Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Neural Correlates Of Fear Extinction: Investing The Impact Of Puberty And Sex In Children And Adolescents Through Neuroimaging, Sneha Bhargava, Clara Zundel, Samantha Ely, Carmen Carpenter, Reem Tamimi, Leah Gowatch, Mackenna Shampine, Emilie-Clare O'Mara, Jovan Jande, Shravya Chanamolu, Ahmad Almaat, Hilary Marusak

Medical Student Research Symposium

Fear-based disorders, including anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder, are more prevalent in females than males. Steroid hormones (e.g., estradiol) are involved in fear extinction learning and later recall—a process implicated in the pathophysiology of fear-based disorders. Fear-based disorders commonly emerge during the transition from childhood to adolescence, a period marked by the onset of puberty and a natural increase of steroid hormones. Here, we examined the effects of puberty, sex, and their interaction on extinction recall and underlying neural circuitry in youth. Eighty-five youth (6-17 years, 46% female) completed a two-day Pavlovian fear extinction paradigm while undergoing functional magnetic resonance …

Characterizing The Development Of Episodic Memory And Assessing The Reliability Of Fmri Measures, Lingfei Tang

Wayne State University Dissertations

The ability to remember past events is critical for everyday life and showed robust improvement over development from childhood to adulthood. With advances in noninvasive neuroimaging methods such as functional MRI in recent years, research efforts have been focused on identifying neural correlates underpinning developmental gains in memory performance. In my dissertation work, using a widely-validated subsequent memory paradigm, I aim to characterize functional MRI correlates of memory development. Specifically, I focused my investigation on identifying age differences in the functional patterns of two brain regions critical for memory, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Focusing on the prefrontal cortex …

The Semantic Memory Imaging In Late Life Pilot Study, Michael Adam Sugarman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have analyzed the famous name discrimination task (FNDT), an uncontrolled semantic memory probe requiring discrimination between famous and unfamiliar individuals. Completion of this simple task recruits a semantic memory network that has shown utility in determining risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Specific semantic memory probes using biographical information associated with famous individuals may build on previous findings and yield superior information regarding risk for AD.

Method: Sixteen cognitively intact elders completed the FNDT and two novel tasks during fMRI: Categories (matching famous individuals to occupational categories) and Attributes (matching famous individuals to …

Neural Correlates Of Episodic Memory Formation In Children And Adults, Lingfei Tang

Wayne State University Theses

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are two key brain regions that support episodic memory formation in both children and adults, but the functional developmental of these regions remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the development of neural correlates of episodic memory formation using functional MRI with a subsequent memory paradigm, administered to a cross-sectional sample of 83 children and adults. We found that MTL subregions showed an age-related increase in activation supporting memory formation of complex scenes. In addition, a functionally defined scene-sensitive region in the posterior MTL also showed similar increase and predicted better …

Neural Alterations Influencing Skilled Reading In Adhd: A Task-Based Fmri Study, Brianne Mohl

Wayne State University Dissertations

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a heterogeneous, neurodevelopmental disorder which co-occurs often with Reading Disability (RD). ADHD with and without RD consistently have higher inattentive ratings compared with typically developing controls, with co-occurring ADHD and RD (ADHD/+RD) also demonstrating impaired phonological processing. Accordingly, inattention has been associated with greater phonological impairment, though neither the neural correlates of the co-occurring disorders nor the association are well understood from a functional neuroimaging perspective. The goal was to assess to what extent ADHD/+RD differ from ADHD without RD (ADHD/-RD) and typically developing controls (TDC) in functional activation of attention- and reading-related areas during various …

The Influence Of Gender And Aging On The Neural Circuitry Supporing Facial Emotion Processing In Adults With Major Depressive Disorder, Emily Briceno

Wayne State University Dissertations

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with decrements in facial emotion processing (FEP). Previous studies investigating the neural substrates of these decrements have often reported hyperactivity of emotion processing circuitry. Neural circuitry supporting FEP has been shown to be different between healthy men and women, and between young and elder adults. However, no prior studies have investigated how gender and aging affect emotion processing circuitry in individuals with MDD. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of gender and aging on emotion processing circuitry in MDD. One hundred-ten adults, grouped into subgroups according to MDD status, gender, and age …