Psychosis as a disorder of muscarinic signalling: psychopathology and pharmacology.

Dopaminergic receptor antagonism is a crucial component of all licensed treatments for psychosis, and dopamine dysfunction has been central to pathophysiological models of psychotic symptoms. Some clinical trials, however, indicate that drugs that act through muscarinic receptor agonism can also be effective in treating psychosis, potentially implicating muscarinic abnormalities in the pathophysiology of psychosis. Here, we discuss understanding of the central muscarinic system, and we examine preclinical, behavioural, post-mortem, and neuroimaging evidence for its involvement in psychosis. We then consider how altered muscarinic signalling could contribute to the genesis and maintenance of psychotic symptoms, and we review the clinical evidence for muscarinic agents as treatments. Finally, we discuss future research that could clarify the relationship between the muscarinic system and psychotic symptoms.

Quantifying decision-making in dynamic, continuously evolving environments.

During perceptual decision-making tasks, centroparietal electroencephalographic (EEG) potentials report an evidence accumulation-to-bound process that is time locked to trial onset. However, decisions in real-world environments are rarely confined to discrete trials; they instead unfold continuously, with accumulation of time-varying evidence being recency-weighted towards its immediate past. The neural mechanisms supporting recency-weighted continuous decision-making remain unclear. Here, we use a novel continuous task design to study how the centroparietal positivity (CPP) adapts to different environments that place different constraints on evidence accumulation. We show that adaptations in evidence weighting to these different environments are reflected in changes in the CPP. The CPP becomes more sensitive to fluctuations in sensory evidence when large shifts in evidence are less frequent, and the potential is primarily sensitive to fluctuations in decision-relevant (not decision-irrelevant) sensory input. A complementary triphasic component over occipito-parietal cortex encodes the sum of recently accumulated sensory evidence, and its magnitude covaries with parameters describing how different individuals integrate sensory evidence over time. A computational model based on leaky evidence accumulation suggests that these findings can be accounted for by a shift in decision threshold between different environments, which is also reflected in the magnitude of pre-decision EEG activity. Our findings reveal how adaptations in EEG responses reflect flexibility in evidence accumulation to the statistics of dynamic sensory environments.

Subanaesthetic doses of ketamine reduce but do not eliminate predictive coding responses: implications for mechanisms of sensory disconnection.

BACKGROUND: Sensory disconnection is a key feature of sleep and anaesthesia. We have proposed that predictive coding offers a framework for understanding the mechanisms of disconnection. Low doses of ketamine that do not induce disconnection should thus diminish predictive coding, but not abolish it. METHODS: Ketamine was administered to 14 participants up to a blood concentration of 0.3 µg ml-1 Participants were played a series of tones comprising a roving oddball sequence while electroencephalography evoked response potentials were recorded. We fit a Bayesian observer model to the tone sequence, correlating neural activity with the prediction errors generated by the model using linear mixed effects models and cluster-based statistics. RESULTS: Ketamine modulated prediction errors associated with the transition of one tone to the next (transitional probability), but not how often tones changed (environmental volatility), of the system. Transitional probability was reduced when blood concentrations of ketamine were increased to 0.2-0.3 µg ml-1 (96-208 ms, P=0.003); however, correlates of prediction error were still evident in the electroencephalogram (124-168 ms, P=0.003). Prediction errors related to environmental volatility were associated with electroencephalographic activity before ketamine (224-284 ms, P=0.028) and during 0.2-0.3 µg ml-1 ketamine (108-248 ms, P=0.003). At this subanaesthetic dose, ketamine did not exert a dose-dependent modulation of prediction error. CONCLUSIONS: Subanaesthetic dosing of ketamine reduced correlates of predictive coding but did not eliminate them. Future studies should evaluate whether states of sensory disconnection, including anaesthetic doses of ketamine, are associated with a complete absence of predictive coding responses. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03284307.

Auditory mismatch responses are differentially sensitive to changes in muscarinic acetylcholine versus dopamine receptor function.

The auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) has been proposed as a biomarker of NMDA receptor (NMDAR) dysfunction in schizophrenia. Such dysfunction may be caused by aberrant interactions of different neuromodulators with NMDARs, which could explain clinical heterogeneity among patients. In two studies (N = 81 each), we used a double-blind placebo-controlled between-subject design to systematically test whether auditory mismatch responses under varying levels of environmental stability are sensitive to diminishing and enhancing cholinergic vs. dopaminergic function. We found a significant drug × mismatch interaction: while the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist biperiden delayed and topographically shifted mismatch responses, particularly during high stability, this effect could not be detected for amisulpride, a dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist. Neither galantamine nor levodopa, which elevate acetylcholine and dopamine levels, respectively, exerted significant effects on MMN. This differential MMN sensitivity to muscarinic versus dopaminergic receptor function may prove useful for developing tests that predict individual treatment responses in schizophrenia.

A Developmental Framework for Embodiment Research: The Next Step Toward Integrating Concepts and Methods.

Embodiment research is at a turning point. There is an increasing amount of data and studies investigating embodiment phenomena and their role in mental processing and functions from across a wide range of disciplines and theoretical schools within the life sciences. However, the integration of behavioral data with data from different biological levels is challenging for the involved research fields such as movement psychology, social and developmental neuroscience, computational psychosomatics, social and behavioral epigenetics, human-centered robotics, and many more. This highlights the need for an interdisciplinary framework of embodiment research. In addition, there is a growing need for a cross-disciplinary consensus on level-specific criteria of embodiment. We propose that a developmental perspective on embodiment is able to provide a framework for overcoming such pressing issues, providing analytical tools to link timescales and levels of embodiment specific to the function under study, uncovering the underlying developmental processes, clarifying level-specific embodiment criteria, and providing a matrix and platform to bridge disciplinary boundaries among the involved research fields.

TAPAS: An Open-Source Software Package for Translational Neuromodeling and Computational Psychiatry.

Psychiatry faces fundamental challenges with regard to mechanistically guided differential diagnosis, as well as prediction of clinical trajectories and treatment response of individual patients. This has motivated the genesis of two closely intertwined fields: (i) Translational Neuromodeling (TN), which develops "computational assays" for inferring patient-specific disease processes from neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and behavioral data; and (ii) Computational Psychiatry (CP), with the goal of incorporating computational assays into clinical decision making in everyday practice. In order to serve as objective and reliable tools for clinical routine, computational assays require end-to-end pipelines from raw data (input) to clinically useful information (output). While these are yet to be established in clinical practice, individual components of this general end-to-end pipeline are being developed and made openly available for community use. In this paper, we present the Translational Algorithms for Psychiatry-Advancing Science (TAPAS) software package, an open-source collection of building blocks for computational assays in psychiatry. Collectively, the tools in TAPAS presently cover several important aspects of the desired end-to-end pipeline, including: (i) tailored experimental designs and optimization of measurement strategy prior to data acquisition, (ii) quality control during data acquisition, and (iii) artifact correction, statistical inference, and clinical application after data acquisition. Here, we review the different tools within TAPAS and illustrate how these may help provide a deeper understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms of disease, with the ultimate goal of establishing automatized pipelines for predictions about individual patients. We hope that the openly available tools in TAPAS will contribute to the further development of TN/CP and facilitate the translation of advances in computational neuroscience into clinically relevant computational assays.

Ketamine Affects Prediction Errors about Statistical Regularities: A Computational Single-Trial Analysis of the Mismatch Negativity.

The auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) is significantly reduced in schizophrenia. Notably, a similar MMN reduction can be achieved with NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonists. Both phenomena have been interpreted as reflecting an impairment of predictive coding or, more generally, the "Bayesian brain" notion that the brain continuously updates a hierarchical model to infer the causes of its sensory inputs. Specifically, neurobiological interpretations of predictive coding view perceptual inference as an NMDAR-dependent process of minimizing hierarchical precision-weighted prediction errors (PEs), and disturbances of this putative process play a key role in hierarchical Bayesian theories of schizophrenia. Here, we provide empirical evidence for this theory, demonstrating the existence of multiple, hierarchically related PEs in a "roving MMN" paradigm. We applied a hierarchical Bayesian model to single-trial EEG data from healthy human volunteers of either sex who received the NMDAR antagonist S-ketamine in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, within-subject fashion. Using an unrestricted analysis of the entire time-sensor space, our trial-by-trial analysis indicated that low-level PEs (about stimulus transitions) are expressed early (102-207 ms poststimulus), while high-level PEs (about transition probability) are reflected by later components (152-199 and 215-277 ms) of single-trial responses. Furthermore, we find that ketamine significantly diminished the expression of high-level PE responses, implying that NMDAR antagonism disrupts the inference on abstract statistical regularities. Our findings suggest that NMDAR dysfunction impairs hierarchical Bayesian inference about the world's statistical structure. Beyond the relevance of this finding for schizophrenia, our results illustrate the potential of computational single-trial analyses for assessing potential pathophysiological mechanisms.

Focus of attention modulates the heartbeat evoked potential.

Theoretical frameworks such as predictive coding suggest that the perception of the body and world - interoception and exteroception - involve intertwined processes of inference, learning, and prediction. In this framework, attention is thought to gate the influence of sensory information on perception. In contrast to exteroception, there is limited evidence for purely attentional effects on interoception. Here, we empirically tested if attentional focus modulates cortical processing of single heartbeats, using a newly-developed experimental paradigm to probe purely attentional differences between exteroceptive and interoceptive conditions in the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) using EEG recordings. We found that the HEP is significantly higher during interoceptive compared to exteroceptive attention, in a time window of 524-620 ms after the R-peak. Furthermore, this effect predicted self-report measures of autonomic system reactivity. Our study thus provides direct evidence that the HEP is modulated by pure attention and suggests that this effect may provide a clinically relevant readout for assessing interoception.

A arte urbana e seus efeitos nos processos de subjetivação: uma revisão bibliográfica no campo da psicologia / The urban art and its effects on subjective processes: a bibliographic review in psychology field / El arte urbana y sus efectos en los procesos de subjetividad: una revisión bibliográfica en el campo de la psicología / L'art contemporain et ses effets sur les processus de subjectivation: un examen bibliographique dans la biscipline de la psychologie

Na contemporaneidade, equipes multidisciplinares têm pensado em formas de reinventar as cidades para os cidadãos, transformando os espaços em lugares onde ocorram entrelaçamento social e humanização dos sujeitos. Assim, o espaço urbano tornou-se foco de intervenções, dentre elas a arte, que sai de museus e ganha as ruas. A arte urbana configura-se como uma prática social que envolve aspectos estéticos e significados sociais, afetando o cotidiano vivido pelos moradores das grandes cidades. Os efeitos da arte urbana nos processos de subjetivação constituem o pano de fundo deste artigo, que tem como objetivo analisar a produção acadêmica que articula arte urbana e psicologia. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura em artigos, publicados nas bases de dados PePsic e Scielo, no período de 2006 a 2015. Poucas foram as publicações encontradas relacionando arte urbana e psicologia. A relação da psicologia com a arte, conforme indicam as publicações do período, está atrelada à esfera terapêutico-clínica e à relação artista-obra. A relação de afetação naqueles que contemplam a obra é pouco explorada no campo da psicologia. Pensar nessa afetação, em particular na esfera pública, traria contribuições para desenvolver intervenções coletivas incidindo nos processos de subjetivação. Observa-se a existência de uma lacuna nesse campo do saber, sendo indicado o desenvolvimento de investigações acerca da interrelação da psicologia com a arte por seus efeitos na (re)invenção dos sujeitos e na produção de modos de vida.

Currently, multidisciplinary teams have been thinking of ways to reinvent cities for citizens, transforming the environment in places where social interweaving and humanization of individuals occur. The urban environment becomes the focus of interventions, among them the art leaving museums and gains streets. Urban art is configured as a social practice that involves aesthetic and social significance, affecting the daily life experienced by residents in large cities. The effects of urban art in subjective processes are the background of this article, which aims to analyze the academic production that articulates urban art and psychology. Therefore, a systematic review of literature was conducted, in articles published in PEPSIC and Scielo databases, in the period of 2006 and 2015. There are few publications found link: ing urban art and psychology. The relation of psychology to art, as shown by the publications of the period, is link: ed to clinical treatment sphere and the relation artist-work. The relationship between those who contemplate and the work of art is little explored in the field of psychology. In particular, think this affectation in the public sphere would develop contributions to collective interventions focusing on subjective processes. That demonstrates the existence of a gap in this field of knowledge, highlighting the importance of researches on this interrelationship due to its effects on the (re) invention of individuals and production of lifestyles.

En la actualidad, equipos multidisciplinarios han pensado formas de reinventar las ciudades para los ciudadanos, transformando espacios en lugares donde se producen lazos sociales y humanización de los sujetos. El espacio urbano se convierte en el foco de intervenciones, dentro de ellas el arte, que sale de museos y gana las calles. El arte urbana se entiende como una práctica social que envuelve aspectos estéticos y significados sociales, que afecta lo vivido actualmente por los residentes en las grandes ciudades. Los efectos del arte urbana en los procesos de subjetividad constituyen la tela de fondo de este artículo, que tiene como objetivo analizar la producción académica que une el arte urbana y la psicología. Por lo cual, fue realizada una revisión sistemática de la literatura, en artículos publicados en las bases de datos PePsic y Scielo, entre el periodo de 2006 al 2015. Pocas fueron las publicaciones encontradas que relacionaban el arte urbana y la psicología. La relación de la psicología con el arte, según indican las publicaciones del periodo, está relacionada al aspecto terapéutico-clínico y a la relación artista-obra. La relación de afectación en aquellos que contemplan la obra es poco explorada en el campo de la psicología. En particular, pensar en esta afectación en el aspecto público traería contribuciones para desarrollar intervenciones colectivas incidiendo en los procesos de subjetivad. Demostrándose, con eso, la existencia de una laguna en este campo del saber, lo que lleva al desarrollo de investigaciones acerca de esta interrelación por sus efectos en la (re)invención de los sujetos y en la producción de modos de vida.

Dans la contemporanéité, des équipes multidisciplinaires pensent à des manières de réinventer les villes pour les citoyens, en transformant des espaces dans des lieux où il se produise l'entrelacement social et l'humanisation des sujets. L'espace urbain devient ainsi le centre des interventions, dont celles centrées sur l'art, qui quitte les musées pour gagner les rues. L'art urbain se présente comme une pratique sociale impliquant des aspects esthétiques et des significations sociales, qui agit sur le quotidien vécu par les habitants des grandes villes. Les effets de l'art urbain sur les processus de subjectivation constituent la toile de fond de cet article, dont l'objectif est celui d'analyser la production scientifique associant l'art urbain et la psychologie. Pour cela, il a été effectué une revue systématique des articles publiés sur les bases de données PePsic et Scielo dans la période allant de 2006 à 2015. Peu de publications mettant en lien l'art urbain et la psychologie ont été retrouvées. Les rapports de la psychologie à l'art, comme il est indiqué par les publications de cette période, se concentrent sur les domaines clinical thérapeutique et de la relation artiste-œuvre. Les effets sur les spectateurs des œuvres sont encore peu explorés par la psychologie. En particulier, la réflexion sur ces effets dans l'espace public apporterait des contributions pour développer des interventions collectives ayant des incidences sur les processus de subjectivation. Il est démontré, ainsi, l'existence d'un déficit dans ce domaine du savoir et il est indiqué le développement de recherches portant sur cette interrelation en fonction de ses effets sur la (ré)invention des sujets et sur la production de modes de vie.

Computational Psychosomatics and Computational Psychiatry: Toward a Joint Framework for Differential Diagnosis.

This article outlines how a core concept from theories of homeostasis and cybernetics, the inference-control loop, may be used to guide differential diagnosis in computational psychiatry and computational psychosomatics. In particular, we discuss 1) how conceptualizing perception and action as inference-control loops yields a joint computational perspective on brain-world and brain-body interactions and 2) how the concrete formulation of this loop as a hierarchical Bayesian model points to key computational quantities that inform a taxonomy of potential disease mechanisms. We consider the utility of this perspective for differential diagnosis in concrete clinical applications.

Hierarchical prediction errors in midbrain and septum during social learning.

Social learning is fundamental to human interactions, yet its computational and physiological mechanisms are not well understood. One prominent open question concerns the role of neuromodulatory transmitters. We combined fMRI, computational modelling and genetics to address this question in two separate samples (N = 35, N = 47). Participants played a game requiring inference on an adviser's intentions whose motivation to help or mislead changed over time. Our analyses suggest that hierarchically structured belief updates about current advice validity and the adviser's trustworthiness, respectively, depend on different neuromodulatory systems. Low-level prediction errors (PEs) about advice accuracy not only activated regions known to support 'theory of mind', but also the dopaminergic midbrain. Furthermore, PE responses in ventral striatum were influenced by the Met/Val polymorphism of the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene. By contrast, high-level PEs ('expected uncertainty') about the adviser's fidelity activated the cholinergic septum. These findings, replicated in both samples, have important implications: They suggest that social learning rests on hierarchically related PEs encoded by midbrain and septum activity, respectively, in the same manner as other forms of learning under volatility. Furthermore, these hierarchical PEs may be broadcast by dopaminergic and cholinergic projections to induce plasticity specifically in cortical areas known to represent beliefs about others.

Allostatic Self-efficacy: A Metacognitive Theory of Dyshomeostasis-Induced Fatigue and Depression.

This paper outlines a hierarchical Bayesian framework for interoception, homeostatic/allostatic control, and meta-cognition that connects fatigue and depression to the experience of chronic dyshomeostasis. Specifically, viewing interoception as the inversion of a generative model of viscerosensory inputs allows for a formal definition of dyshomeostasis (as chronically enhanced surprise about bodily signals, or, equivalently, low evidence for the brain's model of bodily states) and allostasis (as a change in prior beliefs or predictions which define setpoints for homeostatic reflex arcs). Critically, we propose that the performance of interoceptive-allostatic circuitry is monitored by a metacognitive layer that updates beliefs about the brain's capacity to successfully regulate bodily states (allostatic self-efficacy). In this framework, fatigue and depression can be understood as sequential responses to the interoceptive experience of dyshomeostasis and the ensuing metacognitive diagnosis of low allostatic self-efficacy. While fatigue might represent an early response with adaptive value (cf. sickness behavior), the experience of chronic dyshomeostasis may trigger a generalized belief of low self-efficacy and lack of control (cf. learned helplessness), resulting in depression. This perspective implies alternative pathophysiological mechanisms that are reflected by differential abnormalities in the effective connectivity of circuits for interoception and allostasis. We discuss suitably extended models of effective connectivity that could distinguish these connectivity patterns in individual patients and may help inform differential diagnosis of fatigue and depression in the future.

Neural Signatures of Controlled and Automatic Retrieval Processes in Memory-based Decision-making.

Decision-making often requires retrieval from memory. Drawing on the neural ACT-R theory [Anderson, J. R., Fincham, J. M., Qin, Y., & Stocco, A. A central circuit of the mind. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 136-143, 2008] and other neural models of memory, we delineated the neural signatures of two fundamental retrieval aspects during decision-making: automatic and controlled activation of memory representations. To disentangle these processes, we combined a paradigm developed to examine neural correlates of selective and sequential memory retrieval in decision-making with a manipulation of associative fan (i.e., the decision options were associated with one, two, or three attributes). The results show that both the automatic activation of all attributes associated with a decision option and the controlled sequential retrieval of specific attributes can be traced in material-specific brain areas. Moreover, the two facets of memory retrieval were associated with distinct activation patterns within the frontoparietal network: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was found to reflect increasing retrieval effort during both automatic and controlled activation of attributes. In contrast, the superior parietal cortex only responded to controlled retrieval, arguably reflecting the sequential updating of attribute information in working memory. This dissociation in activation pattern is consistent with ACT-R and constitutes an important step toward a neural model of the retrieval dynamics involved in memory-based decision-making.

Inferring on the intentions of others by hierarchical Bayesian learning.

Inferring on others' (potentially time-varying) intentions is a fundamental problem during many social transactions. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we applied computational modeling to behavioral data from an economic game in which 16 pairs of volunteers (randomly assigned to "player" or "adviser" roles) interacted. The player performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task, receiving information about a binary lottery from a visual pie chart. The adviser, who received more predictive information, issued an additional recommendation. Critically, the game was structured such that the adviser's incentives to provide helpful or misleading information varied in time. Using a meta-Bayesian modeling framework, we found that the players' behavior was best explained by the deployment of hierarchical learning: they inferred upon the volatility of the advisers' intentions in order to optimize their predictions about the validity of their advice. Beyond learning, volatility estimates also affected the trial-by-trial variability of decisions: participants were more likely to rely on their estimates of advice accuracy for making choices when they believed that the adviser's intentions were presently stable. Finally, our model of the players' inference predicted the players' interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) scores, explicit ratings of the advisers' helpfulness and the advisers' self-reports on their chosen strategy. Overall, our results suggest that humans (i) employ hierarchical generative models to infer on the changing intentions of others, (ii) use volatility estimates to inform decision-making in social interactions, and (iii) integrate estimates of advice accuracy with non-social sources of information. The Bayesian framework presented here can quantify individual differences in these mechanisms from simple behavioral readouts and may prove useful in future clinical studies of maladaptive social cognition.

Carreira e relações familiares: dilemas de executivos bancários / Carrera y relacione familiares: dilemas de ejecutivos bancario / Carrière et relations familiales: dilemmes des dirigeants de banques / Career and family relations: a dilemma for banking executives

O presente artigo resulta de uma pesquisa exploratória que buscou levantar os dilemas pessoais relativos à carreira são vividos por executivos bancários, e como eles repercutem em suas relações familiares. Participaram da pesquisa dez executivos bancários de Porto Alegre e da região metropolitana, bem como dez representantes de suas respectivas relações familiares, dentre eles cônjuges e filhos. A coleta de dados deu-se por meio de 20 entrevistas individuais estruturadas. Os executivos bancários foram entrevistados em seus ambientes de trabalho, e seus respectivos familiares em suas residências ou em estabelecimentos comerciais por eles indicados. A análise dos dados foi realizada de maneira qualitativa e seguiu as orientações propostas por Minayo (2001). Os resultados indicam que os executivos bancários associam-se a um modelo de carreira profissional meteórica e de responsabilidade exclusiva do trabalhador, condizente com a prevalência do trabalho imaterial em contexto bancário. Os dilemas relativos à carreira de executivos bancários se configuram entrelaçados às categorias tempo, mobilidade, sucesso profissional, status e consumo. Eles tomam a vida profissional e pessoal dos sujeitos, e repercutem nas relações familiares na forma de sofrimento, embora a família possa mostrar-se aliada aos modos de trabalhar do executivo a fim de manter o estilo de vida vigente.(AU)

The present article is the result of an exploratory research whose objective was to learn what are the personal dilemmas involving the career of banking executives in the contemporary life, and to understand how they are intertwined with their family relations. The interviews were conducted with ten banking executives from Porto Alegre and the metropolitan area, and also with one representative from their family relations, including spouses and children. The structured interviews were conducted with the banking executives within their work environments, and interviews with family members occurred in their homes or in stores suggested by them. Data were analyzed in a qualitative way and followed the guidelines proposed by Minayo (2001). Results show that the dilemmas are potentialized and enhanced by the categories of time, mobility, professional success, status, and consumption. The existence of dilemmas is not something new, but in contemporary life they take over the subject's professional and personal life despite the borders of space and time, affecting the executive and his family's way of life. Such configuration is related to a "model" of meteoric professional career, which is the responsibility of the worker alone, in a context where immaterial work prevails (LAZZARATO & NEGRI, 2001).(AU)

El presente articulo es el resultado de una investigación exploratoria que busco relevar los dilemas personales, relativos a la carrera profesional, que son vividos por ejecutivos bancarios, y como ellos repercuten en sus relaciones familiares. Participaron de la investigación diez ejecutivos bancarios de Porto Alegre y región metropolitana, así como 10 representantes de sus respectivas relaciones familiares, entre conjugues e hijos. La colecta de datos fue efectuada por medio de 20 entrevistas individuales estructuradas. Los ejecutivos bancarios fueron entrevistados en sus ambientes de trabajo y sus respectivos familiares en sus residencias o establecimientos comerciales. El análisis de datos fue realizado de forma cualitativa y siguió las orientaciones propuestas por Minayo (2001). Los resultados indicaron que los ejecutivos bancarios se asocian a un modelo de carrera profesional meteórica y de responsabilidad exclusiva del trabajador, concordante con la prevalencia del trabajo inmaterial en el contexto bancario. Los dilemas son relativos al éxito profesional, status y consumo. Ellos toman la vida profesional y personal de los sujetos y repercuten en sus relaciones familiares en forma de sufrimiento, a pesar de que la familia pueda mostrarse aliada a los modos de trabajar del ejecutivo a fin de mantener el estilo de vida vigente.(AU)

Cet article résulte d'une recherche exploratoire qui a voulu analiser les dilemmes personnels concernant la carrière qui est vécues par les cadres supérieures de la Banque et comme ça influencent leurs relations familiales. Dix fonctionnaires du cadre supérieur de la Banque de Porto Alegre et de la région métropolitaine ont participé à l'enquête, ainsi que dix représentants de leurs respectifs relations familiales, parmi eux, les pères et les enfants. L'obtention de données a eu lieu à travers 20 entrevues individuels structurés. Les cadres supérieures de la Banque ont été interrogés dans leur espace du travail, leurs familles dans ses maisons ou dans ses établissements commerciaux pour eux indiqué. L'analyse des données a été effectuée de façon qualitative et a suivi les orientation proposés par Minayo (2001). Les résultats indiquent que les cadres supérieures de la Banque se identifient à un modèle de carrière métateorique et de la seule responsabilité du travailleur, dans en correspondance avec la prévalence du travail immatériel dans le contexte du secteur bancaire. Les dilemmes concernant a la carrière des cadres supérieures de travailleurs de la banque si configurent entrelacées sur les catégories de temps, mobilité, réussite professionnelle, statut et la consommation. Ils prennent la vie professionnelle et personnelle des travailleurs, répercutent dans les relations familiales sous la forme de la souffrance, bien que la famille peut être allié a la façon du travail de l'exécutif pour préserver le mode de vie actuel.(AU)

Carreira e relações familiares: dilemas de executivos bancários / Career and family relations: a dilemma for banking executives

O presente artigo resulta de uma pesquisa exploratória que buscou levantar os dilemas pessoais relativos à carreira são vividos por executivos bancários, e como eles repercutem em suas relações familiares. Participaram da pesquisa dez executivos bancários de Porto Alegre e da região metropolitana, bem como dez representantes de suas respectivas relações familiares, dentre eles cônjuges e filhos. A coleta de dados deu-se por meio de 20 entrevistas individuais estruturadas. Os executivos bancários foram entrevistados em seus ambientes de trabalho, e seus respectivos familiares em suas residências ou em estabelecimentos comerciais por eles indicados. A análise dos dados foi realizada de maneira qualitativa e seguiu as orientações propostas por Minayo (2001). Os resultados indicam que os executivos bancários associam-se a um modelo de carreira profissional meteórica e de responsabilidade exclusiva do trabalhador, condizente com a prevalência do trabalho imaterial em contexto bancário. Os dilemas relativos à carreira de executivos bancários se configuram entrelaçados às categorias tempo, mobilidade, sucesso profissional, status e consumo. Eles tomam a vida profissional e pessoal dos sujeitos, e repercutem nas relações familiares na forma de sofrimento, embora a família possa mostrar-se aliada aos modos de trabalhar do executivo a fim de manter o estilo de vida vigente.

The present article is the result of an exploratory research whose objective was to learn what are the personal dilemmas involving the career of banking executives in the contemporary life, and to understand how they are intertwined with their family relations. The interviews were conducted with ten banking executives from Porto Alegre and the metropolitan area, and also with one representative from their family relations, including spouses and children. The structured interviews were conducted with the banking executives within their work environments, and interviews with family members occurred in their homes or in stores suggested by them. Data were analyzed in a qualitative way and followed the guidelines proposed by Minayo (2001). Results show that the dilemmas are potentialized and enhanced by the categories of time, mobility, professional success, status, and consumption. The existence of dilemmas is not something new, but in contemporary life they take over the subject's professional and personal life despite the borders of space and time, affecting the executive and his family's way of life. Such configuration is related to a "model" of meteoric professional career, which is the responsibility of the worker alone, in a context where immaterial work prevails (LAZZARATO & NEGRI, 2001).

El presente articulo es el resultado de una investigación exploratoria que busco relevar los dilemas personales, relativos a la carrera profesional, que son vividos por ejecutivos bancarios, y como ellos repercuten en sus relaciones familiares. Participaron de la investigación diez ejecutivos bancarios de Porto Alegre y región metropolitana, así como 10 representantes de sus respectivas relaciones familiares, entre conjugues e hijos. La colecta de datos fue efectuada por medio de 20 entrevistas individuales estructuradas. Los ejecutivos bancarios fueron entrevistados en sus ambientes de trabajo y sus respectivos familiares en sus residencias o establecimientos comerciales. El análisis de datos fue realizado de forma cualitativa y siguió las orientaciones propuestas por Minayo (2001). Los resultados indicaron que los ejecutivos bancarios se asocian a un modelo de carrera profesional meteórica y de responsabilidad exclusiva del trabajador, concordante con la prevalencia del trabajo inmaterial en el contexto bancario. Los dilemas son relativos al éxito profesional, status y consumo. Ellos toman la vida profesional y personal de los sujetos y repercuten en sus relaciones familiares en forma de sufrimiento, a pesar de que la familia pueda mostrarse aliada a los modos de trabajar del ejecutivo a fin de mantener el estilo de vida vigente.

Cet article résulte d'une recherche exploratoire qui a voulu analiser les dilemmes personnels concernant la carrière qui est vécues par les cadres supérieures de la Banque et comme ça influencent leurs relations familiales. Dix fonctionnaires du cadre supérieur de la Banque de Porto Alegre et de la région métropolitaine ont participé à l'enquête, ainsi que dix représentants de leurs respectifs relations familiales, parmi eux, les pères et les enfants. L'obtention de données a eu lieu à travers 20 entrevues individuels structurés. Les cadres supérieures de la Banque ont été interrogés dans leur espace du travail, leurs familles dans ses maisons ou dans ses établissements commerciaux pour eux indiqué. L'analyse des données a été effectuée de façon qualitative et a suivi les orientation proposés par Minayo (2001). Les résultats indiquent que les cadres supérieures de la Banque se identifient à un modèle de carrière métateorique et de la seule responsabilité du travailleur, dans en correspondance avec la prévalence du travail immatériel dans le contexte du secteur bancaire. Les dilemmes concernant a la carrière des cadres supérieures de travailleurs de la banque si configurent entrelacées sur les catégories de temps, mobilité, réussite professionnelle, statut et la consommation. Ils prennent la vie professionnelle et personnelle des travailleurs, répercutent dans les relations familiales sous la forme de la souffrance, bien que la famille peut être allié a la façon du travail de l'exécutif pour préserver le mode de vie actuel.