Psychology Commons^™

Cognitive And Neuroscientific Perspectives Of Healthy Ageing, Jon B. Prince, Helen L. Davis, Jane Tan, Katrina Muller-Townsend, Shaun Markovic, David M. G. Lewis, Brianne Hastie, Matthew B. Thompson, Peter D. Drummond, Hakuei Fujiyama, Hamid R. Sohrabi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

With dementia incidence projected to escalate significantly within the next 25 years, the United Nations declared 2021–2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing, emphasising cognition as a crucial element. As a leading discipline in cognition and ageing research, psychology is well-equipped to offer insights for translational research, clinical practice, and policy-making. In this comprehensive review, we discuss the current state of knowledge on age-related changes in cognition and psychological health. We discuss cognitive changes during ageing, including (a) heterogeneity in the rate, trajectory, and characteristics of decline experienced by older adults, (b) the role of cognitive reserve in age-related cognitive decline, …

Individual Longitudinal Changes In Dna-Methylome Identify Signatures Of Early-Life Adversity And Correlate With Later Outcome, Annabel K. Short, Ryan Weber, Noriko Kamei, Christina Wilcox Thai, Hina Arora, Ali Mortazavi, Hal S. Stern, Laura M. Glynn, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Adverse early-life experiences (ELA) affect a majority of the world's children. Whereas the enduring impact of ELA on cognitive and emotional health is established, there are no tools to predict vulnerability to ELA consequences in an individual child. Epigenetic markers including peripheral-cell DNA-methylation profiles may encode ELA and provide predictive outcome markers, yet the interindividual variance of the human genome and rapid changes in DNA methylation in childhood pose significant challenges. Hoping to mitigate these challenges we examined the relation of several ELA dimensions to DNA methylation changes and outcome using a within-subject longitudinal design and a high methylation-change threshold. …

A Pilot Study Considering Pain-Relieving Medications And Opioid Knowledge And Use Among Elite Athletes, Jackie Vandertuin, Dalya Abdulla, Stephanie Lowther-Gagnon, Miranda Manolakos

Publications and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Examining The Effects Of Menstrual Cycle Phase And Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Women's Sleep, Charles Ethan Coombs

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women overrepresent men for sub-optimal sleep, a consequence of hormone fluctuation in the menstrual cycle affecting sleep regulatory pathways. While research has examined the prevalence of sub-optimal sleep through cycle phases, little research has examined how hormonal contraceptives (HC’s) could similarly affect women’s sleep, while also neglecting to utilize subjective sleep measures. In this study, we examine subjective sleep quality among naturally cycling (NC) women, women using different HC types, and between active and inactive phase pill users by subjecting 463 women to a subjective sleep battery. We hypothesized that HC users would report more sub-optimal sleep than NC women. …

Effects Of Postural Position, Eeg Asymmetry, And Temperamental Style On Cognitive Task Performance, Taylor Cops, Christy D. Wolfe

Undergraduate Theses

The literature shows hemispheric asymmetry in individuals corresponding with temperamental style. Those with greater right-frontal activation tend towards withdrawal/inhibition and those with greater left-frontal activation tend towards approach/activation (e.g., Davidson, 1992). Other literature suggests that greater right-parietotemporal activation is associated with increased arousal (Heller, 1993; Wolfe & Bell, 2014). Temperamental style has been linked with cognitive performance with approach-oriented temperaments being associated with both higher and lower performance depending on the task requirements (Khan et al., 2024; Wolfe & Bell, 2007). Literature further suggests that postural position (e.g., sitting, standing, lying down) may influence feelings of approach/withdrawal and cognitive processing. …

The Bloodless Period: A Transfeminine Experience, Rin Nguyen

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is limited research exploring menstruation in transgender and gender diverse (TGD) populations, and studies have primarily examined the relationship between menstruation and gender congruence. Findings revealed menstruating TGD people experienced distress related to decreased gender congruence (Eisenberg et al., 2021), and 88% of TGD people expressed interest in menstrual suppression to manage the distress (Schwartz et al., 2022). By contrast, Lowik (2020) highlighted a transfeminine person who wished to menstruate to achieve womanhood and commented on the “bloodless period” (i.e., menstrual-like symptoms in the absence of bleeding) upon receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy. To the author’s knowledge, there is no …

Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (Gaba) Neurons And Perineuronal Nets (Pnn) In The Monodelphis Domestica And Relevance To Psychiatric Disorders, Jatziry Z. Luna Escobedo, Mariela Garcia, John L. Vandeberg, Mario Gil

Research Symposium

Background/ Purpose: Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid that serves as the central nervous system’s (CNS) main inhibitory neurotransmitter. By inhibiting nerve transmission, it works to lower neuronal excitability. Altered GABA levels have been associated with a variety of psychiatric disorders, for example Epilepsies, Parkinson’s Disease, and Schizophrenia. Perineuronal nets (PNN) are extracellular molecules that are released by neurons and glial cells that modulate many neuronal and glial functions by encapsulating the inhibitory cells and neurites. Altered PNN levels serve as a potential trigger to synaptic imbalance. The purpose of this study is to quantify and analyze the presence, …

Psilocybin With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) For The Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder (Sad), Aspen E. Allred

University Honors Theses

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a debilitating mental health condition characterized by an overwhelming fear and anxiety of social rejection that can lead to chronic patterns of social behavioral avoidance. Despite the existence of traditional efficacious treatments, a significant number of individuals either do not respond to treatment or experience a recurrence of symptoms over extended periods, spanning 10-12 years. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a form of acceptance-based behavioral therapy considered part of the "third wave" of cognitive behavioral therapies, has shown promising results in early studies, comparable to those of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that is considered the …

Evaluating The Oral Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Dental Patients In South India - A Descriptive Study, Dheekshitha P K, Sudeep C B Dr., Sunil P M Dr., Suji M Dr.

Annual Research Symposium

This study aims to evaluate the oral health-related quality of life among dental patients in South India.

Validation Of A Virtual Auditory Space, And Its Use To Investigate How Pitch And Spatial Cues Contribute To Perceptual Segregation Of Auditory Streams, Nima Zargarnezhad

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The human auditory system can decompose complex sound mixtures into distinct perceptual auditory objects through a process (or processes) known as Auditory Scene Analysis. Pitch and spatial cues are among the sound attributes known to influence sequential streaming (Plack 2018). In this project, the fidelity of a virtual acoustic space (the Audio Dome) in reproducing precisely located sound sources with a 9^th-order ambisonics algorithm was validated. The estimated horizontal Minimum Audible Angles aligned with previously reported values (Mills 1958) homogeneously across the space, and a robust low-frequency presentation was identified. Then, the Audio Dome was utilized to test …

An Ewas Of Dementia Biomarkers And Their Associations With Age, African Ancestry, And Ptsd, Mark W. Miller, Erika J. Wolf, Xiang Zhao, Mark W. Logue, Sage E. Hawn

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Large-scale cohort and epidemiological studies suggest that PTSD confers risk for dementia in later life but the biological mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. This study examined this question by assessing the influences of PTSD, APOE ε4 genotypes, DNA methylation, and other variables on the age- and dementia-associated biomarkers Aβ40, Aβ42, GFAP, NfL, and pTau-181 measured in plasma. Our primary hypothesis was that PTSD would be associated with elevated levels of these markers.

Methods

Analyses were based on data from a PTSD-enriched cohort of 849 individuals. We began by performing factor analyses of the biomarkers, the results of which …

Changes In Sleep Effort Mediate Insomnia Severity In Older Adults Following Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Yvonne Kutzer, Lisa Whitehead, Eimear Quigley, Mandy Stanley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background

To examine treatment mechanisms of digitally delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), this study assessed the mediating effects of dysfunctional beliefs, hyperarousal, locus of control, self-efficacy, sleep effort, and safety behaviours on self-reported insomnia severity in older adults before and following the completion of a self-guided, online CBT-I program.

Methods

The baseline and follow-up measurements were completed by 62 older adults (55 female, 89%). This was a two-condition within-participant design. Mediation analysis using a parallel mediation model was conducted using the MEMORE macro for repeated measure designs.

Results

Out of all the included mediator variables, only a reduction …

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Of Dementia In Those With And Without A Recorded History Of Psychological Trauma: A Comparative Study From An Australian Dementia Support Service, Monica Cations, Mustafa Atee, Thomas Morris, Daniel Whiting

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: To compare the number and severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) and associated caregiver distress between those with and without a noted history of psychological trauma among those referred to a specialised national dementia NPS support service. Methods: This was a 5-year retrospective observational study of records from the Dementia Support Australia NPS support service. NPS were reported by formal or informal caregivers at service entry using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Nursing Home version or Questionnaire version. A history of psychological trauma was recorded in the person's social or medical history and/or endorsed as a contributor to NPS by a trained …