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Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Louisiana State University

Theses/Dissertations

2018

Schizophrenia

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The (B)Link Between Amotivation And Dopamine In Psychosis: What Phasic Eye Blink Rate Reveals, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern Aug 2018

The (B)Link Between Amotivation And Dopamine In Psychosis: What Phasic Eye Blink Rate Reveals, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Motivation deficits (i.e., avolition or amotivation) are a cardinal feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) and are linked to worse functional outcomes. Accumulating evidence implicates underactive dopamine responses in reward areas of the brain (e.g., striatum) in the etiology of amotivation. Phasic dopamine firing in the striatum purportedly has a role in increasing the perceived value of a potential reward that, in effect, helps “push” the organism toward initiating and persisting in the action to pursue rewards. Previous research has suggested that eye blink rate (EBR) may be a reliable and valid index of striatal dopamine. Amotivation (clinician-rated and self-reported) …


Attentional Deployment, Cognitive Control, And Reappraisal In Schizophrenia, Kyle Robert Mitchell Jun 2018

Attentional Deployment, Cognitive Control, And Reappraisal In Schizophrenia, Kyle Robert Mitchell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent studies posit that deficits in emotion regulation may lead to increased negative emotional experience in schizophrenia. While individuals with schizophrenia evidence a number of abnormalities in emotion regulation, it is unclear whether these deficits are discrete or related; furthermore, the mechanisms underlying these deficits are not clear. Cognitive control has been posited as an important mechanism supporting emotion regulation. The current study examined the relationship between attentional deployment and both lexical and self-reported indices of reappraisal, as well as the mediating role of cognitive control on this relationship in a sample of 22 individuals with psychotic disorders. A novel …


Vocal Expression In Schizophrenia: Examining The Role Of Vocal Accommodation In Clinical Ratings Of Speech, Thanh P. Le Jan 2018

Vocal Expression In Schizophrenia: Examining The Role Of Vocal Accommodation In Clinical Ratings Of Speech, Thanh P. Le

LSU Master's Theses

Diminished vocal expressivity, defined in terms of a diminution in speech production and intonation/emphasis, is a chronic symptom in schizophrenia. On interview-based measures of vocal deficits, clinicians typically rate patients with schizophrenia 4 to 6 SDs below their non-patient peers. However, recent studies utilizing objective computerized measures have failed to observe vocal expressivity deficits that approach this level. It may be that vocal deficits can only be understood within the boundaries of dyadic exchanges during interview-based assessments. Vocal accommodation, or the degree to which vocal characteristics (i.e., mean F0) between interlocutors synchronize over time, has been linked to enhanced social …