Adaptive Information Processing and a Systemic Biopsychosocial Model

Information Processing Models and Systems

A communication theory perspective on memory and psychopathology was speculated by the American mathematician Norbert Wiener (1948). The founder of “cybernetics,” Wiener considered the role that information plays in both machines and natural systems. He noted that psychopathology was likely caused by the functional impairments resulting from structural problems in the nervous system. He conjectured that the challenge for the treatment of psychopathology would be to surmount the fact that unlike with machines, memory in humans becomes permanent throughout the “systems” life and therefore the system cannot be “reset.” He observed that clinical applications of a model focused on memory and psychopathology at the time of his writing included frontal lobotomies (to remove the memory physically) and electroshock therapy (to jar the circuits into new patterns of firing). Such linear interventions seem to belie the model they were built on. Cybernetics brought to light the causal properties related to information processing and feedback mechanisms that do not rely on forces alone to determine the course of the system.

Central to the discourse of information processing models is defining the system and determining its boundaries. The author’s experience in the clinical application of EMDR and systemic family therapy is the basis and main inspiration for broadening the boundaries to include psychological and social components.

The biopsychosocial AIP model is conceptualized as a “nearly decomposable system” (Simon, as cited in Juarrero, 1999) which means that each level maintains a distinct separation from the next while all are connected via feedback loops. It can also be considered a “hierarchical dynamic system” where top levels constrain the lower (Juarrero). These attributes of complex systems contribute to the proposed causal relationship between higher (personal and interpersonal) and lower (subpersonal) levels.

The physical flow of information between component parts makes the biopsychosocial AIP system an “informational system” (Juarrero, 1999). Seen from this perspective, the pathogenic nature of disturbing life experiences lies in their capacity to disrupt communication and representation at any level. Information flowing within and between levels makes the system “vulnerable to noise and sensitive to context” (Juarrero, p. 114). The open and relatively unequivocal exchange of information between and within levels of biopsychosocial AIP enhances the accumulation of past states of adaptive actions that have lead to mutually beneficial outcomes for person and environment. System complexity is seen as enhanced behavioral flexibility.

The author suggests that there is ample evidence in the literature on EMDR, trauma, philosophy of mind, and attachment to build a model of such a system. In EMDR, the AIP system is thought to allow for links to neural networks that promote life-preserving responses to stress that become integrated into an adaptive emotional and cognitive schema (Shapiro, 2001). The incorporation of adaptively processed memories into a positive schema of the self/world is thought to be an outcome of effective EMDR in addition to the amelioration of PTSD symptoms (Shapiro, 2001). Thus, the survival value of using social engagement to deal with stress (Porges, as cited in Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006) amplifies the salience of having sophisticated resources for social cognition in coping responses to disturbing life experiences.

A biopsychosocial AIP model provides explanatory strength to EMDR case conceptualization and treatment planning by including the social context of the client, the therapist, and the therapy. The location of the information processing system within and without the client assists in conceptualizing relevant relational aspects of psychotherapy as well as the social environment within which treatment takes place. Such a model may be able to systematically account for many of the various factors thought to be involved in successful psychotherapy as described by Norcross (2007). As with the behavior of all complex natural systems, treatment response is understood in retrospect (Juarrero, 1999) with a caution against definitive prediction, instead favoring probabilistic assertions prone to change as this multilevel complex informational system organizes and reorganizes (Juarrero). Each client’s story provides the necessary context for treatment planning while chance “natural occurrences” may also play a critical role in treatment outcome. Expanding the scope of the AIP system emphasizes the critical role that the availability of adaptive information within the system at large plays in the efficacy of EMDR treatment.

Internal Working Models of Self

Empirical evidence for a biopsychosocial AIP system is found in the role that memory appears to play in behavioral integration and social cognition. The construction of internal working models of self (IWMs; Bowlby, 1969) organized to control behavior involves autobiographical memory and personal and social information processing. For humans, the internalization of our social history involves the brain, the mind, and the relationships (Panksepp, 1998; Siegel, 1999). The development of autobiographical memory systems gave humans the capacity to retrieve past states and bring them forward in time. The resulting “autonoetic consciousness” (Tulving, 2000) or “extended consciousness” (Damasio, 1999) allows us to experience ourselves in time. We can direct attention to past, present, and anticipated future states and mentally simulate possible selves and possible worlds as well as possible relationships between them (Metzinger, 2003). Of particular importance to AIP is the internalization of examples of communicating with caregivers and constructing adaptive stories of how to deal with stressful situations encountered across all behavioral systems.

In other words, IWMs constrain the attention and behavior of both caregiver and child. The capacity for intrapersonal attunement (Siegel, 2007) of the caregiver and interpersonal attunement with the child is “passed down.” The child can then establish the capacity to form an open personal and interpersonal communication channel, relatively free from “noise”; this facilitates the entrainment of adaptive memory useful for the maintenance of the self/world boundary that will be necessary to integrate disturbing life experiences in the future.

The author proposes that these early relationships with caregivers can be understood as “context-sensitive constraints” (Juarrero, 1999) that have causal properties that structure the experiences of the child, thus making some outcomes more likely than others. These outcomes include integration of memory into a healthy IWM or segregation of memory into disintegrated IWMs (Liotti, 2006).

When unconscious IWMs underlie a healthy self-concept, they can be consciously invoked to further shape the more fixed subpersonal patterns of behavior and to promote self-regulation and behavioral coherence. When an IWM supports “mutual feedback” (Juarrero, 1999) between the internal model, somatosensory systems, and other people, intrapersonal and interpersonal attunement is effective, and the individual learns appropriate self-regulation and behavioral integration that is coherent with their social environment.

Possible Mechanisms of Action in EMDR

Based on clinical experience, Shapiro (2001) has attributed neurophysiological mechanisms of action to the AIP model. Most research on EMDR’s mechanisms of action has investigated the biological and psychological elements involved in procedural steps (e.g., eye movements) related to the resolution of traumatic memory (Maxfield, 2008). Various related theories have been proposed. These include the role of working memory in memory desensitization (e.g., Maxfield, Melnyk, & Hyman, 2008) and interhemispheric integration enhancing memory recall (e.g., Propper & Christman, 2008). Neurobiological hypotheses have been advanced, for example, Bergmann (2008) hypothesized that alternating bilateral stimulation stimulates and repairs thalamic activity and fosters neurobiological integration.

Mechanisms of Action From Information Processing Perspectives

Information processing models that are seen as relevant to Shapiro’s (2001) AIP model include the transfer-appropriate processing model, the cortical reinstatement model, the parallel distributed/connectionistic model, and the thalamocortical-temporal binding model (EMDR International Association, 2009). The transfer-appropriate processing model considers the conditions present at the time of encoding and retrieval relevant to the encoding of memory and that memory performance is enhanced when recollection occurs in the context within which the content was encoded (Tulving, 2000). The cortical reinstatement model suggests that the neurological correlates of episodic memory retrieval differ according to the type of information contained in the recollected episode. The retrieval of a particular type of memory content will “reinstate” the mental state present at the time of encoding (Johnson & Rugg, 2007). The parallel distributed processing (PDP) model describes the representation of information as distributed throughout the brain; memory and knowledge are not stored explicitly but between many “units,” and learning can occur with gradual changes in connection strength with experience (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986). The PDP model stresses that many units process information through sending and receiving excitatory and inhibitory signals in a particular environment that promotes such communication between units (Rumelhart & McClelland). Finally, the thalamocortical-temporal binding model posits that an integrative hippocampal formation process links together various neuronal assemblies established at the time an event was perceived via the 40-Hz gamma band activity of the thalamus (Bergmann, 2008).

To understand how EMDR facilitates AIP, a synthesis of observations related to the interaction of neurobiological and psychological levels of processing provides the clearest picture. AIP seems to facilitate communication in such a way that autobiographical memory can be adaptively represented and integrated. Structures involving basic components of a communication system including a channel, distributed data structures (sources of information), and an optimal environment for the transmission and representation of information seem salient to AIP. The biopsychosocial model suggests such structures exist on personal and interpersonal levels as well and have a causal relationship to each level and ultimately on the resolution of disturbing life experiences in EMDR treatment.

A Historical, Contextual, and Temporal Biopsychosocial AIP System

Dynamical systems theory as applied to complex living systems can help the EMDR clinician and researcher understand how psychological and social processes can be causally related to AIP. To this end, the author has reviewed some relevant concepts to begin the integration of dynamical systems theory with AIP.

Memory and Moving Around in Time and Space

Establishing Reliable Biopsychosocial Communication

The Subjectivity of Information Processing

Shannon’s (1948) information theory suggests that the extent to which a receiver has narrowed down a broad range of possible values for a stimulus is the extent to which the receiver has had an “informative experience” (Gallistel & King, 2009, p. 6). This situation highlights the subjective nature of information. The availability of possible states of self and world in autobiographical memory allows one to distinguish between potentially infinite amounts of online sensory input. This makes the accumulation of memory important not only for constructing adaptive mental models that promote attunement but also for fine-tuned perception of differentiated states of self and world.

A dynamic model of self that allows for an ever expanding IWM will therefore increase a client’s capacity for accurate simulations of reality. Likewise, an expansive and expanding IWM of the clinician is also valuable. From an information theoretical perspective, the clinician’s prior knowledge of the client’s biopsychosocial state increases the probability that client’s messages will be information-bearing messages. A clinician will be unable to assist the client in distinguishing the meaning of his or her various state to his or her biopsychosocial situation if the clinician has no prior awareness that a given possible state of the world might exist.

Representational Structures That Structure the AIP System

Safety, Responsibility, and Choices: Meaning Structures of a Biopsychosocial AIP System

The “engine” of a biopsychosocial AIP system is those structures that promote the relatively unequivocal transmission of messages on both the sending and receiving end. The author believes that the EMDR tradition has identified a triad of phenomenal content found in IWMs that aids in structuring the biopsychosocial AIP system. Positive cognitions related to safety, responsibility, and choice have long been documented in the EMDR literature (Shapiro, 2001) as emergent phenomenal content indicative of the presence of adaptively processed autobiographical memory. In their negative form, they indicate the presence of unprocessed memory. For example, the negative cognitions associated with targeted memories in EMDR have been distilled down to “I’m not safe,” “I’m to blame,” and/or “I’m helpless.” It is postulated that the inability to incorporate an experience into a healthy self-concept seems to be related processes associated with threat to life, experiencing toxic shame, and/or feeling trapped. All of these experiences make the individual vulnerable to affect dysregulation and distortions of time, place, and person.

Fear, shame, and rage are innate stimulus bound affective responses to such situations (Panksepp, 1998). Extreme levels of these emotions can inhibit information processing in the moment on the subpersonal, personal, and interpersonal levels (e.g., the role of shame in dissociative responses). Examples from psychotherapy of how a lack of safety, undue responsibility, and/or lack of choice affect communication, and therefore, adaptive representations of experience that facilitate information processing have been described by Dworkin (2005). Fear, shame, and helplessness can emerge as a result of intersubjective interactions during psychotherapy and can stifle AIP. When the EMDR therapist pays attention to these emotional states in the client and facilitates a return to a state of “co-regulation,” AIP can resume. Dworkin has suggested that repairing the rupture of such states is imperative to successful EMDR treatment.

The author supports Dworkin’s (2005) assertion and hypothesizes that when such a rupture is interpersonally processed in a session as described in the “relational interweave” (p. 39) intervention, the biopsychosocial AIP system itself is strengthened. In other words, the actual relationship and the updated IWMs structure the bio-psychosocial AIP system and are thought to be causally related to the adaptive resolution of the target memory network. When therapist and client create a context within which it is acceptable to feel safe and focus on the target experience/memory, acceptable to own the experience/memory, and acceptable to use the experience/memory for current and future simulations, AIP is strengthened.

“Optimal” Internal Working Models and a Healthy Self-Concept

Self-directed attunement and introspection depend on the individual’s ability to direct his own attention. This capacity is called attentional agency (Juarrero, 1999; Metzinger, 2009). IWMs containing a robust set of prior probabilities suggesting that the individual is safe, can own experiences, and has more choice will support the regulation of fear, shame, and rage allowing for attentional agency and ongoing communication and representation of what is happening. The author hypothesizes that “optimal internal working models of self and world” promote a feeling of safety by allowing the individual to own the disturbing experience and to problem solve how to represent and remedy it, in a manner that benefits self and environment. In other words, this process is accomplished in part through the maintenance of a self/world boundary. The specific self-conceptual triad related to safety, responsibility, and choices would be considered linguistic representations of such models hypothesized to be prevalent among individuals with a secure/autonomous attachment status.

Goals of the Biopsychosocial AIP System

The use of both fixed action patterns and learned behaviors is prevalent among more complex species (Murphy & Brown, 2007). Behavioral flexibility is maximized via optimal IWMs. Bowlby’s (1969) “environment of evolutionary adaptedness” describes the emergence of innate “stimulus bound” unreflective behaviors shaped by evolution that prepare an organism for life in a specific setting. There are also characteristic behavioral responses genetically encoded within the central nervous system of humans and other mammals related to the absence of certain environmental stimuli that are salient to survival (Bowlby, 1969; Panksepp, 1998). The author believes that an attuned interpersonal relationship is the environment to which an infant’s fixed patterns of attachment behavior are designed to anticipate and respond. Furthermore, the guarantee that the infant will consistently seek and find attunement is hypothesized to be found in the capacity to develop IWMs that selectively entrain attention and memories that maximize attunement. Thereby ensuring attentional agency and adaptive behavioral integration will occur via the construction of accurate representations of self and world.

How a Biopsychosocial AIP System Is Organized and Maintained

The author hypothesizes that the presence of attunement in the environment acts as the initial condition that an AIP system organizes around. Furthermore, IWMs can be seen as data structures containing information useful to depict what dynamic systems theorists call attractors. An attractor is an abstract shape that delineates the state space over time within which any given system resides (Juarrero, 1999, p. 152; Murphy & Brown, 2007, pp. 75–76). They represent the multitude of context-sensitive constraints that endure and influence the probability that a system will behave with predictable patterns (Juarrero). An attractor also represents the space a system will return to if perturbed outside of its typical pattern of behavior. For instance, the conceptualization of human behavior as resulting from a system’s predictable trajectory through state space has been used by Putnam (1997) to describe dissociative disorders.

The author believes that IWMs act as attractors that shape an individual’s trajectory toward the development of an AIP system. In addition, the establishment of a biopsychosocial AIP system may be the apex of the attachment system in a secure autonomous individual. He has found the conceptualization of IWMs as data structures containing information useful in describing salient attractors of a biopsychosocial AIP system as a useful diagnostic tool in determining the overall tendency for an individual to respond with attunement in any given stressful situation. By extension, the assessment of the capacity for intrapersonal and interpersonal attunement has also been useful in the author’s clinical work to assess the robustness of the biopsychosocial AIP system itself.

Discussion

A phylogenetic perspective of AIP suggests that emergent properties of a complex natural system that uses its history to promote behavioral flexibility are causally related to adaptive processing of autobiographical memory. The author presents the theoretical perspective of a biopsychosocial AIP system to capture the way that personal and interpersonal processes (mental and social states) may be causally related to the adaptive resolution of disturbing life experience. In particular, advances in the understanding of complex natural systems and their capacity for subjectivity and intentional actions have offered important insights that can be integrated with the existing neurophysiological model of AIP.

In addition, current trends in EMDR have focused on relational aspects of AIP (Dworkin, 2005; Dworkin & Errebo, 2010) as clinicians and researchers adapt the protocol to treat more complex psychiatric conditions. These adaptations have often led to the integration of EMDR and attachment theory. This article has moved the discussion from the clinical integration of EMDR and attachment theory to the theoretical integration of the two. Focusing merely on traumatic memory in a linear fashion as if it were a “germ” that “causes like a force,” betrays the deeper understandings of how disturbing life experiences and the state of a biopsychosocial AIP system relate to one another in determining the trajectory of psychopathology where memory is concerned.

What happens when an infant develops in an environment where attunement is not prevalent or possible? Informational closure (Juarrero, 1999) describes the tenacity with which a system maintains its integrity despite exchanges with the environment. The author suggests that a systemic understanding of AIP is necessary to avoid clinical errors and frustration in the therapeutic alliance when an individual does not have the capacity for attentional agency required to process disturbing experiences with EMDR. The biopsychosocial AIP model offers methodological insights derived from considering the dynamics of such a system. Space limitations of this article and its focus on theory require a follow-up paper to adequately address these insights.

One insight is the value of the model in identifying the extent to which a client is embedded in an AIP system. If adaptively processed memories function within a system to bring information forward in time, to optimize the simulation and actualization of behaviors that maximize the fit among an individual and his or her environment, then the use of such adaptive memories ought to be inferred from coherent behavioral functioning. Likewise, the absence of adaptive processing ought to be inferred from disorganized behavioral repertoires. It would also be sound to consider that the more AIP “like” a system is, the “more conscious” the individual will be and the more he or she will behave more “intentionally.”

The biopsychosocial AIP model can enhance treatment planning in the following ways: The client’s maladaptive attractors can be described and identified by the range of negative cognitions and affects associated with recent triggers and past touchstone memories. These representations of IWMs can be plotted on a chart with a corresponding differential list of associated reflexive behaviors targeted for change. Such an exploration will yield the generic elements of situations likely to move the system into the closed state. Because behaviors of complex natural systems are multiply realizable, this approach to treatment planning can assist in making sense of how the array of maladaptive behaviors in the client profile are organized around specific self/world interactions. A list of adaptive self-representations and reflective actions tailored to specific client situations can also be identified early in treatment to highlight where skill building needs to take place as updates to IWMs are made.

Finally, the author believes that a biopsychosocial model supports the long-held adage of Francine Shapiro, (2009) that EMDR begins when the client walks in the door. Beginning with step one in the protocol, the pair construct macro representations of memory networks by maintaining biopsychosocial attunement and recording information related to areas of inhibition to growth. These representations, whether verbal or written, guide the pair’s attention. The use of the EMDR self-report scales and body scans also constrain the personal and subpersonal levels of the client. In fact, the personal and subpersonal experiences of the therapist become constrained as well, and if there is minimal noise interfering with the therapist’s intrapersonal attunement, the dyad will maintain a state of coregulation necessary for AIP. The author hypothesizes that these are examples of how interpersonal AIP is an emergent property of the biopsychosocial AIP system.