Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Hpa Axis Genetic Variation And Life Stress Influences On Functional Connectivity In Resting State Networks, Tara Ann Miskovich

Theses and Dissertations

Stressful or traumatic experiences are a key risk factor for developing psychopathology, primarily through the impact that chronic stress has on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The HPA axis regulates the stress response but can become dysregulated with chronic activation and impact brain functioning. In addition to environmental stressors, genetic variation in genes in the HPA axis appear to influence HPA axis functioning and is also related to disruption in brain functioning, particularly in the context of high life stress. The current study focused on examining potential mechanisms through which trauma and stress interacts with HPA axis genes to impact key …

Baked And Buzzed: Investigating The Influence Of Co-Use Of Cannabis And Alcohol On White Matter Integrity In Emerging Adults, Natasha E. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Growing evidence suggests alcohol and cannabis use independently alter neural structure and functioning, particularly during sensitive developmental time periods such as adolescence and emerging adulthood. However, there has been minimal investigation into the effects co-occurring use of these two substances, despite preliminary evidence of unique acute and psychopharmacological changes due to using alcohol and cannabis together.

Method: Data drawn from the IDEAA Consortium was utilized to assess white matter integrity as measured by FreeSurfer’s TRACULA in emerging adults (n=192; 16-27 years old). Timeline Follow-Back was used to calculate past month cannabis use, alcohol use, co-use days, binge alcohol episode, …

Abnormal Reward Processing And Visual Selective Attention: An Event-Related Potential Investigation With Remitted Depressed Adults, Kevin Haworth

Theses and Dissertations

Feedback, rewarding and non-rewarding, received from the environment can facilitate learning, influence motivation and shape behavior (Skinner, 1963; Thorndike, 1898). Recent research has indicated that reward can also enhance cognitive processes such as visual selective attention (Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011a; Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011b; Della Libera, Perlato, & Chelazzi, 2011; Krebs, Boehler, Egner, & Woldorff, 2011). Depression is one of the most common, debilitating, and costly forms of mental illness (Katon, 1996; Kessler et al., 2005; Mathers, Fat, & Boerma, 2008) and has been characterized by reduced responsiveness to reward (Henriques, Glowacki, & Davidson, 1994; Henriques & Davidson, …

The Effects Of G-Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor (Gper) On Cell Signaling, Dendritic Spines, And Memory Consolidation In The Female Mouse Hippocampus, Jae Kyoon Kim

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most seminal findings in the literature on hormones and cognition is that the potent estrogen 17β-estradiol (E2) significantly increases the density of dendritic spines on pyramidal neurons in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus (DH). However, the extent to which this E2-induced increase in hippocampal spinogenesis is necessary for memory formation remains unclear. The memory-enhancing effects of E2 in the DH can be mediated by intracellular estrogen receptors (ERs) or by the membrane-bound ER called G-protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPER). We previously reported that infusion of a GPER agonist, G-1, into the DH of ovariectomized female …

Structural And Functional Brain Connectivity In Middle-Aged Carriers Of Risk Alleles For Alzheimer's Disease, Laura Korthauer

Theses and Dissertations

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in APOE, COMT, BDNF, and KIBRA have been associated with age-related memory performance and executive functioning as well as risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The purpose of the present investigation was to characterize differences in brain functional and structural integrity associated with these SNPs as potential endophenotypes of age-related cognitive decline. I focused my investigation on healthy, cognitively normal middle-aged adults, as disentangling the early effects of healthy versus pathological aging in this group may aid early detection and prevention of AD. The aims of the study were 1) to characterize SNP-related differences in functional connectivity …

Neural Correlates Of Memory Decisions Made In The Face Of Conflict, Elaine Mahoney

Theses and Dissertations

We’ve all experienced moments where, for some reason or another, we don’t want to reveal to others what we truly know. The current experiment investigated questions about the behavioral and neural correlates of these types of memory decisions made in the face of a conflicting goal. Participants in this experiment studied several scene-face pairs and were tested with three-face displays preceded by studied scene cues. They were instructed to indicate whether the three-face display contained the matching associate or not. Critically, half of the participants were instructed to simulate feigned memory impairment (i.e. simulators), while the remainder were instructed to …

How Does Anxiety Affect Cognitive Control? Proactive And Reactive Control Under State Anxiety, Youcai Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive control is a construct that prioritizes how we process stimuli and information and execute behaviors to flexibly and efficiently adapt to internal goals and external environmental changes. A recent theory, the Dual Mechanism of Control (DMC), distinguishes this phenomenon by two distinct cognitive control operations: proactive control and reactive control (Braver, 2012). Anxiety increases the allocation of attentional and working memory resources to threat-related stimuli, which impairs cognitive performance (Sarason, 1988), but additional work is needed to assess how anxiety impacts these two distinct forms of cognitive control. In this study, I examined how state anxiety affected proactive control, …