Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Neural And Behavioral Associations Of Drinking And Empathic Processing, Charles Samuel Henry Robinson

Psychology ETDs

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a major health problem, yet most individuals with AUD do not perceive a need for formal treatment and do not receive treatment. The lack of treatment seeking among individuals with AUD may suggest a lack of self-awareness and insight into the seriousness of AUD related problems. Moreover, individuals who have lost or are at risk of losing major relationships are especially likely to perceive the need for help. Thus, it may be the case that awareness of the influence of one’s drinking on social relationships and the feelings of others (i.e., empathy) could improve treatment …

Religiosity/Spirituality And Cancer Risk Assessment For Hereditary Breast And Ovarian Cancer: Latina And Non-Latina Women In New Mexico, Belinda Vicuna Tellez

Psychology ETDs

Introduction: Although cancer risk assessment for high-risk individuals and families can offer life-saving information and options for cancer risk management, Latinas have historically underutilized cancer prevention services. Much needed is a better understanding of what encourages and discourages engagement in cancer risk assessment services among Latino populations. Religiosity/spirituality is potentially relevant to such engagement given religion has often been a central coping resource for Latina cancer survivors.

Aim: This study explored the potential impact of religiosity/spirituality and psychological processes on how Latinas and non-Latinas approach decisions regarding preventative health behaviors.

Methods: As a small subset of a larger research project, …

Neurocognitive Markers Of Cognitive Control In Schizophrenia And Functional Outcomes, Sephira Ryman

Psychology ETDs

Impaired cognitive function results in decreased objective quality of life and community functioning in schizophrenia, resulting in the largest indirect costs from the disease. Disrupted proactive cognitive control, a form of early selection and active goal maintenance, is hypothesized to underlie the broad cognitive deficits observed in patients with schizophrenia. The current study utilized novel electrophysiological (EEG) analytic approach to examine proactive and reactive cognitive control deficits in schizophrenia patients. Behavioral results highlight that patients exhibited a general reduction in reaction time across two multisensory cognitive control tasks, with selective deficits on proactive conditions relative to reactive conditions. The relative …

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) Improves Performance On Spelling And Word Detection Tasks, J. Kevin Wilson

Psychology ETDs

Deficits in written language involving spelling can have negative effects on a person’s education and occupation. Conventional spelling therapy is a time consuming and cost-prohibitive option, if even available, highlighting the need for improved methods for remediation. One possible way to address this need may be through the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This study sought to examine the effects of tDCS on performance during spelling, word detection, and facial recognition tasks. Active or sham tDCS was randomly assigned to typically functioning adults. The anode electrode was placed over Broca’s area (F7 in the 10/20 EEG system) and …

Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Impairs Performance In An Object-Place-Paired-Associate Task, Lilliana May Sanchez

Psychology ETDs

Memory impairments, including spatial and object processing, are often observed in individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Much attention has been directed towards the hippocampus, which displays significant alterations after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). In the present study, we tested a moderate PAE rat model in an object-place-paired-associate (OPPA) task, previously shown to require hippocampal processing. The OPPA task was composed of training rats to discriminate between an identical pair of objects presented in 180° opposite arms of a radial arm maze. Animals were given a total of 10 trials per day over 14 consecutive days of training and …