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Undergraduate Honors Theses

Theses/Dissertations

Neuroscience

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Demystifying The Mind-Body Connection: The Neuroscience Behind How Thoughts Impact Physical Health, Sofia Pantis May 2023

Demystifying The Mind-Body Connection: The Neuroscience Behind How Thoughts Impact Physical Health, Sofia Pantis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The beliefs, emotions, and experiences that constitute a mindset shape numerous aspects of one’s reality, but in particular, health. Health is defined by not only the physical state of one’s body, but also the content of one’s mind. The integration of the mind and body is often associated with naturopathic medicines or pseudoscience, and thus is usually left out of Western medicinal practices. This review aims to demystify the mind-body connection in health and wellness by introducing it within an empirical, neuroscientific landscape. This research supports the hypothesis that mind over matter rings true even at the biochemical level. Activation …


An Event-Related Potential Study Of Inhibition To Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Hanel Watkins Aug 2019

An Event-Related Potential Study Of Inhibition To Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Hanel Watkins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the United States, the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages per capita from 1977 to 2002 doubled across all age groups. One factor that may contribute to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is inhibitory control, or the ability to withhold a dominant response in order to correctly respond to one’s environment. Studies suggest that increased recruitment of inhibitory control resources plays a role in decreasing the consumption of high-calorie foods and that strengthening an individual’s inhibitory control may help them manage their food intake. However, the neural response to sugar-sweetened beverages versus non-sweetened beverages is unknown. Thus, we tested event-related potential …


Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah May 2017

Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses neuroscience research focusing on the brain’s mechanisms underlying behavioral choice, or prioritization, and decision-making. The research has been conducted with Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly – a good model from both the behavioral and neural perspectives. This project specifically observes the co-regulation of sleep with two other behaviors – courtship and oviposition. The overlap between the sleep and courtship circuits in the brain should provide a good model for behavioral prioritization, and the interaction between sleep and ovipositional preference should provide a model for understanding the effects of sleep on decision-making. All three of these adaptive behaviors …