Psychology Commons^™

Sex Differences In Metabolic Phenotype And Hypothalamic Inflammation In The 3xtg-Ad Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease., Lisa S. Robison, Olivia J. Gannon, Abigail E. Salinero, Charly Abi-Ghanem, Richard D. Kelly, David A. Riccio, Febronia M. Mansour, Kristen L. Zuloaga

Faculty Articles

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is notably associated with cognitive decline resulting from impaired function of hippocampal and cortical areas; however, several other domains and corresponding brain regions are affected. One such brain region is the hypothalamus, shown to atrophy and develop amyloid and tau pathology in AD patients. The hypothalamus controls several functions necessary for survival, including energy and glucose homeostasis. Changes in appetite and body weight are common in AD, often seen several years prior to the onset of cognitive symptoms. Therefore, altered metabolic processes may serve as a biomarker for AD, as well as a target for treatment, …

Parental Perspectives On The Social Communication Between Adolescent Females Diagnosed With High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder And Their Typically Developing Older Siblings: A Case Study, Victoria Suzette Paxton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Verbal social communication and nonverbal social communication have been documented as a source of deficiency in adolescents with high-functioning (H-F) autism. Likewise, adolescent females with autism reported an increase in social communication difficulties as they aged into adolescence. While the positive impact on social communication in children with autism by older siblings has been documented, there is no such research that has investigated the nonverbal and verbal social communication characteristics among adolescent females with high-functioning autism and their typically developing older siblings (Ben-Itzchak et al., 2016). In the following research study, parental perspectives on the social communication between female adolescents …

“I’M Not Just Made For Men”: How Online Sex Workers Manage Misogyny, Sarah Dellner

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Online sex work, or erotic labor, refers to sexual services that are provided via the Internet for compensation. Views of sex work range from empowering and agentic for sex workers, rife with violence and victimization. Various frameworks (Jones, 2016 Vance, 1984; Weitzer, 2010) examine the balance between these extremes; but often lacks nuance. I examined female and non-binary online sex workers’ experiences with misogyny and how they cope with it. Zoom interviews were conducted with 15 participants ranging from 18 to 33 years old. Using an intersectional feminist lens and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2020), two overarching themes were …

Family History Of Fxtas Is Associated With Age-Related Cognitive-Linguistic Decline Among Mothers With The Fmr1 Premutation, Jessica Klusek, Amanda Fairchild, Carly Moser, Marsha R. Mailick, Angela John Thurman, Leonard Abbeduto

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Women who carry a premutation allele of the FMR1 gene are at increased vulnerability to an array of age-related symptoms and disorders, including age-related decline in select cognitive skills. However, the risk factors for age-related decline are poorly understood, including the potential role of family history and genetic factors. In other forms of pathological aging, early decline in syntactic complexity is observed and predicts the later onset of neurodegenerative disease. To shed light on the earliest signs of degeneration, the present study characterized longitudinal changes in the syntactic complexity of women with the FMR1 premutation across midlife, and associations …

Associations Between Body Dissatisfaction And Relationship Functioning Among Same-Sex Female Couples: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, Cassidy M. Sandoval, Kelly A. Romano, Kristin E. Heron, Charlotte A. Dawson, Tiphanie G. Sutton, Barbara A. Winstead, Robin J. Lewis

Psychology Faculty Publications

Nearly all past research about body dissatisfaction and romantic relationship factors is among heterosexual couples; little is known about these associations in sexual minority couples. The present study aimed to fill gaps in the current literature by using actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) to examine dyadic patterns of association between body dissatisfaction and different aspects of relationship functioning among same-sex female couples. Participants were 163 same-sex female romantic dyads (326 women) between the ages of 18-35 years who completed measures of body dissatisfaction and relationship factors. Results from significance testing of actor and partner effects indicated higher levels of women's own …

Relations Between Social Comparisons And Physical Activity Among Women In Midlife With Elevated Risk For Cardiovascular Disease: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study., Danielle Arigo, Jacqueline A Mogle, Joshua M Smyth

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Women in midlife (ages 40-60) show decreases in physical activity (PA) that exacerbate risk for cardiovascular disease. Social comparisons (i.e., self-evaluations relative to others) are known to influence PA in other groups, but their association in this population is unknown. The present study used ecological momentary assessment to examine this relation among women in midlife with hypertension or another CVD risk condition (N = 75, M

Exploring The Effects Of Nicotine On Reward Learning In Female Sprague-Dawley Rats, Brendan Atticks

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Nicotine addiction harms millions of individuals worldwide: financially, socially, and psychologically. Successful smoking cessation could dramatically improve the quality of life for these people. A key driver of smoking relapse centers around associated environmental cues, which induces craving and drives a smoker to re-initiate smoking. Previous work has shown that nicotine can enhance the reinforcing properties of reward-associated cues in male rats. This research aims to evaluate nicotine’s effect on female rats using a behavioral assay called “cue-induced reward-seeking.” In this behavioral assay, rats are trained to press a lever that produces liquid sucrose along with an audiovisual cue. After …

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury, Suicide Planning, And Suicide Attempt Among High-Risk Adolescents Prior To Psychiatric Hospitalization, Christina M. Sellers, Antonia Díaz-Valdés, Andrew C. Porter, Catherine R. Glenn, Adam Bryant Miller, Adeline Wyman Battalen, Kimberly H. Mcmanama O'Brien

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to understand the trajectories of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide plans (SP) in the 90 days prior to inpatient hospitalization, understand the role of NSSI and SP in predicting suicide attempts (SA) on a given day, and to test the interaction between NSSI and SP in predicting same-day SA. Participants included 69 adolescents (77% female, 65% white, 77% Non-Hispanic/Latinx, Mage = 15.77 SDage = 1.00) from an inpatient psychiatric unit. Past 90 day NSSI, SP, and SA were measured using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale and Timeline Follow Back. First, mixed effect models …

Minority Stress And Alcohol Use In Sexual Minority Women's Daily Lives, Robin J. Lewis, Kelly A. Romano, Sarah J. Ehlke, Cathy Lau-Barraco, Cassidy M. Sandoval, Douglas J. Glenn, Kristin E. Heron

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Masculinized Second-To-Fourth Digit Ratio (2d:4d Ratio) Is Associated With Lower Cortisol Response In Infant Female Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca Mulatta), Elizabeth K. Wood, Parker Jarman, Elysha Cash, Alexander Baxter, John P. Capitanio, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D ratio) is considered a postnatal proxy measure for the degree of prenatal androgen exposure (PAE), which is the primary factor responsible for masculinizing the brain of a developing fetus. Some studies suggest that the organizational effects of PAE may extend to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to stress. This study investigates the relationship between 2D:4D ratio and HPA axis functioning using a rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) model. Subjects were N = 268 (180 females, 88 males) rhesus monkey infants (3–4 months of age). Plasma cortisol concentrations were assayed from two blood samples obtained …

Exploring Alcohol Use, Cannabis Use, And Desire To Dissociate In College Female Victims Of Sexual Violence, Gabrielle Krause, Jessie Tibbs, Antover Tuliao, Dennis Mcchargue

UCARE Research Products

Almost 20% of undergraduate women experience some type of completed sexual assault before graduating college. Experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, has been shown to increase difficulties with emotion regulation, and both PTSD symptoms and emotion regulation difficulties have been associated with marijuana-use coping motives (Bonn-Miller et al., 2011). Additionally, prior research has found that emotion dysregulation predicts alcohol involved sexual assault (AISA) in the short term, and alcohol problems increases the risk for AISA in the long term (Messman-Moore et al., 2014). This suggests a cyclical relationship in coping drinking motives. This study seeks to further examine …

Somatic Symptoms And Binge Eating In Women's Daily Lives, Kelly A. Romano, Kristin E. Heron, Kathryn E. Smith, Ross D. Crosby, Scott G. Engel, Stephen A. Wonderlich, Raina D. Pang, Tyler B. Mason

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective

The present study aimed to determine whether the momentary severity of women's somatic symptoms was concurrently and prospectively associated with their engagement in binge eating in naturalistic settings.

Method

Thirty women (M_age = 34.13, SD = 13.92) who had engaged in binge eating at least once over the month prior to study entry completed a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol. During each of the 14 days, participants received five semi-random surveys via text message that assessed momentary somatic symptom severity (i.e., headaches, stomachaches/pain, chest/heart pain, faintness/dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue) and disordered eating behaviors. Generalized estimating equations …

An Ecological Momentary Assessment Of Self-Improved And Self-Evaluation Body Comparisons: Associations With College Women's Body Dissatisfaction And Exercise, Rachel I. Macintyre, Kristin E. Heron, Abby L. Braitman, Danielle Arigo

Psychology Faculty Publications

Upward body comparisons are prevalent among college women and associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. However, less is known about distinguishing features of the comparisons themselves as they occur in daily life. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine whether two types of upward body comparisons previously studied experimentally (self-improvement and self-evaluation) are differentially associated with body- and exercise-related outcomes in real-life settings using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Undergraduate women (N = 74) between 18-25 years (Mage = 20.4, SD = 1.63) completed five surveys on smartphones daily for seven days. EMA measures …

Cognitive Change In Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Leanne Quigley, David J A Dozois, R Michael Bagby, Daniela S S Lobo, Lakshmi Ravindran, Lena C Quilty

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Although cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a well-established treatment for adult depression, its efficacy and efficiency may be enhanced by better understanding its mechanism(s) of action. According to the theoretical model of CBT, symptom improvement occurs via reductions in maladaptive cognition. However, previous research has not established clear evidence for this cognitive mediation model.

METHODS: The present study investigated the cognitive mediation model of CBT in the context of a randomized controlled trial of CBT v. antidepressant medication (ADM) for adult depression. Participants with major depressive disorder were randomized to receive 16 weeks of CBT (n = 54) or ADM …

Co-Prescription Network Reveals Social Dynamics Of Opioid Doctor Shopping, Brea L. Perry, Kai Cheng Yang, Patrick Kaminski, Meltem Odabas, Jaehyuk Park, Michelle M. Martel, Carrie B. Oser, Patricia R. Freeman, Yong-Yeol Ahn, Jeffery C. Talbert

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper examines network prominence in a co-prescription network as an indicator of opioid doctor shopping (i.e., fraudulent solicitation of opioids from multiple prescribers). Using longitudinal data from a large commercially insured population, we construct a network where a tie between patients is weighted by the number of shared opioid prescribers. Given prior research suggesting that doctor shopping may be a social process, we hypothesize that active doctor shoppers will occupy central structural positions in this network. We show that network prominence, operationalized using PageRank, is associated with more opioid prescriptions, higher predicted risk for dangerous morphine dosage, opioid overdose, …

Socioemotional Selectivity And Psychological Health In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients And Caregivers: A Longitudinal, Dyadic Analysis, Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Edward J. Kasarskis, David W. Fardo, Philip M. Westgate

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that as the end of life approaches, goals and resources that provide immediate, hedonic reward become more important than those that provide delayed rewards. This study tested whether these goal domains differentially affected psychological health in the context of marital dyads in which one partner had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a life-limiting disease.

Design: ALS patients (N = 102) being treated in three multidisciplinary clinics and their spouses (N = 100) reported their loneliness, financial worry and psychological health every 3 months for up to 18 months.

Main …

The Role Of Outcome Expectancy In Therapeutic Change Across Psychotherapy Versus Pharmacotherapy For Depression., Thulasi Thiruchselvam, David J A Dozois, R Michael Bagby, Daniela S S Lobo, Lakshmi N Ravindran, Lena C Quilty

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Patient outcome expectancy - the belief that treatment will lead to an improvement in symptoms - is linked to favourable therapeutic outcomes in major depressive disorder (MDD). The present study extends this literature by investigating the temporal dynamics of expectancy, and by exploring whether expectancy during treatment is linked to differential outcomes across treatment modalities, for both optimistic versus pessimistic expectancy.

METHODS: A total of 104 patients with MDD were randomized to receive either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or pharmacotherapy for 16 weeks. Outcome expectancy was measured throughout treatment using the Depression Change Expectancy Scale (DCES). Depression severity was …

Translating The Bdi And Bdi-Ii Into The Hamd And Vice Versa With Equipercentile Linking., Toshi A Furukawa, Mirjam Reijnders, Sanae Kishimoto, Masatsugu Sakata, Robert J Derubeis, Sona Dimidjian, David J. A. Dozois, Ulrich Hegerl, Steven D Hollon, Robin B Jarrett, François Lespérance, Zindel V Segal, David C Mohr, Anne D Simons, Lena C Quilty, Charles F Reynolds, Claudio Gentili, Stefan Leucht, Rolf R Engel, Pim Cuijpers

Psychology Publications

AIMS: The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) are the most frequently used observer-rated and self-report scales of depression, respectively. It is important to know what a given total score or a change score from baseline on one scale means in relation to the other scale.

METHODS: We obtained individual participant data from the randomised controlled trials of psychological and pharmacological treatments for major depressive disorders. We then identified corresponding scores of the HAMD and the BDI (369 patients from seven trials) or the BDI-II (683 patients from another seven trials) using the equipercentile linking …

Cognition And The Brain Of Brood Parasitic Cowbirds., David F Sherry, Mélanie F Guigueno

Psychology Publications

Cowbirds are brood parasites. Females lay their eggs in the nests of other species, which then incubate the cowbird eggs and raise the young cowbirds. Finding and returning to heterospecific nests presents cowbirds with several cognitive challenges. In some species, such as brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), females but not males search for and remember the locations of potential host nests. We describe recent research on sex differences in cognition and the hippocampus associated with this sex difference in search for host nests. Female brown-headed cowbirds perform better than males on some, but not all, tests of spatial memory and females …

Effects Of Naltrexone On Alcohol And Nicotine Use In Female P Rats, Usman Z. Hamid, Sarah E. Maggio, Meredith A. Saunders, Kimberly Nixon, Mark A. Prendergast, Richard L. Bell, Michael T. Bardo

Posters-at-the-Capitol Presentations

The objective of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of the opioid antagonist naltrexone at reducing the consumption of EtOH and nicotine in female alcohol-preferring (P) rats. P rats have been selectively bred to have a genetic predisposition for alcohol abuse, which allows them to be used as an animal model of alcoholism. P rats readily self-administer i.v nicotine (Le et al., 2016), have EtOH consumption during adolescence that is similar to that seen in adulthood, and operantly respond for EtOH until they are impaired/intoxicated (Bell et al., 2006). Thus, P rats are a useful model for studying …

Older Adults' Health Care Utilization A Year After Experiencing Fear Or Distress From Hurricane Sandy, Laura P Sands, Yimeng Xie, Rachel Pruchno, Allison Heid, Yili Hong

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty Scholarship

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether self-reports of disaster-related psychological distress predict older adults' health care utilization during the year after Hurricane Sandy, which hit New Jersey on October 29, 2012.

METHODS: Respondents were from the ORANJ BOWL Study, a random-digit dialed sample from New Jersey recruited from 2006 to 2008. Medicare hospital, emergency department (ED) and outpatient claims data from 2012 and 2013 were matched to 1607 people age 65 and older in 2012 who responded to follow-up surveys conducted from July 2013 to July 2015 to determine their hurricane-related experiences.

RESULTS: In total, 7% (107) of respondents reported they experienced …

Examining Ecological Constraints On The Intergenerational Transmission Of Attachment Via Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis, Marije L Verhage, R M Pasco Fearon, Carlo Schuengel, Marinus H Van Ijzendoorn, Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Sheri Madigan, Glenn I Roisman, Mirjam Oosterman, Kazuko Y Behrens, Maria S Wong, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Lynn E. Priddis, Karl-Heinz Brisch, Collaboration On Attachment Transmission Synthesis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Parents' attachment representations and child-parent attachment have been shown to be associated, but these associations vary across populations (Verhage et al., 2016). The current study examined whether ecological factors may explain variability in the strength of intergenerational transmission of attachment, using individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis. Analyses on 4,396 parent-child dyads (58 studies, child age 11-96 months) revealed a combined effect size of r = .29. IPD meta-analyses revealed that effect sizes for the transmission of autonomous-secure representations to secure attachments were weaker under risk conditions and weaker in adolescent parent-child dyads, whereas transmission was stronger for older children. Findings …

Neural Mechanisms Of The Rejection-Aggression Link, David S. Chester, Donald R. Lynam, Richard Milich, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a painful event that often increases aggression. However, the neural mechanisms of this rejection–aggression link remain unclear. A potential clue may be that rejected people often recruit the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s (VLPFC) self-regulatory processes to manage the pain of rejection. Using functional MRI, we replicated previous links between rejection and activity in the brain’s mentalizing network, social pain network and VLPFC. VLPFC recruitment during rejection was associated with greater activity in the brain’s reward network (i.e. the ventral striatum) when individuals were given an opportunity to retaliate. This retaliation-related striatal response was associated with greater levels of …

Modified Origins Of Cortical Projections To The Superior Colliculus In The Deaf: Dispersion Of Auditory Efferents., Blake E Butler, Julia K Sunstrum, Stephen G Lomber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Following the loss of a sensory modality, such as deafness or blindness, crossmodal plasticity is commonly identified in regions of the cerebrum that normally process the deprived modality. It has been hypothesized that significant changes in the patterns of cortical afferent and efferent projections may underlie these functional crossmodal changes. However, studies of thalamocortical and corticocortical connections have refuted this hypothesis, instead revealing a profound resilience of cortical afferent projections following deafness and blindness. This report is the first study of cortical outputs following sensory deprivation, characterizing cortical projections to the superior colliculus in mature cats (

Seeing The Forest And The Trees: Default Local Processing In Individuals With High Autistic Traits Does Not Come At The Expense Of Global Attention., Ryan A Stevenson, Sol Z Sun, Naomi Hazlett, Jonathan S Cant, Morgan D Barense, Susanne Ferber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Atypical sensory perception is one of the most ubiquitous symptoms of autism, including a tendency towards a local-processing bias. We investigated whether local-processing biases were associated with global-processing impairments on a global/local attentional-scope paradigm in conjunction with a composite-face task. Behavioural results were related to individuals' levels of autistic traits, specifically the Attention to Detail subscale of the Autism Quotient, and the Sensory Profile Questionnaire. Individuals showing high rates of Attention to Detail were more susceptible to global attentional-scope manipulations, suggesting that local-processing biases associated with Attention to Detail do not come at the cost of a global-processing deficit, but …

Nutrient Intake In The First Two Weeks Of Life And Brain Growth In Preterm Neonates., Juliane Schneider, Céline J Fischer Fumeaux, Emma G Duerden, Ting Guo, Justin Foong, Myriam Bickle Graz, Patric Hagmann, M Mallar Chakravarty, Petra S Hüppi, Lydie Beauport, Anita C Truttmann, Steven P Miller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

BACKGROUND: Optimizing early nutritional intake in preterm neonates may promote brain health and neurodevelopment through enhanced brain maturation. Our objectives were (1) to determine the association of energy and macronutrient intake in the first 2 weeks of life with regional and total brain growth and white matter (WM) maturation, assessed by 3 serial MRI scans in preterm neonates; (2) to examine how critical illness modifies this association; and (3) to investigate the relationship with neurodevelopmental outcomes.

METHODS: Forty-nine preterm neonates (21 boys, median [interquartile range] gestational age: 27.6 [2.3] weeks) were scanned serially at the following median postmenstrual weeks: 29.4, …

Development Of Body Emotion Perception In Infancy: From Discrimination To Recognition, Alison Heck, Alyson Chroust, Hannah B. White, Rachel Lynn Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research suggests that infants progress from discrimination to recognition of emotions in faces during the first half year of life. It is unknown whether the perception of emotions from bodies develops in a similar manner. In the current study, when presented with happy and angry body videos and voices, 5-month-olds looked longer at the matching video when they were presented upright but not when they were inverted. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to match even with upright videos. Thus, 5-month-olds but not 3.5-month-olds exhibited evidence of recognition of emotions from bodies by demonstrating intermodal matching. In a subsequent experiment, younger infants …

Visual Scanning Of Males And Females In Infancy, Hannah B. White, Alyson J. Hock, Rachel L. Jubran, Alison Heck, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study addressed the development of attention to information that is socially relevant to adults by examining infants' (n = 64) scanning patterns of male and female bodies. Infants exhibited systematic attention to regions associated with sex-related scanning by adults, with 3.5-and 6.5-month-olds looking longer at the torso of females than males and longer at the legs of males than females. However, this pattern of looking was not found when infants were tested on headless bodies in Experiment 2, which suggests that infants' differential gaze pattern in Experiment 1 was not due to low-level stimulus features, such as clothing, and …

Reproductive Steroids And Adhd Symptoms Across The Menstrual Cycle, Bethan A. Roberts, Tory Eisenlohr-Moul, Michelle M. Martel

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder shows (ADHD) male predominance, females are significantly impaired and exhibit additional comorbid disorders during adolescence. However, no empirical work has examined the influence of cyclical fluctuating steroids on ADHD symptoms in women. The present study examined estradiol (E2), progesterone (P4), and testosterone (T) associations with ADHD symptoms across the menstrual cycle in regularly-cycling young women (N=32), examining trait impulsivity as a moderator. Women completed a baseline measure of trait impulsivity, provided saliva samples each morning, and completed an ADHD symptom checklist every evening for 35 days. Results indicated decreased levels of E2 in the context of increased …

Early Procedural Pain Is Associated With Regionally-Specific Alterations In Thalamic Development In Preterm Neonates., Emma G Duerden, Ruth E Grunau, Ting Guo, Justin Foong, Alexander Pearson, Stephanie Au-Young, Raphael Lavoie, M Mallar Chakravarty, Vann Chau, Anne Synnes, Steven P Miller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Very preterm human neonates are exposed to numerous invasive procedures as part of life-saving care. Evidence suggests that repetitive neonatal procedural pain precedes long-term alterations in brain development. However, to date the link between pain and brain development has limited temporal and anatomic specificity. We hypothesized that early exposure to painful stimuli during a period of rapid brain development, before pain modulatory systems reach maturity, will predict pronounced changes in thalamic development, and thereby cognitive and motor function. In a prospective cohort study, 155 very preterm neonates (82 males, 73 females) born 24-32 weeks' gestation underwent two MRIs at median …