Life Sciences Commons^™

Language Experience With A Native-Language Phoneme Sequence Modulates The Effects Of Attention On Cortical Sensory Processing, Valerie L. Shafer, Monica Wagner, Jungmee Lee, Francesca Mingino, Colleen O'Brien, Adam Constantine, Mitchell Steinschneider

Publications and Research

Auditory evoked potentials (AEP) reflect spectro-temporal feature changes within the spoken word and are sufficiently reliable to probe deficits in auditory processing. The current research assessed whether attentional modulation would alter the morphology of these AEPs and whether native-language experience with phoneme sequences would influence the effects of attention. Native-English and native-Polish adults listened to nonsense word pairs that contained the phoneme sequence onsets /st/, /sət/, /pət/ that occur in both the Polish and English languages and the phoneme sequence onset /pt/ that occurs in the Polish language, but not the English language. Participants listened to word pairs within two …

Decoding Mental States After Severe Brain Injury, Raechelle M. Gibson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some patients with disorders of consciousness retain sensory and cognitive abilities that are not apparent from their outward behaviour. It is crucial to identify and characterise these covert abilities for diagnosis, prognosis, and medical ethics. This thesis uses neuroimaging techniques to investigate cognitive preservation and awareness in patients who are behaviourally non-responsive due to acquired brain injuries. In the first chapter, a large sample of healthy volunteers, including experienced athletes and musicians, imagined actions of varying complexity and familiarity. Motor imagery involving certain complex, familiar actions correlated with a more robust sensorimotor rhythm. In the second chapter, several patients with …

Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Dysfunction In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Wai-Jane V. Lee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sensitive and translational tasks that efficiently and accurately assess cognitive function during pre-clinical trials would be useful in developing novel treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. The Bussey-Saksida touchscreens employ various tasks similar to those used in humans to effectively evaluate high-level cognitive and executive functions in mice. This face validity provides the best chance of successful cognitive translation across species.

In our study, donepezil had minor effects on the performance of 5xFAD mice in the 5-CSRTT, a touchscreen task evaluating attention. Additionally, 5xFAD mice do not demonstrate impairments in the PVD task, which assesses visual discrimination/ cognitive flexibility. However, …

Modeling The Mechanisms Of Reward Learning That Bias Visual Attention, Jason Hays, Fabian Soto Phd

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Spatial And Temporal High Processing Of Visual And Auditory Stimuli In Cervical Dystonia, Gaetana Chillemi, Alessandro Calamuneri, Francesca Morgante, Carmen Terranova, Vincenzo Rizzo, Paolo Girlanda, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Angelo Quartarone

Publications and Research

Objective: Investigation of spatial and temporal cognitive processing in idiopathic cervical dystonia (CD) by means of specific tasks based on perception in time and space domains of visual and auditory stimuli.

Background: Previous psychophysiological studies have investigated temporal and spatial characteristics of neural processing of sensory stimuli (mainly somatosensorial and visual), whereas the definition of such processing at higher cognitive level has not been sufficiently addressed. The impairment of time and space processing is likely driven by basal ganglia dysfunction. However, other cortical and subcortical areas, including cerebellum, may also be involved.

Methods: We tested 21 subjects with CD and …

Pearls And Perils Of Pupillometry Using A Webcam, Mason Kadem, Rhodri Cusack

Undergraduate Honors Posters

Current methods to measure infants’ cognitive repertoire (i.e., collection of cognitive abilities) are limited. Previous testing paradigms required acquisition of non-age contextualized responses, and relied on measures that involved acquisition of other functions (e.g., language, motor). In addition to response limitations, cognitive functions may be difficult to observe in infants due to the difficulty in infant recruitment. Online testing has increased infant recruitment efforts and physiological responses have bypassed the motor, behavioural and linguistic limitations of infants. Recently, it has been shown that heart rate measures can be acquired through a webcam. Another feasible and reliable physiological measure is pupillometery, …