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White Matter Connectome Associations With Reading Functions In Children, Chenglin Lou Aug 2023

White Matter Connectome Associations With Reading Functions In Children, Chenglin Lou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigated associations between the white matter connectome and reading in children with a wide range of reading abilities. It is well established that the connectome supports the interplay among brain regions and connections within an integrated system. In this dissertation, I examine the hypothesis that it could therefore represent multiple mapping processes among reading components and further explain variations in reading performance. Such associations between the organization of the connectome and reading skills have not been well explored. This thesis aimed to address this issue by considering both the relationship between connectome measures and standardized reading performance out …


Fraction Magnitude Understanding Across Learning Formats: An Fmri Study, Chloe A. Henry Aug 2023

Fraction Magnitude Understanding Across Learning Formats: An Fmri Study, Chloe A. Henry

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Knowledge of fraction magnitudes are an important, but notoriously difficult mathematical concept to master. Behavioural work has begun to explore and compare the instructional tools used for fraction learning. However, how fraction instructional tools are processed in the brain remains an underexplored question. Therefore, in the present thesis, we used functional brain MRI methodology to examine the neural activity of adult participants while completing a fraction verification task using the number line and area model, two common methods of fraction learning. We found that both models commonly recruited fronto-parietal activity, the neural regions typically implicated in number processing. However, we …


Investigating The Roles Of The Dorsal And Ventral Striatum In Humor Comprehension And Appreciation Throughout Health, Aging, And Parkinson’S Disease, Maggie Prenger Aug 2023

Investigating The Roles Of The Dorsal And Ventral Striatum In Humor Comprehension And Appreciation Throughout Health, Aging, And Parkinson’S Disease, Maggie Prenger

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Humor processing is thought to involve two distinct components. The first, humor comprehension, involves detecting and resolving incongruities that are present within a humorous stimulus. This is related to cognitive processes such as ambiguity resolution, response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, functions that are mediated in part by the dorsal portion of the striatum (DS). Humor appreciation, on the other hand, refers to the subjective amusement and mirth that one experiences in response to a joke. This is related to reward processing, which implicates the ventral portion of the striatum (VS). Across three separate studies, we investigated the involvement …


Examining The Relationships Between Socio-Cognitive Factors And Neural Synchrony During Movie Watching Across Development, Kathleen M. Lyons Aug 2022

Examining The Relationships Between Socio-Cognitive Factors And Neural Synchrony During Movie Watching Across Development, Kathleen M. Lyons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

While different cognitive abilities mature, the conscious experiences of children likely become richer and more elaborate. A challenge in investigating relationships between cognitive development and real-world experiences is having measures that assess naturalistic processing. Movie watching offers a solution, since following the plot of a film requires cognitive processes that are similar to real-world experiences. When different adults watch the same film, their brain activity begins to align (known as neural synchrony). The strength of this alignment has been shown to reflect the degree to which different individuals are having a similar experience of the movie. While this phenomenon has …


Role Of The Default-Mode Network During Narrative Integration In Major Depressive Disorder, Darren Ri-Sheng Liang Aug 2022

Role Of The Default-Mode Network During Narrative Integration In Major Depressive Disorder, Darren Ri-Sheng Liang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How brain activity is synchronized across individuals during narrative comprehension has previously been characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy and patient populations. To our knowledge, there has been limited investigation as to how it is affected by major depressive disorder (MDD). We addressed this issue with fMRI through examination of inter-subject synchronization in the default mode network (DMN), brain structures which have previously been implicated in MDD pathology. Twenty-two patients with MDD and 20 matched control participants listened to Intact versus Scrambled versions of an auditory narrative; these experimental conditions differed in the degree of temporal integration …


Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer Nov 2021

Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children of mothers with a history of depression are at significantly higher risk for developing depression themselves. Although numerous mechanisms explaining this relationship have been proposed (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999), relatively little is known about the neural substrates of never-depressed children’s depression risk. Of the few studies that have used neuroimaging techniques to characterize risk-based differences in children’s neural structure, function, and functional connectivity, most have used samples that include participants with a personal history of depression or older samples (i.e., past the typical age of onset for depressive disorders). These approaches limit what can be determined regarding whether findings …


Neural Markers Of Musical Memory In Young And Older Adults, Avital Sternin Sep 2021

Neural Markers Of Musical Memory In Young And Older Adults, Avital Sternin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Memory for music can be preserved in the presence of neurodegenerative disorders even when other memories are forgotten. However, understanding how the brain remembers music has proven difficult despite decades of research. The central goal of this thesis was to elucidate the neural correlates of musical memory by exploring how the presence of language and music information affect the way young and older adults remember music. To that end, I 1) used a controlled training paradigm to familiarize participants with novel stimuli that manipulated the presence of language and music, and 2) collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data to compare …


Homotopic Coupling In Persons With Epilepsy Using Movie-Driven And Resting-State Fmri, Caroline M. Chadwick Aug 2020

Homotopic Coupling In Persons With Epilepsy Using Movie-Driven And Resting-State Fmri, Caroline M. Chadwick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

For the 30-40% of persons with epilepsy (PWE) with refractory epilepsy, seizure freedom following surgery is affected by the localization of the epileptogenic zone (EZ). However, functional abnormalities can exist at a distance from the EZ, which may contribute to variable outcomes after surgery. Considering epilepsy as a network disorder (Pittau & Vulliemoz, 2015), and evaluating functional coupling among homotopic brain areas, may help predict cognitive outcomes. Homotopic areas are well connected anatomically and undoubtedly work synchronously to generate cognition. We evaluated 22 persons with focal epilepsy and 24 neurologically healthy controls using fMRI at rest and while watching a …


Cognitive, Neural, And Educational Contributions To Mathematics Performance: A Closer Look At The Roles Of Numerical And Spatial Skills, Zachary C.K. Hawes Sep 2019

Cognitive, Neural, And Educational Contributions To Mathematics Performance: A Closer Look At The Roles Of Numerical And Spatial Skills, Zachary C.K. Hawes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The principal aims of this thesis were to (1) provide new insights into the cognitive and neural associations between spatial and mathematical abilities, and (2) translate and apply findings from the field of numerical cognition to the teaching and learning of early mathematics.

Study 1 investigated the structure and interrelations amongst cognitive constructs related to numerical, spatial, and executive function (EF) skills and mathematics achievement in 4- to 11-year old children (N=316). Results revealed evidence of highly related, yet separable, cognitive constructs. Together, numerical, spatial, and EF skills explained 84% of the variance in mathematics achievement (controlling for chronological age). …


Pattern Separation In The Ventral Visual Stream, Kayla Ferko Aug 2019

Pattern Separation In The Ventral Visual Stream, Kayla Ferko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pattern separation is a neural computation thought to underlie our ability to form distinct memories of similar events. It involves transforming overlapping inputs into less overlapping outputs. In the ventral visual stream (VVS) there is considerable evidence for hierarchical transformation from feature-based visual representations to conjunctive whole-object representations, with the latter allowing for distinct coding even when objects have significant feature overlap. In the current study, we asked whether this transformation can be understood as pattern separation, and whether pattern separation can be observed even outside the context of classic recognition-memory tasks. To investigate pattern separation in the VVS, we …


Characterizing The Familiar-Voice Benefit To Intelligibility, Beatriz Ysabel Domingo Aug 2019

Characterizing The Familiar-Voice Benefit To Intelligibility, Beatriz Ysabel Domingo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Everyday listening often occurs in the presence of background noise. Listeners with normal hearing can often successfully segregate competing sounds from the signal of interest. To do this, listeners exploit a variety of cues to facilitate the separation of simultaneous sounds into separate sources, and group sequential sounds into intelligible speech streams. One of the cues that has been shown to be an effective facilitator of speech intelligibility is familiarity with a talker’s voice. A recent study by Johnsrude et al. (2013) measured speech intelligibility of a naturally familiar voice (i.e., that of a long-term spouse) and showed a …


The Neurocognitive Underpinnings Of Arithmetic In Children And Adults: Examining The Roles Of Domain General And Domain Specific Abilities, Anna A. Matejko Sep 2016

The Neurocognitive Underpinnings Of Arithmetic In Children And Adults: Examining The Roles Of Domain General And Domain Specific Abilities, Anna A. Matejko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What are the cognitive underpinnings of arithmetic and how do they contribute to individual differences in children’s calculation abilities? Behavioural research has provided insights into which domain general (e.g. working memory) and domain specific (e.g. symbol-quantity associations) competencies are important for the acquisition of arithmetic skills. However, how domain general and domain specific skills are related to arithmetic at the neural level remains unclear. This thesis investigates the interplay between arithmetic and both domain general and specific competencies in the brain.

In Chapter 2 I examine how visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) networks overlap with those for arithmetic in children and …


The Neural And Cognitive Basis Of Cumulative Lifetime Familiarity Assessment, Devin Duke May 2016

The Neural And Cognitive Basis Of Cumulative Lifetime Familiarity Assessment, Devin Duke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Perirhinal cortex (PrC) has been implicated as a brain region in the medial temporal lobes (MTL) that critically contributes to familiarity-based recognition memory, a process that allows for recognition to occur independently of contextual recollection. Informed by neurophysiological research in non-human primates, fMRI, as well as behavioural work in humans, the current thesis research tests the novel hypothesis that PrC cortex functioning also underlies the ability to assess cumulative lifetime familiarity with object concepts that are characterized by a lifetime of experiences. In Chapter 2, a patient (NB) with a left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) lesion that included PrC as …


Naturalistic Paradigms For Neuroimaging And Bedside Measures Of Conscious Awareness, Leah J. Sinai Aug 2015

Naturalistic Paradigms For Neuroimaging And Bedside Measures Of Conscious Awareness, Leah J. Sinai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Complex, naturalistic stimuli can test for covert awareness in behaviourally non-responsive patients. For patients with poor visual function, this thesis aimed to identify an auditory-only stimulus that could evaluate executive function. Also, it assessed if Galvanic Skin Response could be a suitable bedside testing method. Healthy individuals listened to 4 auditory stimuli in the fMRI scanner. During Galvanic Skin Response recording, an independent group of controls listened to an audio narrative and watched a movie. Behaviourally non-responsive patients were also tested during movie viewing. Using fMRI, an audio narrative was identified that produced widespread brain synchronization between healthy participants, critically …


Interactions Between The Basolateral Amygdala And Ventral Striatum During Probabilistic Learning In Children And Associations With Individual Differences In Free Cortisol, Haley J. Fallowfield Jul 2015

Interactions Between The Basolateral Amygdala And Ventral Striatum During Probabilistic Learning In Children And Associations With Individual Differences In Free Cortisol, Haley J. Fallowfield

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Stress can drastically alter the behavioural and functional correlates of feedback learning; however, the functional correlates of these effects are poorly understood, particularly in children. In the present study, typically developing children between the ages of 9- and 11-years-old completed a probabilistic learning task with both appetitive and aversive outcomes in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Anticipatory stress to the experimental environment was measured via salivary cortisol at baseline and prior to completion of the task. Although baseline and pre-MRI cortisol values were not reliably different at the group level, subsequent analyses revealed that the basolateral amygdala was less responsive …


Seeing With Sound: Investigating The Behavioural Applications And Neural Correlates Of Human Echolocation, Jennifer L. Milne Jun 2014

Seeing With Sound: Investigating The Behavioural Applications And Neural Correlates Of Human Echolocation, Jennifer L. Milne

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some blind humans use the reflected echoes from self-produced signals to perceive their silent surroundings. Although the use of echolocation is well documented in animals such as bats and dolphins, comparatively little is known about human echolocation. The overarching goal of the work presented in this thesis was to shed light on some of the basic functions of human echolocation, including the perception of the shape, size, and material. I addressed these aspects of echolocation using behavioural psychophysics and neuroimaging.

In Chapter 2 I show that blind echolocators were able to accurately identify the shape of 2D objects, but that …


Representation Of Faces In Perirhinal Cortex, Edward B. O'Neil Sep 2013

Representation Of Faces In Perirhinal Cortex, Edward B. O'Neil

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The prevailing view of medial temporal lobe (MTL) functioning holds that its structures are dedicated to long-term declarative memory. Recent evidence challenges this view, suggesting that perirhinal cortex (PrC), which interfaces the MTL with the ventral visual pathway, supports highly integrated object representations that contribute to both recognition memory and perceptual discrimination. Here, I used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine PrC activity, as well as its broader functional connectivity, during perceptual and mnemonic tasks involving faces, a stimulus class proposed to rely on integrated representations for discrimination. In Chapter 2, I revealed that PrC involvement was related to task …


Cortical Representation Underlying The Semantic Processing Of Numerical Symbols: Evidence From Adult And Developmental Studies, Stephan Erich Vogel Aug 2013

Cortical Representation Underlying The Semantic Processing Of Numerical Symbols: Evidence From Adult And Developmental Studies, Stephan Erich Vogel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Humans possess the remarkable ability to process numerical information using numerical symbols such as Arabic digits. A growing body of neuroimaging work has provided new insights into the neural correlates associated with symbolic numerical magnitude processing. However, little is known about the cortical specialization underlying the representation of symbolic numerical magnitude in adults and children. To constrain our current knowledge, I conducted a series of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies that aimed to better understand the functional specialization of symbolic numerical magnitudes representation in the human brain.

Using a number line estimation task, the first study contrasted the brain …


The Influence Of Proficiency And Age Of Acquisition On Second Language Processing: An Fmri Study Of Mandarin-English Bilinguals, Emily S. Nichols Jul 2013

The Influence Of Proficiency And Age Of Acquisition On Second Language Processing: An Fmri Study Of Mandarin-English Bilinguals, Emily S. Nichols

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Research investigating the neural correlates of second language (L2) processing has usually studied age of acquisition (AoA) and proficiency separately. Presently, we examined both in parallel, treated as continuous variables. We used fMRI to study neural activity for L2 processing in adult native Mandarin speakers who are L2 English speakers. Behavioral measures of language proficiency and AoA were obtained from subjects prior to performing a picture-word matching task during an fMRI scan. Brain activity during L2 English processing was shown to be independently affected by AoA and proficiency; activity in left superior temporal gyrus and right parahippocampal gyrus was modulated …


Fmri Reveals The Neural Correlates Of Real And Pantomimed Tool Use In Humans, Joseph Umberto Paciocco Aug 2012

Fmri Reveals The Neural Correlates Of Real And Pantomimed Tool Use In Humans, Joseph Umberto Paciocco

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to study the neural mechanisms underlying greatly expanded cognitive functions in humans like tool use, surprisingly little fMRI research has been done on actual tool use. In fact, due to technical constraints, most fMRI studies have used pantomimed actions as a proxy for real use. However, human neuropsychology patients who are impaired at pantomiming often improve when handling a tool suggesting potential neural differences. We used fMRI to record brain activation while 13 right-handed participants performed one of two tasks, real or pantomime tool use with one of two tools, a …


Mental Blocks: The Behavioural Effects And Neural Encoding Of Obstacles When Reaching And Grasping, Craig S. Chapman Nov 2010

Mental Blocks: The Behavioural Effects And Neural Encoding Of Obstacles When Reaching And Grasping, Craig S. Chapman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The ability to adeptly interact with a cluttered and dynamic world requires that the brain simultaneously encode multiple objects. Theoretical frameworks of selective visuomotor attention provide evidence for parallel encoding (Baldauf & Deubel, 2010; Cisek & Kalaska, 2010; Duncan, 2006) where concurrent object processing results in neural competition. Since the end goal of object representation is usually action, these frameworks argue that the competitive activity is best characterized as the development of visuomotor biases. While some behavioural and neural evidence has been accumulated in favour of this explanation, one of the most striking, yet deceptively common, demonstrations of this capacity …