Digital Commons Network^™

Backward Walking: A Novel Marker Of Fall Risk, Cognitive Dysfunction, And Myelin Damage In Persons With Multiple Sclerosis, Erin Edwards

Wayne State University Dissertations

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive, neurologic disease of the central nervous system that causes debilitating motor, sensory and cognitive impairments. As a result, persons with MS are at an increased risk for falls and falls represent a serious public health concern for the MS population. The current clinical measures used to assess fall risk in MS patients lack sensitivity and predictive validity for falls and are limited in their ability to capture to multiple functional domains (i.e., motor, sensory, cognitive and pathological domains) that are impaired by MS. Backward walking sensitively detects falls in the elderly and other neurologic …

The Impact Of Neonatal Pain And Reduced Maternal Care On Brain And Behavioral Development, Sean Michael Mooney-Leber

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) preterm infants are exposed to a multitude of stressors, which include both neonatal pain and reduced maternal care. Clinical and preclinical research has demonstrated that exposure to neonatal pain and reduced maternal care has a profound negative impact on brain and behavioral development. Currently, the biological mechanism by which both of these stressors impacts brain and behavioral outcomes remains widely unknown. To uncover a potential biological mechanism, the current dissertation project utilized a preclinical model of repetitive needle pokes and developed a novel model of reduced maternal care through tea-ball encapsulation. Briefly, rat …

Designers, Emotions, And Ideas: How Graphic Designers Understand Their Emotional Experiences Around Ideation, Alisa Hutchinson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research on the role of designers’ own emotions as an influence on design processes, outcomes, and professional identity is limited but indicates that these experiences may play a meaningful role in design, particularly around ideation processes. This phenomenographic study sought to investigate and identify critical variations in the ways that graphic designers understand their emotional experiences around ideation. Based on interviews with 15 graphic designers, seven distinct categories of understanding emerged. These included (1) goodness-of-fit between designer and project sets an emotional tone for ideation; (2) high arousal emotions are present during ideation but incidental; (3) high arousal emotions are …

The Effects Of Acute Exercise On Postural Control, Information Processing, Motor Skill Acquisition, And Executive Function, Bradley Kendall

Wayne State University Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of acute high intensity interval training (HIIT) on postural control, information processing, motor skill acquisition, and executive function in healthy young adults. A second purpose was to compare an aerobic exercise HIIT protocol to a combined aerobic-resistance exercise HIIT protocol on cognitive function and motor abilities.

Methods

Participants (N = 60) took part in two testing sessions. The first visit served as a baseline to measure postural control (under static and dynamic settings), information processing speed, motor skill acquisition, and executive function. Participants were then randomized to either the …

Hearing Loss And Verbal Memory Assessment In Older Adults, Christina G. Wong

Wayne State University Dissertations

Prior research has found that adults with hearing loss perform worse on cognitive testing than adults without hearing loss, and some studies have suggested that hearing loss is associated with dementia. Heavy emphasis on tests involving auditory stimuli for memory assessment may result in overdiagnosis of cognitive impairment in individuals with hearing loss. The present study compared visual and auditory versions of a verbal memory test among older adults with and without hearing loss. Forty-one adults with moderate-to-severe, sensorineural hearing loss (HL) and 41 age-matched adults with normal hearing (NH) participated. Age ranged from 55 – 80 years. They completed …

Reconceptualizing The Construct Of The Individual Writer In Composition Studies: A Felt Life Model Of Writing, Wendy Duprey

Wayne State University Dissertations

Current scholars in composition and rhetoric emphasize how our worldview perspectives and intellectual positions are animated by our emotional investments, attachments, and commitments. However, despite disciplinary efforts to theorize “the writing subject” in Composition Studies from the 1960s on, I argue the field has yet to develop an integrated cognitive-emotional-motivational construct of the individual writer that comprehensively investigates how an individual’s cognition, emotion, and motivation shapes, and is influenced by, one’s writing process. In my dissertation project, I draw on a range of perspectives from composition studies, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy to develop a model of the individual writer as …

Motor Skills Among Preschool-Aged Children Born Prematurely, Brittany Nicole Peters

Wayne State University Dissertations

It has been documented that children who are born prematurely are at risk of experiencing motor skills deficits early in life; however, little is known about the relationships between early perinatal risk factors and later motor abilities. The current investigation attempted to gain better understanding regarding the influence of gestational age and sex on early motor development among a cohort of preschool-aged children born prior to 34 weeks gestation (N = 104). Additionally, relationships between motor performance and other abilities, namely cognitive and language, were examined. As hypothesized, degree of gestational immaturity was significantly associated with poorer performance on specific …

Changes In Cerebral White Matter, Vascular Risk And Cognition Across The Adult Lifespan, Andrew Robert Bender

Wayne State University Dissertations

Numerous studies over the past decade have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine associations between age, diffusion and anisotropy measures of cerebral white matter (WM), and cognitive performance. However, few have examined relationships between intra-individual change in DTI measures of WM and cognitive function. It is possible that the extant cross-sectional findings are a poor representation of age-related change in WM and cognition. The present study used latent difference-score modeling (LDM) to assess change over two years in DTI indices fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (DR), axial diffusivity (DA) and mean diffusivity (MD). In addition, we examined the effects …

The Effect Of Body Position On Cerebral Bllod Flow, Cognition, Cardiac Output, Map,And Motor Function In Patients Undergoing Shoulder Surgery : Lateral Versus Beach Chair Position Under General Anesthesia, Kelley Labonty

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Effect of Body Position on Changes in Cerebral Blood Flow, Cognition, and Motor Function in Patients Undergoing Shoulder Surgery: Lateral versus Beach Chair Position Under General Anesthesia

By

KELLEY LABONTY

December 2013

Advisor: Dr. Steven Cala

Major: Physiology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This study aims to determine if there are alterations in cerebral perfusion in patients undergoing general anesthesia in the sitting position. With the reporting of 15 catastrophic cerebral vascular accidents recently being published during shoulder surgery in the sitting position, an increase of 90 times from previously reported data, there has become a clear need for …

C-Reactive Protein, Homocysteine, And Cognitive Performance In Healthy Adults, Cheryl Dahle

Wayne State University Dissertations

Elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and homocysteine (Hcy) have received a great deal of attention as biomarkers for the development of cardiovascular disease. Their utility in predicting cognitive function has also been assessed, though the findings are equivocal. The current study examined the relationship between elevated blood levels of CRP and Hcy and their effect on cognition across several cognitive domains. As baseline blood levels of CRP and Hcy and cognition are in part regulated by genetic factors, the impact of T carrier status for variants in the CRP -286 C>T>A and the MTHFR 677C>T …

Examining The Relationship Between Spiritual Resources, Self-Efficacy, Life Attidues, Cognition, And Personal Characteristics Of Homeless African American Women, Jean Gash

Wayne State University Dissertations

African Americans comprise 12% of the American population and 45% of the homeless sheltered population (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2007). The fastest growing segment is African American women and African American women with children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between spiritual resources, self-efficacy, life attitudes, cognition, and personal characteristics (e.g., physical and mental health, age, marital status, number of children, number and length of times homeless and perceptions of being at risk for serious illness) of homeless African American women from 30 years of age and older who were trying …