Psychology Commons^™

Neurophysiological Alterations Following Concussion: Controlling For The Injury Factor, Caitlin Masterson

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The topic of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has rapidly gained attention not only in academic science but also in popular media. Unlike severe traumatic brain injury, mTBI is difficult to diagnose. There are no objective diagnostic criteria, and symptoms can vary greatly across individuals. Further, although individuals with mTBI are frequently compared to non-injured individuals, it cannot be concluded with certainty that any differences found between groups can be attributed solely to the head injury and not a more general injury-factor. Identifying a sensitive and specific physiological signal across similar injury groups is critical to establishing a criterion that …

N400, P600, And Late Sustained Frontal Positivity Event-Related Brain Potentials Reflect Distinct Psycholinguistic Processes During The Comprehension Of Contextually Ambiguous Narrative Discourses: Implications For The Neural Organization Of The Language Processing System, Patrick S. Ledwidge

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two studies were performed to investigate the temporal structure and organization of the language processing system during the comprehension of coherent contextually ambiguous narrative discourses. In Study 1, participants read short discourses that were contextually ambiguous if read without a descriptive title (Untitled group) or unambiguous with the title (Titled group). Participants identified the title of the discourses after reading 1-3 sentences. Given the unfinished next sentence, they performed a cloze procedure on the sentence-final word. For the Titled Group, cloze probability was greater to the last word of sentence 3 (Critical Word 3) than sentences 2 (Critical Word 2) …

Event-Related Potential Correlates Of Social And Nonsocial Cognitive Processes Related To Schizotypy, Charles A. Davidson

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Social cognitive, neurocognitive, and social functioning research in serious mental illness (SMI) have recently proliferated. Their synergy requires translational bridges to applied research. This project aims to develop a measurement protocol capable of measuring independent components of social cognitive and neurocognitive brain functioning. These brain processes should each vary systematically with schizotypal traits whose extremes represent core elements of psychotic disorders. The measurement technology must be affordable, efficient, and acceptable for use in clinical settings.

An ERP protocol was developed that incorporates an array of candidate measures. The stimuli consist of emotional (angry and happy), neutral, and scrambled (non-face comparison) …