Maggie Zellner - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Maggie Zellner

Neuro-psychoanalysis, Nov 21, 2022

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2011

Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—m... more Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—motivational, emotional, and cognitive processes that happen outside of awareness, yet influence our conscious experience and behavior—is finding increasing support in cognitive psychology and the neurosciences. Heather Berlin ably summarizes a wealth of findings indicating that our feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that are not perceived or attended to. Because these findings emerge from experimental work, in which conditions are controlled by the investigator, skeptics outside of psychodynamically friendly circles are now more likely to accept that unconscious processes must be taken into account. This is surely good for our field. However, because the nature of experimental work relies on external stimuli, presented under control of an investigator, we still have a long way to go toward understanding the neural nature of those aspects of the dynamic unconscious that arise from within the subject, including endogenous drive processes and an internal world of mental representations.

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2000

principal hypothesis, should therefore receive the most careful scrutiny. For this reason I am st... more principal hypothesis, should therefore receive the most careful scrutiny. For this reason I am struck by Macphail's somewhat cavalier dismissal of the one most direct challenge to his claim that lack of language capacities in animals prevents them from experiencing consciousness. The purported counterexamples come from studies attempting to assess animals' language abilities. What is perplexing about Macphail's critique is the case with which he introduces and then quickly dismisses recent animal language-learning studies in just 2lf2 pages. Compared to other studies he reviews, this dismissal is based on far more superficial criticisms, and he uncharacteristically ignores many important details and differences between these studies, including critical differences in learning contexts. But what about humans? Language turns out to be the critical factor. Without linguistically mediated knowledge, he argues, there can be no consciousness. Because he is able to explain other species' learning and behavioral abilities without needing to evoke consciousness, he considers it parsimonious to assume that it is not involved. Humans, however, are de facto assumed to be conscious, even though a similar analysis of human behaviors reported to have to be consciously produced by their actors could also be explained without invoking it. So this self-reporting ability is critical. Macphail speculates that the possession of some facility for discovering "aboutness" is the basis for language, and that this facility, along with other language capabilities, is lacking in other animals. It is this aboutness that constitutes the essence of consciousness. The logic of his argument becomes clear at this point: Language evolved in humans alone; unlike behaviors, sentences must be about something in particular; and being about something is the preeminent evidence for consciousness; therefore consciousness originated along with language in the human lineage alone. But if the linguistic capacity is central, then demonstrating competence for language is critical to the argument. Macphail argues that even a minimal ability to comprehend language should qualify. So any studies that purport to show even a modicum of this ability in animals and prelinguistic human infants is of central importance to his thesis. They deserve particularly cautious and detailed analysis. We are not offered this, however, nor any more sophisticated account of why humans alone should be capable of language other than the bald assertion (echoing the equally bald assertions of Noam Chomsky and Jerry Fodor) that language abilities are the result of some Book Reviews

Behavioural Pharmacology, Aug 1, 2011

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that environmental enrichment (EE) adminis... more The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that environmental enrichment (EE) administered to rats previously trained to self-administer cocaine would reduce responding in extinction and in a cocaine-context renewal test. Long-Evans male rats were trained to press an active lever reinforced by cocaine (1.0 mg/kg/injection) under a fixed-ratio 1 schedule of reinforcement (inactive lever presses produced no consequences). After stable responding was established, all rats were given a 10-day break from the operant chambers followed by random assignment to EE (larger cages equipped with visual and auditory stimuli) or control (standard housing) group conditions in which they lived for the remainder of the experiment. Ten days after this move, rats were exposed to 10 extinction-responding sessions in a context different from the one in which self-administration occurred, followed by a context-renewal session occurring in the original self-administration context. The EE group responded significantly less in both the extinction and context-renewal sessions compared with the control group. These results suggest that EE reduces the ability of cocaine-associated stimuli to control cocaine-related responding.

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2011

It’s always heartening to hear from the “kindred spirits” circling the planet, engaging in the ch... more It’s always heartening to hear from the “kindred spirits” circling the planet, engaging in the challenging but exciting work of bridging neuroscience and psychoanalysis. In this report we publish news from three continents and eight groups. We are especially encouraged to know that more of our colleagues are involved with empirical research and are publishing their findings, and we look forward to those reports increasing with each year.

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Apr 1, 2010

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Oct 1, 2011

The affective neuroscience approach advocated by Panksepp (1998) makes two key assumptions which ... more The affective neuroscience approach advocated by Panksepp (1998) makes two key assumptions which allow us to tackle important and difficult questions in psychology in novel and productive ways. These two assumptions are that, first, emotions evolved to do something specific in relation to biologically significant and

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2011

Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—m... more Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—motivational, emotional, and cognitive processes that happen outside of awareness, yet influence our conscious experience and behavior—is finding increasing support in cognitive psychology and the neurosciences. Heather Berlin ably summarizes a wealth of findings indicating that our feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that are not perceived or attended to. Because these findings emerge from experimental work, in which conditions are controlled by the investigator, skeptics outside of psychodynamically friendly circles are now more likely to accept that unconscious processes must be taken into account. This is surely good for our field. However, because the nature of experimental work relies on external stimuli, presented under control of an investigator, we still have a long way to go toward understanding the neural nature of those aspects of the dynamic unconscious that arise from within the subject, including endogenous drive processes and an internal world of mental representations.

Behavioural Brain Research, 2011

The mechanisms whereby reward-associated stimuli come to function as conditioned stimuli and acqu... more The mechanisms whereby reward-associated stimuli come to function as conditioned stimuli and acquire the capacity to activate the same neural regions activated by primary rewards (i.e., dopamine terminal regions) is not fully understood. We hypothesized that NMDA receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the acquisition by a CS to both produce conditioned approach and activate dopamine terminal regions. Rats were tested in a conditioned approach protocol that consisted of light stimulus-food conditioning sessions (30 randomly presented light stimulus-food pellet pairings), a session with no stimuli or food and 1 session with only light stimulus (CS-only) presentations. Food trough head entries during the CS and just prior to the CS were recorded and a CS/pre-CS ratio indicating the conditioned approach response was calculated. Brain tissue was harvested after the CS-only session and processed for c-fos expression in prefrontal cortex area 2, nucleus accumbens core and shell and medial and lateral caudate. When bilateral intra-VTA microinjections of AP-5 (0, 0.25 or 0.5 g) were made prior to each of the conditioning sessions the 0.5 g AP-5 dose prevented the acquisition of conditioned approach; when 0.5 g AP-5 injections were made prior to the CS-only test they failed to affect expression of the response. Also, 0.5 g AP-5 prior to conditioning significantly reduced c-fos expression in response to the CS in nucleus accumbens core. These results suggest that VTA NMDA receptor stimulation is necessary for both the acquisition of reward-related learning and acquisition by the CS to activate dopamine terminal regions.

Behavioural Brain Research, 2009

Mechanisms underlying reward-related learning presumably involve neural plasticity integrating si... more Mechanisms underlying reward-related learning presumably involve neural plasticity integrating signals representing unconditioned and conditioned stimuli in regions mediating reward. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) receives such signals and shows synaptic plasticity which is NMDA receptor-dependent. To test the hypothesis that NMDA receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the acquisition of foodreinforced appetitive learning, Long-Evans male rats were prepared with bilateral VTA cannulae and tested in operant chambers with the opportunity to lever press for food for 10 sessions. Animals received microinjections of AP-5 or vehicle immediately before sessions 1-4 and 10. AP-5 impaired acquisition of lever pressing during sessions 1-4 (but not when injected dorsal to the VTA). All groups increased lever pressing across sessions 5-9. On session 10, lever pressing was not affected regardless of treatment. In separate experiments, AP-5 failed to reduce free feeding, food reward or motor activity, suggesting that impairment in acquisition was not due to reduced food motivation or activity. NMDA transmission in the VTA thus appears to be necessary for the acquisition, but not expression, of reward-related learning.

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2012

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2021

The three Original Articles in the current issue represent widely divergent theoretical explorati... more The three Original Articles in the current issue represent widely divergent theoretical explorations. At the same time, they all concern themselves with the very nature of the disciplines of neuropsychoanalysis and psychoanalysis. It’s an unintentional special issue of sorts! Readers may discover some of their “unknown knowns” articulated in these papers: explicit statements of the underlying assumptions many of us have had, by ourselves, about the neuropsychoanalytic dialogue, which can now be placed on a more solid epistemological footing. You will also find some articulations of the philosophical or scientific perspectives agreed upon amongst ourselves. Most importantly, each paper brings up some new insights and questions about our rich interdisciplinary project. In “The Difference Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience,” Cadell Last provides a fresh, if somewhat mind-bending, discussion of a central problem in the integration of neuroscience findings into psychoanalysis. This ...

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2017

s” for readers who did not have a chance to attend our Congress, so they can see for themselves a... more s” for readers who did not have a chance to attend our Congress, so they can see for themselves all of the research presentations and symposia that were not covered in detail in the preceding Congress report. We hope this piece may also be helpful for attendees of the Congress who wish to be in touch with the clinicians and researchers who presented. The range of topics and methods, as well as the international representation, with colleagues from every continent on the planet except for Antarctica, is a testament to the continued growth of our interdisciplinary endeavors. Also in the “Society Proceedings” section is a paper that was invited following our 2017 Congress in Chicago, in which Dietmar Dietrich and Samer Schaat presented an intriguing project whose aim is © 2017 International Neuropsychoanalysis Society Neuropsychoanalysis, 2017 Vol. 19, No. 2, 123–125, https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2017.1384645 to specify the functional elements in a psychodynamic model of the mind, ...

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2020

This blockbuster issue of Neuropsychoanalysis is packed with examples of the theoretical generati... more This blockbuster issue of Neuropsychoanalysis is packed with examples of the theoretical generativity of neuropsychoanalysis, which may have far-reaching clinical consequences. A series of pieces in this issue provide stimulating food for thought, and fertile ground for new work. Our journal has a tradition of publishing Target Articles that stimulate the kind of interdisciplinary dialogue that is necessary for developing neuropsychoanalysis. Typically, an experienced researcher, clinician, or theoretician addresses a body of work, or specific clinical or research question, with great depth and breadth. The Target Article is then responded to by a group of expert commentators, followed by a response from the author. See, for example, the masterful Target Articles on the social origins of interoceptive inference by Katerina Fotopoulou and Manos Tsakiris (2017), an integrative model of autism spectrum disorder by William Singletary (2015), and evolutionary and developmental biology by...

Clinical Studies in Neuropsychoanalysis Revisited, 2021

Neuropsychoanalysis

The 18th congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society had a special session dedicate... more The 18th congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society had a special session dedicated to Jaak Panksepp's memory, which took place during the time that Jaak was scheduled to speak.

Neuropsychoanalysis

Summary of retrospective view by many contributors to the enterprise of bridging psychoanalysis a... more Summary of retrospective view by many contributors to the enterprise of bridging psychoanalysis and neuroscience.

Neuro-psychoanalysis, Nov 21, 2022

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2011

Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—m... more Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—motivational, emotional, and cognitive processes that happen outside of awareness, yet influence our conscious experience and behavior—is finding increasing support in cognitive psychology and the neurosciences. Heather Berlin ably summarizes a wealth of findings indicating that our feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that are not perceived or attended to. Because these findings emerge from experimental work, in which conditions are controlled by the investigator, skeptics outside of psychodynamically friendly circles are now more likely to accept that unconscious processes must be taken into account. This is surely good for our field. However, because the nature of experimental work relies on external stimuli, presented under control of an investigator, we still have a long way to go toward understanding the neural nature of those aspects of the dynamic unconscious that arise from within the subject, including endogenous drive processes and an internal world of mental representations.

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2000

principal hypothesis, should therefore receive the most careful scrutiny. For this reason I am st... more principal hypothesis, should therefore receive the most careful scrutiny. For this reason I am struck by Macphail's somewhat cavalier dismissal of the one most direct challenge to his claim that lack of language capacities in animals prevents them from experiencing consciousness. The purported counterexamples come from studies attempting to assess animals' language abilities. What is perplexing about Macphail's critique is the case with which he introduces and then quickly dismisses recent animal language-learning studies in just 2lf2 pages. Compared to other studies he reviews, this dismissal is based on far more superficial criticisms, and he uncharacteristically ignores many important details and differences between these studies, including critical differences in learning contexts. But what about humans? Language turns out to be the critical factor. Without linguistically mediated knowledge, he argues, there can be no consciousness. Because he is able to explain other species' learning and behavioral abilities without needing to evoke consciousness, he considers it parsimonious to assume that it is not involved. Humans, however, are de facto assumed to be conscious, even though a similar analysis of human behaviors reported to have to be consciously produced by their actors could also be explained without invoking it. So this self-reporting ability is critical. Macphail speculates that the possession of some facility for discovering "aboutness" is the basis for language, and that this facility, along with other language capabilities, is lacking in other animals. It is this aboutness that constitutes the essence of consciousness. The logic of his argument becomes clear at this point: Language evolved in humans alone; unlike behaviors, sentences must be about something in particular; and being about something is the preeminent evidence for consciousness; therefore consciousness originated along with language in the human lineage alone. But if the linguistic capacity is central, then demonstrating competence for language is critical to the argument. Macphail argues that even a minimal ability to comprehend language should qualify. So any studies that purport to show even a modicum of this ability in animals and prelinguistic human infants is of central importance to his thesis. They deserve particularly cautious and detailed analysis. We are not offered this, however, nor any more sophisticated account of why humans alone should be capable of language other than the bald assertion (echoing the equally bald assertions of Noam Chomsky and Jerry Fodor) that language abilities are the result of some Book Reviews

Behavioural Pharmacology, Aug 1, 2011

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that environmental enrichment (EE) adminis... more The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that environmental enrichment (EE) administered to rats previously trained to self-administer cocaine would reduce responding in extinction and in a cocaine-context renewal test. Long-Evans male rats were trained to press an active lever reinforced by cocaine (1.0 mg/kg/injection) under a fixed-ratio 1 schedule of reinforcement (inactive lever presses produced no consequences). After stable responding was established, all rats were given a 10-day break from the operant chambers followed by random assignment to EE (larger cages equipped with visual and auditory stimuli) or control (standard housing) group conditions in which they lived for the remainder of the experiment. Ten days after this move, rats were exposed to 10 extinction-responding sessions in a context different from the one in which self-administration occurred, followed by a context-renewal session occurring in the original self-administration context. The EE group responded significantly less in both the extinction and context-renewal sessions compared with the control group. These results suggest that EE reduces the ability of cocaine-associated stimuli to control cocaine-related responding.

Neuro-psychoanalysis, 2011

It’s always heartening to hear from the “kindred spirits” circling the planet, engaging in the ch... more It’s always heartening to hear from the “kindred spirits” circling the planet, engaging in the challenging but exciting work of bridging neuroscience and psychoanalysis. In this report we publish news from three continents and eight groups. We are especially encouraged to know that more of our colleagues are involved with empirical research and are publishing their findings, and we look forward to those reports increasing with each year.

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Apr 1, 2010

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Oct 1, 2011

The affective neuroscience approach advocated by Panksepp (1998) makes two key assumptions which ... more The affective neuroscience approach advocated by Panksepp (1998) makes two key assumptions which allow us to tackle important and difficult questions in psychology in novel and productive ways. These two assumptions are that, first, emotions evolved to do something specific in relation to biologically significant and

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2011

Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—m... more Psychoanalytically minded thinkers can feel optimistic that our belief in a dynamic unconscious—motivational, emotional, and cognitive processes that happen outside of awareness, yet influence our conscious experience and behavior—is finding increasing support in cognitive psychology and the neurosciences. Heather Berlin ably summarizes a wealth of findings indicating that our feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that are not perceived or attended to. Because these findings emerge from experimental work, in which conditions are controlled by the investigator, skeptics outside of psychodynamically friendly circles are now more likely to accept that unconscious processes must be taken into account. This is surely good for our field. However, because the nature of experimental work relies on external stimuli, presented under control of an investigator, we still have a long way to go toward understanding the neural nature of those aspects of the dynamic unconscious that arise from within the subject, including endogenous drive processes and an internal world of mental representations.

Behavioural Brain Research, 2011

The mechanisms whereby reward-associated stimuli come to function as conditioned stimuli and acqu... more The mechanisms whereby reward-associated stimuli come to function as conditioned stimuli and acquire the capacity to activate the same neural regions activated by primary rewards (i.e., dopamine terminal regions) is not fully understood. We hypothesized that NMDA receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the acquisition by a CS to both produce conditioned approach and activate dopamine terminal regions. Rats were tested in a conditioned approach protocol that consisted of light stimulus-food conditioning sessions (30 randomly presented light stimulus-food pellet pairings), a session with no stimuli or food and 1 session with only light stimulus (CS-only) presentations. Food trough head entries during the CS and just prior to the CS were recorded and a CS/pre-CS ratio indicating the conditioned approach response was calculated. Brain tissue was harvested after the CS-only session and processed for c-fos expression in prefrontal cortex area 2, nucleus accumbens core and shell and medial and lateral caudate. When bilateral intra-VTA microinjections of AP-5 (0, 0.25 or 0.5 g) were made prior to each of the conditioning sessions the 0.5 g AP-5 dose prevented the acquisition of conditioned approach; when 0.5 g AP-5 injections were made prior to the CS-only test they failed to affect expression of the response. Also, 0.5 g AP-5 prior to conditioning significantly reduced c-fos expression in response to the CS in nucleus accumbens core. These results suggest that VTA NMDA receptor stimulation is necessary for both the acquisition of reward-related learning and acquisition by the CS to activate dopamine terminal regions.

Behavioural Brain Research, 2009

Mechanisms underlying reward-related learning presumably involve neural plasticity integrating si... more Mechanisms underlying reward-related learning presumably involve neural plasticity integrating signals representing unconditioned and conditioned stimuli in regions mediating reward. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) receives such signals and shows synaptic plasticity which is NMDA receptor-dependent. To test the hypothesis that NMDA receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the acquisition of foodreinforced appetitive learning, Long-Evans male rats were prepared with bilateral VTA cannulae and tested in operant chambers with the opportunity to lever press for food for 10 sessions. Animals received microinjections of AP-5 or vehicle immediately before sessions 1-4 and 10. AP-5 impaired acquisition of lever pressing during sessions 1-4 (but not when injected dorsal to the VTA). All groups increased lever pressing across sessions 5-9. On session 10, lever pressing was not affected regardless of treatment. In separate experiments, AP-5 failed to reduce free feeding, food reward or motor activity, suggesting that impairment in acquisition was not due to reduced food motivation or activity. NMDA transmission in the VTA thus appears to be necessary for the acquisition, but not expression, of reward-related learning.

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2012

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2021

The three Original Articles in the current issue represent widely divergent theoretical explorati... more The three Original Articles in the current issue represent widely divergent theoretical explorations. At the same time, they all concern themselves with the very nature of the disciplines of neuropsychoanalysis and psychoanalysis. It’s an unintentional special issue of sorts! Readers may discover some of their “unknown knowns” articulated in these papers: explicit statements of the underlying assumptions many of us have had, by ourselves, about the neuropsychoanalytic dialogue, which can now be placed on a more solid epistemological footing. You will also find some articulations of the philosophical or scientific perspectives agreed upon amongst ourselves. Most importantly, each paper brings up some new insights and questions about our rich interdisciplinary project. In “The Difference Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience,” Cadell Last provides a fresh, if somewhat mind-bending, discussion of a central problem in the integration of neuroscience findings into psychoanalysis. This ...

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2017

s” for readers who did not have a chance to attend our Congress, so they can see for themselves a... more s” for readers who did not have a chance to attend our Congress, so they can see for themselves all of the research presentations and symposia that were not covered in detail in the preceding Congress report. We hope this piece may also be helpful for attendees of the Congress who wish to be in touch with the clinicians and researchers who presented. The range of topics and methods, as well as the international representation, with colleagues from every continent on the planet except for Antarctica, is a testament to the continued growth of our interdisciplinary endeavors. Also in the “Society Proceedings” section is a paper that was invited following our 2017 Congress in Chicago, in which Dietmar Dietrich and Samer Schaat presented an intriguing project whose aim is © 2017 International Neuropsychoanalysis Society Neuropsychoanalysis, 2017 Vol. 19, No. 2, 123–125, https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2017.1384645 to specify the functional elements in a psychodynamic model of the mind, ...

Neuropsychoanalysis, 2020

This blockbuster issue of Neuropsychoanalysis is packed with examples of the theoretical generati... more This blockbuster issue of Neuropsychoanalysis is packed with examples of the theoretical generativity of neuropsychoanalysis, which may have far-reaching clinical consequences. A series of pieces in this issue provide stimulating food for thought, and fertile ground for new work. Our journal has a tradition of publishing Target Articles that stimulate the kind of interdisciplinary dialogue that is necessary for developing neuropsychoanalysis. Typically, an experienced researcher, clinician, or theoretician addresses a body of work, or specific clinical or research question, with great depth and breadth. The Target Article is then responded to by a group of expert commentators, followed by a response from the author. See, for example, the masterful Target Articles on the social origins of interoceptive inference by Katerina Fotopoulou and Manos Tsakiris (2017), an integrative model of autism spectrum disorder by William Singletary (2015), and evolutionary and developmental biology by...

Clinical Studies in Neuropsychoanalysis Revisited, 2021

Neuropsychoanalysis

The 18th congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society had a special session dedicate... more The 18th congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society had a special session dedicated to Jaak Panksepp's memory, which took place during the time that Jaak was scheduled to speak.

Neuropsychoanalysis

Summary of retrospective view by many contributors to the enterprise of bridging psychoanalysis a... more Summary of retrospective view by many contributors to the enterprise of bridging psychoanalysis and neuroscience.