Psychology Commons^™

Sex Differences In Stress Reactivity, Brain Morphology, And Oxytocin In The Hypothalamus Of The Gray Short-Tailed Opossum (Monodelphis Domestica), Esperanza I. Zacarias, Daniela Rodriguez, Alexandra Chalons, Sasawan Heingraj, Nicole Altamirano, Joseph Rafac, John L. Vandeberg, Mario Gil

Research Colloquium

Understanding the effects of stress on behavior and cognition is important due to its impact on mental health and wellbeing (Schneiderman et al. 2005). Translational animal research can contribute to the development of new treatments that can improve therapeutic outcomes and our understanding of the neurobiology of stress. In the present study, we complement behavioral stress reactivity with immunohistochemical localization of oxytocin in the hypothalamus, a neuropeptide that regulates stress (Neumann & Slattery, 2016). Oxytocin has potential therapeutic use for mental health disorders (Neumann & Slattery, 2016), and the effects of oxytocin seem to be sexually dimorphic (Love, 2018). Using …

Memoir Dataset: Quantifying Image Memorability In Adolescents, Gal Almog, Yalda Mohsenzadeh

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Every day, humans observe and interact with hundreds of images and scenes; whether it be on a cellphone, on television, or in print. Yet a vast majority of these images are forgotten, some immediately and some after variable lengths of time. Memorability is indeed a property intrinsic to all images that can be extracted, as well as predicted. While memory itself is a process that occurs in the brain of an individual, the concept of memorability is an intrinsic, continuous property of a stimulus that can be both measured and manipulated. We selected images from the MemCat data set that …

Depression In Adolescence: Risk Factors, Prevention, And Intervention - An Argument For Trauma-Informed Care In The Community, Beauty Davis

Capstone Showcase

BEAUTY DAVIS

Depression in Adolescence: Risk Factors, Prevention, and Intervention - An argument for trauma-informed care in the community

Depression is an unfortunately common mental illness that can lead to negative life outcomes such as substance abuse, suicide, lower quality of life, and anxiety. The stage of adolescence is known as a pivotal, transitional time of life as there are many changes in an individual’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. The research reviewed throughout this paper discusses risk factors that contribute to the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Observing how genetic, physiological, environmental, and social components contribute to …

Marital Satisfaction: The Role Of Post-Formal Thought And Partner Blame, Kendall Jory, Cindy Miller-Perrin, Dr. Janet Trammell

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Post-formal thought, a recently identified fifth stage of developmental cognition, is a type of complex cognition initially present in emerging adulthood. It is more practical, flexible and dialectical than previous stages of cognition. Research has suggested the benefits of enhanced post-formal thought in intrapersonal functioning, as well as interpersonal functioning. In interpersonal functioning, social relationships provide an opportunity to think using post-formal cognition because two people often share different “truths” in a relationship which creates logical conflict that must be resolved to continue the relationship (Griffin et al, 2009). Using this framework, the current study aimed to further examine the …

Auditory Reaction Time And Behavioral Working Memory Differences Between Musicians And Non-Musicians, Benjamin Richardson, Zach Felke, Marisha Medrano, Grace Whorley, Hannah Williams

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

Previous research investigating working memory functioning between musicians and non-musicians has demonstrated differences related to music experience in auditory reaction tasks. This body of research suggests music experience may be related to faster reaction times to auditory stimuli. In addition to reaction times recorded by clicking a mouse while listening to a tonal oddball, participants in the current study performed six subtests of the TOMAL-2, a standardized measure of working memory ability, documenting participants visual, auditory, and executive functioning modules of working memory. Our hypotheses are that means of performance on all three subtests of the TOMAL-2 will be higher …

Effects Of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Nmda Nr-1 Subunit Deletion In Adult Mice On Spatial Reference And Working Memory, Melissa Gorham, Dane Dewees

Scholars Week

Dysfunction of glutamate NMDA receptors may contribute to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. In the present study, we examined the effects of chronic NMDA receptor dysfunction in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on the acquisition of a spatial reference memory (SRM) and spatial working memory (SWM) radial maze task as employed by Niewoehner et al (2007). Localized NR1 gene deletions were induced in the ventral mPFC of floxed NR1 mice (DEL, n=10) using an AAV-Cre vector; control mice (CON, n=10) received sham deletions. In the SRM task, food was placed in 3 of 6 arms of an automated radial maze …

Are There Differences In Eeg Metrics Between Younger And Older Healthy Adult When Performing Challenging Cognitive Tasks?, Brian Cheah, Dr. Priscilla Macrae, Dr. Janet Trammell, Greta Davis, Dylan Bergstedt, Jessica Chao, Nancy Zelaya

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The prevalence and cost of dementia continues to rise, with the cost of treatment in the U.S. estimated at $157 billion per year (Hurd et al., 2013). Understanding cognitive function in older adults and associated brain activity could lead to the development of better prevention and treatment of dementia. Therefore, this study examined the effects of aging on brain activity, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG) in younger and older adults. EEG activity was monitored before, during, and after healthy older (70-79 years of age; N = 20) and younger adults (20-29 years of age; N = 16) completed three computerized …