and work of Varendonck who attained some fame for his book on the psychology of day-dreams, became the first non-medical member of the Dutch psychoanalytic society but was criticized for his neglect of the actual unconscious.

The neural mechanisms of word order processing revisited: electrophysiological evidence from Japanese.

We present two ERP studies on the processing of word order variations in Japanese, a language that is suited to shedding further light on the implications of word order freedom for neurocognitive approaches to sentence comprehension. Experiment 1 used auditory presentation and revealed that initial accusative objects elicit increased processing costs in comparison to initial subjects (in the form of a transient negativity) only when followed by a prosodic boundary. A similar effect was observed using visual presentation in Experiment 2, however only for accusative but not for dative objects. These results support a relational account of word order processing, in which the costs of comprehending an object-initial word order are determined by the linearization properties of the initial object in relation to the linearization properties of possible upcoming arguments. In the absence of a prosodic boundary, the possibility for subject omission in Japanese renders it likely that the initial accusative is the only argument in the clause. Hence, no upcoming arguments are expected and no linearization problem can arise. A prosodic boundary or visual segmentation, by contrast, indicate an object-before-subject word order, thereby leading to a mismatch between argument "prominence" (e.g. in terms of thematic roles) and linear order. This mismatch is alleviated when the initial object is highly prominent itself (e.g. in the case of a dative, which can bear the higher-ranking thematic role in a two argument relation). We argue that the processing mechanism at work here can be distinguished from more general aspects of "dependency processing" in object-initial sentences.

From symbolic law to narrative capacity. A paradigm shift in psychoanalysis?

In the Freudian perspective, the primal phantasies, a reflection of prehistory, oblige us through our phylogenetic heritage and its repetition in the ontogenetic to recognize the limits of generation and sex, to submit to the symbolic law represented by the father of the primal horde and to find--as is sought in the treatment--one's "right" place in the primal scene (Oedipus complex). Clinical experience with patients suffering from narcissistic disorders soon led certain analysts to propose a paradigm change, which has brought about important modifications to technique, but also, more recently, modifications at the level of metapsychology. Certain contemporary analysts have a conception of the subject focused on processes of interaction and communication between "thinking apparatuses" in the here and now. The author shows that this current development is taking place in parallel with major trends in our postmodern era in which communication and negotiation replace former religious, mythical, philosophical, moral or political beliefs.

Extinction of conditioned inhibition through nonreinforced presentation of the inhibitor.

In previous studies that have tried to extinguish conditioned inhibition through nonreinforced presentations of the inhibitor, researchers have repeatedly failed to find evidence for such extinction. The present study revealed that extinction can be achieved through nonreinforcement of the inhibitor, depending on properties of the reinforcer. In a human causal learning experiment, we found complete extinction in a scenario in which the reinforcer could take on negative values. Thereby, this scenario reflected the assumed symmetrical continuum on which associative strength can vary, according to the Rescorla-Wagner theory of associative learning. In contrast to this, the inhibitory cue retained its inhibitory potential in another condition, in which the scenario did not allow negative values of the reinforcer.