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Utah State University

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Addiction

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Promoting Healthy Decision-Making Via Natural Environment Exposure: Initial Evidence And Future Directions, Meredith S. Berry, Meredith A. Repke, Alexander L. Metcalf, Kerry Jordan Jul 2020

Promoting Healthy Decision-Making Via Natural Environment Exposure: Initial Evidence And Future Directions, Meredith S. Berry, Meredith A. Repke, Alexander L. Metcalf, Kerry Jordan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research within psychology and other disciplines has shown that exposure to natural environments holds extensive physiological and psychological benefits. Adding to the health and cognitive benefits of natural environments, evidence suggests that exposure to nature also promotes healthy human decision-making. Unhealthy decision-making (e.g., smoking, non-medical prescription opioid misuse) and disorders associated with lack of impulse control [e.g., tobacco use, opioid use disorder (OUD)], contribute to millions of preventable deaths annually (i.e., 6 million people die each year of tobacco-related illness worldwide, deaths from opioids from 2002 to 2017 have more than quadrupled in the United States alone). Impulsive and unhealthy …


Stress-Induced Executive Dysfunction In Gdnf-Deficient Mice, A Mouse Model Of Parkinsonism, Mona Buhusi, Kaitlin Olsen, Benjamin Z. Young, Catalin V. Buhusi May 2016

Stress-Induced Executive Dysfunction In Gdnf-Deficient Mice, A Mouse Model Of Parkinsonism, Mona Buhusi, Kaitlin Olsen, Benjamin Z. Young, Catalin V. Buhusi

Psychology Faculty Publications

Maladaptive reactivity to stress is linked to improper decision making, impulsivity, and discounting of delayed rewards. Chronic unpredictable stress alters dopaminergic function and re-shapes dopaminergic circuits in key areas involved in decision making, and impairs prefrontal-cortex dependent response inhibition and working memory. Glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is essential for regulating dopamine release in the basal ganglia and the survival of dopaminergic neurons, and GDNF-deficient mice are considered an animal model for aging-related Parkinsonism. Recently, GDNF expression in the striatum has been linked to resilience to stress. Here we investigated the effects of chronic unpredictable stress on decision making in GDNF-heterozygous …