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The Relation Between Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension, And Downstream Cognitive And Neuroanatomical Function, Victor James Wasserman

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Cardiovascular risks (CVR) such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia play a critical role in the emergence of dementia syndromes. Medication to treat CVR may not obviate downstream risk for cognitive change.

Methods: To examine the relation between history of treatment with medications to treat CVR and cognitive outcomes, participants were seen at time points ~7 years apart, completed neuropsychological evaluations, assessed for history of treatment with medication associated with hypertension and hyperlipidemia as indicators of CVR, and classified into 3 groups: Not Treated, Inconsistently Treated, and Consistently Treated. Regression models associating neuropsychological outcome measures of cognition and CVR were explored …

The Association Of Aerobic Fitness With Resting State Functional Connectivity And Verbal Learning And Memory In Healthy Young Adults, Kyle Joseph Jennette

Theses and Dissertations

The beneficial effects of exercise and cardiopulmonary fitness on general health, quality of life, and reduction of mortality are well known in older adults. There is evidence to support the positive effects of exercise and aerobic fitness on psychiatric and neurocognitive function in children, adults, and older adults. Indeed, many studies have explored the positive effects of aerobic fitness on slowing cognitive decline associated with normal and pathological aging. However, comparatively fewer empirical studies in the literature exist to support and understand the effects of aerobic fitness on the developing brain, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood, especially as it …

Examining Patterns Of Executive Functioning Across Dimensions Of Psychopathology, Scott Roye

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Executive functioning is a multifaceted collection of higher-order cognitive processes used to perform goal-oriented tasks. Although this construct is heavily researched, a major issue regarding the current literature stems from the influence of task impurity, which interferes with how executive functioning performance is interpreted. Additionally, while executive functioning has been previously explored in clinical populations, less work has evaluated this topic measuring dimensional psychopathology. The present study sought to examine the role of executive functioning, as it relates to dimensional psychopathology. Data was analyzed from a total of 731 individuals between the age of 18-59 years who took part in …

The Relationship Between Neuropsychological Functioning, Biomarker Av-1451, And Subjective Memory Impairment In A Cognitively Normal Sample, Amberrose Reale-Caldwell

Dissertations

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is often a prodromal stage for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) development, with those diagnosed with MCI at increased risk for developing AD. The present study aimed to provide data to support a prodromal stage of MCI via analysis utilizing the neuropsychological domain of memory, subjective memory impairment (SMI), and the PET tau biomarker, AV-1451. It was hypothesized that individuals with SMI would differ significantly from participants without SMI (nSMI) on measures of memory and level of tau binding in the entorhinal cortices and the hippocampi. It was further hypothesized that differences in memory would be mediated by …

Off-Topic Verbosity And Sustained Attention Among Young Adult And Older Adult Age Cohorts, Jessica H. Helphrey

Psychology and Counseling Theses

Off-topic verbosity (OTV) is tangential discourse with excessive and irrelevant information. Older adults have been historically labeled as having high OTV, and research has suggested that high OTV in older adults may be linked with cognitive decline. While past studies have utilized brief cognitive measures to further expound upon the links between cognition and OTV, studies have lacked consistency and lengthy measures. This study sought to elucidate the relationship between OTV and cognition in both older adult and young adult age cohorts utilizing a sustained attention measure. Young adults (n = 61; age range: 18-28, M = 20.57, SD = …

The Role Of Awareness In Traumatic Brain Injuries: Interviews With Experts, Dominique Chao

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Approximately 2.8 million US citizens sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) annually, with more than 275,000 requiring inpatient rehabilitation (Taylor, Bell & Breiding, 2013). As rehabilitation techniques are refined and adapted to increase the speed of recovery and functional independence following TBIs, there is an ongoing need for better prognostic assessment tools. Research has shown that a lack of self-awareness following TBI is associated with poorer outcomes (e.g. employability, community reintegration) following discharge from inpatient hospitalizations (Cheng & Man, 2006; Robertson & Schmitter, 2016) and can result in decreased motivation (Simmonds & Fleming, 2003), compromised safety, poor community re-integration, and …