Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between P300 Evoked Potentials And Prefrontal Cortex Oxygen Use: A Combined Eeg And Nirs Study, Will S. Rizer

All NMU Master's Theses

The P300 subcomponent, P3b, is an event related potential detected at the scalp surface when a working memory comparison results in differences between the contents of working memory and incoming stimulus information. Previous research has indicated that as infrequent targets become more difficult to detect (morphologically similar to a frequent non-target stimulus) the P300 becomes attenuated. fMRI research has also indicated increased prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during P300 generation. To examine the relationship between P3b amplitude and PFC activity participants performed an easy and difficult target detection task in both EEG and NIRS called the oddball. The EEG and behavioral …

Differential Functional Connectivity Of Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex During Emotional Interference, Akos Szekely, Rebecca L. Silton, Wendy Heller, Gregory A. Miller, Aprajita Mohanty

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The rostral-ventral subdivision of the anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) plays a key role in the regulation of emotional processing. Although rACC has strong anatomical connections with anterior insular cortex (AIC), amygdala, prefrontal cortex and striatal brain regions, it is unclear whether the functional connectivity of rACC with these regions changes when regulating emotional processing. Furthermore, it is not known whether this connectivity changes with deficits in emotion regulation seen in different kinds of anxiety and depression. To address these questions regarding rACC functional connectivity, non-patients high in self-reported anxious apprehension (AP), anxious arousal (AR), anhedonic depression (AD) or none (CON) …

Non-Human Primates In Neuroscience Research: The Case Against Its Scientific Necessity, Jarrod Bailey, Katy Taylor

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Public opposition to non-human primate (NHP) experiments is significant, yet those who defend them cite minimal harm to NHPs and substantial human benefit. Here we review these claims of benefit, specifically in neuroscience, and show that: a) there is a default assumption of their human relevance and benefit, rather than robust evidence; b) their human relevance and essential contribution and necessity are wholly overstated; c) the contribution and capacity of non-animal investigative methods are greatly understated; and d) confounding issues, such as species differences and the effects of stress and anaesthesia, are usually overlooked. This is the case in NHP …

The Neurocognitive Underpinnings Of Arithmetic In Children And Adults: Examining The Roles Of Domain General And Domain Specific Abilities, Anna A. Matejko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What are the cognitive underpinnings of arithmetic and how do they contribute to individual differences in children’s calculation abilities? Behavioural research has provided insights into which domain general (e.g. working memory) and domain specific (e.g. symbol-quantity associations) competencies are important for the acquisition of arithmetic skills. However, how domain general and domain specific skills are related to arithmetic at the neural level remains unclear. This thesis investigates the interplay between arithmetic and both domain general and specific competencies in the brain.

In Chapter 2 I examine how visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) networks overlap with those for arithmetic in children and …

Perceiving Oldness In Parietal Cortex: Fmri Characterization Of A Parietal Memory Network, Adrian Gilmore

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The manner in which the human brain recognizes certain stimuli as novel or familiar is a matter of ongoing investigation. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to improve our understanding of how this may be accomplished. More specifically, work contained herein focuses on a recently described "parietal memory network" (PMN; Gilmore et al., 2015) that shows opposite patterns of activity when perceiving novel or familiar stimuli: deactivating in response to novelty, and activating in response to familiarity. Critically, our understanding of this network is based on explicit memory tasks, in which subjects are deliberately instructed to learn or remember …

Pruning Or Tuning? Maturational Profiles Of Face Specialization During Typical Development, Xun Zhu, Ramesh S. Bhatt, Jane E. Joseph

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Face processing undergoes significant developmental change with age. Two kinds of developmental changes in face specialization were examined in this study: specialized maturation, or the continued tuning of a region to faces but little change in the tuning to other categories; and competitive interactions, or the continued tuning to faces accompanied by decreased tuning to nonfaces (i.e., pruning). Methods: Using fMRI, in regions where adults showed a face preference, a face- and object-specialization index were computed for younger children (5-8 years), older children (9-12 years) and adults (18-45 years). The specialization index was scaled to each subject's maximum activation …

The Neural And Cognitive Basis Of Cumulative Lifetime Familiarity Assessment, Devin Duke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Perirhinal cortex (PrC) has been implicated as a brain region in the medial temporal lobes (MTL) that critically contributes to familiarity-based recognition memory, a process that allows for recognition to occur independently of contextual recollection. Informed by neurophysiological research in non-human primates, fMRI, as well as behavioural work in humans, the current thesis research tests the novel hypothesis that PrC cortex functioning also underlies the ability to assess cumulative lifetime familiarity with object concepts that are characterized by a lifetime of experiences. In Chapter 2, a patient (NB) with a left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) lesion that included PrC as …

Distinct Stages Of Moment-To-Moment Processing In The Cinguloopercular And Frontoparietal Networks, C. Gratton, Maital Neta, H. Sun, E. J. Ploran, B. L. Schlaggar, M. E. Wheeler, S. E. Petersen, S. M. Nelson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Control of goal-directed tasks is putatively carried out via the cinguloopercular (CO) and frontoparietal (FP) systems. However, it remains unclear whether these systems showdissociable moment-to-moment processing during distinct stages of a trial. Here, we characterize dynamics in the CO and FP networks in a meta-analysis of 5 decision-making tasks using fMRI, with a specialized “slow reveal” paradigm which allows us to measure the temporal characteristics of trial responses.We find that activations in left FP, right FP, and CO systems form separate clusters, pointing to distinct roles in decision-making. Left FP shows early “accumulator-like” responses, suggesting a role in pre-decision processing. …

It’S A Matter Of Time: Reframing The Development Of Cognitive Control As A Modification Of The Brain’S Temporal Dynamics, R. Matthew Hutchison, J. Bruce Morton

Psychology Publications

Cognitive control is a process that unfolds over time and regulates thought and action in the service of achieving goals and managing unanticipated challenges. Prevailing accounts attribute the protracted development of this mental process to incremental changes in the functional organization of a cognitive control network. Here, we challenge the notion that cognitive control is linked to a topologically static network, and argue that the capacity to manage unanticipated challenges and its development should instead be characterized in terms of inter-regional functional coupling dynamics. Ongoing changes in temporal coupling have long represented a fundamental pillar in both empirical and theoretical-based …

Acute Stress Exposure And Expression Of Instrumentally Conditioned Financial Preferences: An Fmri Study, William Travis Mccuddy

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Recent research suggests acute stress exposure is associated with increased habit-based over goal-oriented decision making (e.g., Schwabe & Wolf, 2011). The current study examined whether acute stress promotes the expression of simple financial preferences “overtrained” to the point of habit in the face of a changing environment where said preferences were later rendered non-optimal. Over three days participants (N = 28) learned to discriminate between visual stimuli probabilistically associated with monetary gains or losses and made decisions between stimuli with real financial outcomes. On the fourth day after exposure to either an acute stressor or control procedure participants performed the …

Non-Human Primates In Neuroscience Research: The Case Against Its Scientific Necessity, Jarrod Bailey, Katy Taylor

Experimentation Collection

Public opposition to non-human primate (NHP) experiments is significant, yet those who defend them cite minimal harm to NHPs and substantial human benefit. Here we review these claims of benefit, specifically in neuroscience, and show that: a) there is a default assumption of their human relevance and benefit, rather than robust evidence; b) their human relevance and essential contribution and necessity are wholly overstated; c) the contribution and capacity of non-animal investigative methods are greatly understated; and d) confounding issues, such as species differences and the effects of stress and anaesthesia, are usually overlooked. This is the case in NHP …

Resting State Fcmri In The Social Cognition Network As A Predictive Measure For Scores Of Socialization Of Preterm Neonates, Angela Westgate

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Many resting state networks have been detected in newborn infants using functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fcMRI). Few studies have looked at a social cognition network in adults and none have looked at this network in infants. Social cognition plays an important role in social competence at school age and beyond, and infants born prematurely tend to have difficulties with peer relationships and lower academic performance by school-age. This study had two purposes: to find a social cognition network in our preterm and neurologically diagnosed sample, and to find a relationship to social interaction scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior …

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 …

How Configural Is The Configural Superiority Effect? A Neuroimaging Investigation Of Emergent Features In Visual Cortex, Olivia Michelle Fox

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The perception of a visual stimulus is dependent not only upon local features, but also on the arrangement of those features. When stimulus features are perceptually well organized, a global configuration with a high degree of salience emerges from the interactions between these features, often referred to as emergent features. Emergent features can be demonstrated in the Configural Superiority Effect (CSE): presenting a stimulus within an organized context relative to its presentation in a disarranged one results in better performance. Prior neuroimaging work on the perception of emergent features regards the CSE as an "all or none" phenomenon, focusing on …

A Brain System For Auditory Working Memory, Sukhbinder Kumar, Sabine Joseph, Phillip E. Gander, Nicolas Barascud, Andrea R. Halpern, Timothy D. Griffiths

Faculty Journal Articles

The brain basis for auditory working memory, the process of actively maintaining sounds in memory over short periods of time, is controversial. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in human participants, we demonstrate that the maintenance of single tones in memory is associated with activation in auditory cortex. In addition, sustained activation was observed in hippocampus and inferior frontal gyrus. Multivoxel pattern analysis showed that patterns of activity in auditory cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus distinguished the tone that was maintained in memory. Functional connectivity during maintenance was demonstrated between auditory cortex and both the hippocampus and inferior frontal cortex. …

Does The Pain Of Rejection Promote The Pleasure Of Revenge? A Neural Investigation Of Cingulo-Striatal Contributions To Violence, David Chester

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Aggression is a dynamic and costly feature of human behavior. One reliable cause of aggression is social rejection, though the underlying mechanisms of this effect remain to be fully understood. Previous research has identified two psychological processes that are independently linked to aggressive retaliation: pain and pleasure. Given recent findings that pain magnifies the experience of pleasure, I predicted that the pain of rejection would promote the pleasure of aggression and thus, aggression itself. I also expected that this indirect effect of aggressive pleasure would only be observed among individuals with weaker self-regulatory abilities that are necessary to cope with …

A Face Versus Non-Face Context Influences Amygdala Responses To Masked Fearful Eye Whites, M. Justin Kim, Kimberly M. Solomon, Maital Neta, Caroline Davis, Jonathan A. Oler, Emily C. Mazzulla, Paul J. Whalen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The structure of the mask stimulus is crucial in backward masking studies and we recently demonstrated such an effect when masking faces. Specifically, we showed that activity of the amygdala is increased to fearful facial expressions masked with neutral faces and decreased to fearful expressions masked with a pattern mask – but critically both masked conditions discriminated fearful expressions from happy expressions. Given this finding, we sought to test whether masked fearful eye whites would produce a similar profile of amygdala response in a face vs. non-face context. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning sessions, 30 participants viewed fearful or …