Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Impairs Performance On Spatial And Tactile Sequential Discrimination Task In Juvenile Rats, Caleb S. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a set of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities that arise in ~5% of children who have been prenatally-exposed to alcohol. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can cause impairments in learning acquisition, working memory, response inhibition, and attentional-set shifting that result in exaggerated deficits in executive function and impairments in goal-seeking behavior. There are standard procedures used in rodent research to address some components of these deficits, but few procedures are sensitive enough to comprehensively assess such deficits. To address this issue in FASDs research techniques, we developed a procedure that requires prolonged executive function in a …

A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Of Smoking Cessation Induction Treatment For Rural, Underserved Cancer Survivors Across The Continuum Of Motivation To Quit, William Bowling

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The United States’ smoking prevalence has decreased substantially, but this public health improvement is unevenly distributed across the population. A promising individual-level approach to cancer control equity is to develop more acceptable and efficacious interventions that are widely disseminated to rural and other disadvantaged cancer survivors. Smoking cessation induction focuses not on long-term abstinence, but on engaging people in the process of making quit attempts and may be ideal for hard-to-reach populations. The aim of this pilot randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a smoking cessation induction intervention designed for rural cancer survivors. The treatment …

The Role Of Alexithymia And Affective Lability In Disordered Eating Behaviors, Anna Marie Lilia Ortiz

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Affective distress may influence eating disorder behaviors in multiple ways. Affective lability refers to the tendency to experience frequent and striking fluctuations in mood. There is considerable evidence that it predicts eating disorder symptoms. Further, alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings and an externally oriented thinking style. Alexithymia has also been implicated in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. To date, these risk factors have been studied separately. Given the evidence that both alexithymia and affective lability are affective components associated with eating disordered behaviors, it may be important to examine possible relationships among alexithymia, affective …

Escalation And Reinstatement Of Fentanyl Self-Administration In Male And Female Rats, Samantha G. Malone

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Escalation of intake and craving are two DSM-5 hallmark symptoms of opioid use disorder (OUD). Objectives: This study determined if escalation measured by long access (LgA) self-administration and craving measured by reinstatement are related. Adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to self-administer (SA) fentanyl across 7 daily 1-h sessions, followed by 21 SA sessions of either 1- or 6-h duration. Assignment to short access (ShA) and long access (LgA) groups was randomly determined for both males and females. Following 14 1-h extinction sessions, Experiment 1 assessed reinstatement induced by either fentanyl (10 or 30 μg/kg) or yohimbine (1 …

Measuring Glutamate And Oxygen In Brain Reward Circuits In Animal Models Of Cocaine Abuse And Decision-Making, Seth Richard Batten

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Drug-specific reward and associated effects on neural signaling are often studied between subjects, where one group self-administers drug and a separate group self-administers a natural reinforcer. However, exposure to drugs of abuse can cause long-term neural adaptations that can affect how an organism responds to drug reward, natural reward, and their reward-associated stimuli. Thus, to isolate drug-specific effects it is important to use models that expose the same organism to all of the aforementioned. Multiple schedules provide a means of dissociating the rewarding effects of a drug from the rewarding effects of food within a single animal. Further, drug users …

Effects Of Multisensory Stop Signals On Sensitivity To Alcohol-Induced Disinhibition In Drinkers With Adhd, Alexandra R. D'Agostino

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Multisensory environments facilitate behavioral functioning in humans. The redundant signal effect (RSE) refers to the observation that individuals respond more quickly to stimuli when information is presented as multisensory, redundant stimuli rather than as a single stimulus presented to either modality alone. Our studies show that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol are attenuated when stop signals are multisensory versus unisensory. The present study expanded on this research to test the degree to which multisensory stop signals could also attenuate the disinhibiting effects of alcohol in those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a clinical population characterized by poor impulse control. The …

Examining The Utility Of Behavioral Economic Demand In Addiction Science, Justin Charles Strickland

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The marriage of perspectives from behavioral economic theory and learning theory has the potential to advance an understanding of substance use and substance use disorder. Behavioral economic demand is a central concept to this interdisciplinary approach. Evaluating demand in the laboratory and clinic can improve previous research on the relative reinforcing effects of drugs by accounting for the multi-dimensional nature of reinforcement rather than viewing reinforcement as a unitary construct. Recent advances in the commodity purchase task methodology have further simplified the measurement of demand values in human participants. This dissertation project presents a programmatic series of studies designed to …

Modeling Daily Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms And Mental Contamination Experiences Among Survivors Of Sexual Trauma, C. Alex Brake

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Mental contamination (i.e., feelings of dirtiness in the absence of contact with a contaminant) is a potentially important yet understudied factor in posttraumatic psychopathology, particularly for survivors of sexual trauma. Mental contamination has been linked to PTSD symptom severity, negative affect, and coping cross-sectionally and in lab-based paradigms, but research has yet to assess these relationships in ecological contexts. The present study extends previous cross-sectional findings by modelling relationships between mental contamination and posttraumatic psychopathology, emotions, and coping both within-day and from one day to the next. Forty-two female sexual trauma survivors completed twice-daily assessments of mental contamination, PTSD symptoms, …

The Effect Of Early Life Photoperiod Manipulation On Cocaine-Induced Behavioral Sensitization In Male And Female Japanese Quail, Shannon Elizabeth Eaton

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Estrogens seem to play a role in the locomotor activating effects of cocaine. Japanese quail provide a good model for hormonal manipulation as alterations of their photoperiod controls hormone levels. The current study aims to examine the role of early life photoperiod manipulation in cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization in quail. It was expected that if quail were raised on a short photoperiod, they would have a reduction in gonadal hormones and this reduction in hormones would affect the acquisition of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization. Quail were raised on an 8L:16D or a 16L:8D light cycle. Following 2 days of habituation, quail were …

Cocaine Choice: A Novel Procedure For Investigating Neuronal Activation Mediating Cocaine Preference, Jonathan Jenn-Sheng Chow

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Cocaine use disorder is a significant health problem, negatively impacting individuals afflicted. While preclinical self-administration research has provided invaluable insight into the neurobehavioral mechanisms that underlie cocaine abuse, cocaine use outside of the laboratory occurs within an environment where other goods are also available ubiquitously. Although there is an ever-increasing literature investigating drug vs. non-drug choice in rodent models and how alternative goods can compete with the subjective value of cocaine, the neurobiological mechanisms that are associated with cocaine preference remains largely unknown. Additionally, current drug vs. non-drug choice studies use procedures that confound preference with intake, such that preference …

Internalizing And Externalizing Dysfunction: An Integrative Model Of Adolescent Drinking, Leila Guller

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Separate externalizing and internalizing pathways to problem drinking have been described. However, internalizing and externalizing are substantially correlated, thus, there is good reason to believe that these two forms of dysfunction behaviors do not operate independently.

We tested an integrative developmental model of transactions among internalizing symptomatology, externalizing personality, and psychosocial learning in the prediction of both drinking problems and future internalizing symptoms. To do so, we studied a large sample (n = 1910, 49.9% female) of children over a critical developmental period, from the spring of 5th (last year elementary school) grade through the spring of 9th grade (first …

Loss Aversion In Cocaine Users: Influence Of Risk And Commodity Type, Justin Charles Strickland

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Numerous studies in behavioral economics have demonstrated that individuals are more sensitive to the prospect of a loss than a gain (i.e., loss aversion). Although loss aversion has been well described in healthy populations, little research exists in individuals with substance use disorders. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate loss aversion in cocaine users. Participants completed measures designed to assess loss aversion for drug and non-drug commodities under varying risk conditions. Cocaine demand was determined using a cocaine purchase task. Cocaine users showed a loss aversion score that was consistent across commodity and risk conditions. Compared to …

Development Of An Avian Model For Identifying Individual Differences In Drug Vulnerability, Beth A. Rice

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The attribution of incentive salience to cues that become associated with drugs of abuse is a critical characteristic of individuals who may be vulnerable to drug addiction. Rodents with the propensity to sign track are thought to be vulnerable to drug abuse. The goal of the current work was to investigate whether sign trackers (STs) would acquire cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) to a discrete cue using an avian species. In Experiment 1, sign and goal trackers (GTs) were first identified using a one third rank order split. Following identification, cocaine-CPP was conducted with a discrete cue in each end …

Eating Disorder Onset In Young Girls: A Longitudinal Trajectory Analysis, Carolyn M. Pearson

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

To investigate whether there are different patterns of development for binge eating and purging behavior among pre-adolescent and early adolescent girls, I conducted trajectory analyses of those behaviors in 938 girls across eight waves of data from the spring of 5^th grade (the last year of elementary school) through the spring of 9^th grade (the first year of high school). Analyses revealed four separate developmental trajectories for binge eating behavior (labeled none, increasing, decreasing, and high steady) and three separate developmental trajectories for purging behavior (labeled none, dabble, and increasing). Fifth grade scores on risk factors that were …

Reinforcing, Subjective, And Cognitive Effects Of Methamphetamine During D-Amphetamine Maintenance, Erika Pike

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Translational research suggests that agonist replacement may be a viable treatment approach for managing methamphetamine dependence. This study sought to determine the effects of d-amphetamine maintenance on methamphetamine self-administration in stimulant using participants. A cognitive battery was used to determine the performance effects of methamphetamine alone and during d-amphetamine maintenance. During each maintenance condition, participants first sampled a dose of intranasal methamphetamine then had the opportunity to respond on a progressive ratio task to earn portions of the sampled dose. Subject-rated drug-effect and physiological measures were completed prior to and after sampling methamphetamine. Methamphetamine was self-administered as function …