Attentional Blink: An Antecedent To Binge Eating Behavior, Gregory Denke

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how attentional sub-processes contribute to binge-eating. Dense-array EEG and a version of the canonical attentional blink task were used to ascertain the neural correlates underlying the attentional sub-processes that comprise the Posner model of attention (alerting, orienting, and executive control) and how attentional activation differs for binge-eaters vs. non-binge eaters. Furthermore, we examined a number of the event-related potentials (ERP), including P2 activation, which has been linked with orientating of attention, and N2 activation which has been linked with attentional conflict. We found decreased P2 activation for binge-eaters, in the negative condition, for incorrect target 2 (T2) …

Characterizing Persistent Developmental Dyscalculia: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach, Stephanie D. Bugden

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disorder of calculation abilities. In the present thesis I report a series behavioural and functional neuroimaging studies to further elucidate the core numerical deficits underlying DD. I recruited a sample of children with DD who demonstrated persistent impairments in arithmetic. In Chapter 2, to validate the selection criteria, I compared the performance of children with and without persistent DD on a test of numerical magnitude processing. The data showed that only children with persistent DD presented with deficits in numerical magnitude processing, while those with inconsistent DD perform at the level of age-matched …

Change Detection In Rhesus Monkeys And Humans, Deepna T. Devkar, Deepna T. Devkar

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Visual working memory (VWM) is the temporary retention of visual information and a key component of cognitive processing. The classical paradigm for studying VWM and its encoding limitations has been change detection. Early work focused on how many items could be stored in VWM, leading to the popular theory that humans could remember no more than 4±1 items. More recently, proposals have suggested that VWM is a noisy, continuous resource distributed across virtually all items in the visual field, resulting in diminished memory quality rather than limited quantity. This debate about the nature of VWM has predominantly been studied with …

The Phenomenon Of Abstract Cognition Among Scholastic Chess Participants: A Case Study, Brent C. Laws

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore the phenomenon of abstract cognition among a purposive sample of 5 secondary scholastic chess club participants. The case study enabled the researcher to explore the faculties of abstract cognition among students of contrasting skills and abilities in playing chess. The study also allowed for the consideration of potential visual-spatial, logical, academic, social competency and life benefits of chess play. Through analysis of interviews, chess simulations, blindfold chess play, and narration of chess lines and sequences, the investigator was able to extract meaning and code schemata into a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of …

A Movement Tool Kit For The Divergent And Convergent Cps Guidelines: Instruction Cards And Activity Floor Mats, Adela Vangelisti

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

A Movement Tool Kit for the Divergent and Convergent CPS Guidelines:

Instruction Cards and Activity Floor Mats

Movement is as natural to humans as breathing is, and, yet, passivity starts early in schools. We are taught to sit still and in silence for long periods of time. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workforce, we have almost forgotten our sense of embodiment. This lack of movement is counter-productive, not only to learning but to the development of creativity as well. For this project, I designed a tool to recapture the joy and playfulness of movement. Furthermore, the …

Effects Of Oxytocin On Human Aggression, Joseph L. Alcorn Iii

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

EFFECTS OF OXYTOCIN ON HUMAN AGGRESSION

Joseph Louis Alcorn III, B.S.

Advisory Professor: Scott D. Lane, Ph.D.

Human interaction is comprised of common, yet complex, behaviors and the outcomes of these social behaviors can beneficially or detrimentally impact individual and public health. One social behavior that can have profound detrimental outcomes is aggression. Aggression is a class of social behavior that is particularly prevalent in individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and comorbid substance use disorder (SUD). Aggression in these individuals can manifest at maladaptive levels that place considerable burdens on public health and communities. Therefore, understanding the neurobehavioral underpinnings …

Attention Modulates Erp Indices Of The Precedence Effect, Benjamin H. Zobel

Masters Theses

When presented with two identical sounds from different locations separated by a short onset asynchrony, listeners report hearing a single source at the location of the lead sound, a phenomenon called the precedence effect (Wallach et al., 1949; Haas, 1951). When the onset asynchrony is above echo threshold, listeners report hearing the lead and lag sounds as separate sources with distinct locations. Event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that perception of separate sound sources is accompanied by an object-related negativity (ORN) 100-250 ms after onset and a late posterior positivity (LP) 300-500 ms after onset (Sanders et al., 2008; Sanders …

Age-Related Changes In Sleep-Dependent Consolidation Of Visuo-Spatial Memory, Akshata Sonni

Masters Theses

Healthy aging is associated with a reduction in slow-wave sleep (SWS), crucial for declarative memory consolidation in young adults; consequently, previously observed benefits of sleep on declarative learning in older adults could reflect a passive role of sleep in protecting memories from waking interference, rather than an active, stabilizing effect. To dissociate the passive and active roles of sleep, a visuo-spatial task was administered; memory was probed after a 12 hr interval consisting of either daytime wake or overnight sleep and post-wake/post-sleep stability of the memories was tested following task-related interference. Ninety five older adults (mean=65.43 yrs; SD=7.6 yrs) and …

Mindfulness Meditation Versus Eeg-Alpha Neurofeedback: The Role Of Eeg-Alpha Enhancement In Attentional Control, Theodore Chow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis directly compared two active interventions known to enhance the EEG-Alpha rhythm, mindfulness meditation (MM) with EEG-Alpha enhancement neurofeedback (NFB), relative to a non-active Sham-NFB control. Seventy-three university students were randomized to one of the three 15-minute single-session interventions. Participants were subsequently compared on their ability to enhance EEG-Alpha amplitude as well as regarding Stroop behavioural performance, EEG event-related potentials, and EEG-Alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) as markers of attentional control. Participants randomized to MM, NFB, and Sham did not differ in their ability to modulate the EEG-Alpha rhythm post-intervention. However, enhancements in EEG-Alpha amplitude were seen within the MM …

Investigating The Primate Prefrontal Cortex Correlates Of Cognitive Deficits In The Ketamine Model Of Schizophrenia, Kevin J. Skoblenick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The World Health Organization has classified schizophrenia as one of the five leading causes of disability worldwide. Afflicting almost 1% of the world’s population, the disease’s greatest impact stems from its reduction in patients’ cognitive faculties. In order to better study these impairments, a pharmacological model has been developed using the NMDA antagonist, ketamine. This disease model successfully recreates the cognitive dysfunction of schizophrenia, allowing researchers to search for associated electrophysiological changes.

In this project I examined the behavioural and neurophysiological effects of ketamine on non-human primates performing the anti-saccade task. Success in this task requires a degree of cognitive …

Revisiting Working Memory: Are Domain, Process And Global Models Mutually Exclusive, Nested Or Orthogonal?, Jeffrey P. Wong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Working memory (WM) is a cognitive function whereby task-relevant information is actively maintained and manipulated in mind for goal-directed behaviour. Three competing models, here dubbed the global, domain and process models, have attempted to explain its neural underpinnings. Despite extensive research however, no consensus has been reached. Here, we use two new WM paradigms to demonstrate that all three models are partially correct. In the first experiment, our results show that selected frontoparietal regions (MD), from the global model, are largely stimulus-independent. However, more posterior and caudal frontoparietal regions show stimulus-dependent activations as described by the domain model. In the …

Effects Of Resting State On Perceptual Learning, Sarah Eagleman Ph.D.

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Psychophysical experiments in humans have demonstrated that improvements in perceptual learning tasks occur following daytime rests. The neural correlates of how rest influences subsequent sensory processing during these tasks remain unclear. One possible neural mechanism that may underlie this behavioral improvement is reactivation. Previously evoked network activity reoccurs – reactivates - in the absence of further stimulation. Reactivation was initially discovered in the hippocampus but has now been found in several brain areas including cortex. This phenomenon has been implicated as a general mechanism by which neural networks learn and store sensory information. However, whether reactivation occurs in areas relevant …

When Faces "Feel" Familiar: The Role Of Affective Signals In Face Recognition, Lauren E. Dunphy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous research has suggested that there may be an increase in positive affect and autonomic arousal in response to seeing a familiar face. These studies rarely distinguish between faces for which there is only a “feeling” of familiarity, and faces for which this feeling is accompanied by the retrieval of semantic knowledge about the individual. In the current study we aimed to make that distinction. Participants made recognition judgments on famous and non-famous faces while galvanic skin responses (GSR), zygomatic muscle activity, and heart rate (HR) were recorded. We found increases in GSR (autonomic arousal), and zygomatic muscle activity (positive …

Where Do I Know That? A Distributed Multimodal Model Of Semantic Knowledge, Kevin M. Stubbs

Undergraduate Honors Theses

As computers have grown more and more powerful, computational modeling has become an increasingly valuable tool for evaluating real world findings. Likewise, brain imaging has become increasingly powerful as is evidenced by recent fMRI findings which support the exciting possibility that semantic memory is segregated by modality in the brain (Goldberg et al., 2006b). The present study utilizes connectionist modeling to put the distributed multi-modal framework of semantic memory to the test, and represents the next step forward in the line of sensory-functional models. This model, based around the McRae et al. (2005) feature production norms, includes individual implementations of …

The Developmental Trajectory Of Contour Integration In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Ted S. Altschuler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sensory input is inherently ambiguous and complex, so perception is believed to be achieved by combining incoming sensory information with prior knowledge. One model envisions the grouping of sensory features (the local dimensions of stimuli) to be the outcome of a predictive process relying on prior experience (the global dimension of stimuli) to disambiguate possible configurations those elements could take. Contour integration, the linking of aligned but separate visual elements, is one example of perceptual grouping. Kanizsa-type illusory contour (IC) stimuli have been widely used to explore contour integration processing. Consisting of two conditions which differ only in the alignment …

Short-Term Activity-Dependent Changes In Schaffer Collateral Axon Function, Benjamin Michael Owen

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Schaffer collaterals are the unmyelinated axons of pyramidal neurons in the CA3 area of the hippocampus, a brain structure essential for memory formation. Schaffer collateral axons conduct electrical signals in the form of action potentials from CA3 pyramidal cells to synaptic terminals in area CA1. The fidelity with which these axons conduct action potentials determines the nature of the information which can be transmitted between areas CA3 and CA1. Conduction fidelity may be affected by both normal and abnormal patterns of firing, fluctuations in ion concentration, and some drugs and toxins. In this dissertation, I examined the function of Schaffer …

Quantifying Cognitive Function In Concussed Athletes Before And After Acute Exercise Using A Choice Reaction Time Task, Stephanie A. Ramautar M.Sc., Michael E. Cinelli Ph.D.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Following a concussion, cognitive deficits have been shown to last longer than symptom resolution. Currently clinicians rely heavily on symptom emergence following the fundamental exercises of the return to play (RTP) protocol, which may leave athletes at risk of returning to play too early if cognitive deficits have not been detected. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exercise on choice reaction time (CRT) both at rest and following an acute exercise in 3 populations: non-concussed (NC), recently concussed (RC), and post-concussion syndrome (PCS) individuals. A CRT task in the form of an iPad application measured …

The Effects Of Anxiety On Sensory Gating, Jonathon Meier

Honors Projects

Sensory gating is a proposed important physiological process of inhibiting neuronal responses of repetitious stimuli in the central nervous system to allocate more cognitive resources to additional salient information. Sensory gating is currently being studied to better understand psychiatric illnesses, especially those characterized by emotional changes and the inability to concentrate such as schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety disorder, and Parkinson’s. Anxiety is a strong feeling of nervousness that occurs in all individuals at varying degrees and is associated with detrimental health effects as well as hindering concentration. Numerous brain regions are associated with anxiety levels such as the anterior limbic system, …

Examining The Intersection Of The Cognitive Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Bilingual Brain, Irina Rabkina

Scripps Senior Theses

Two conflicting findings characterize cognitive processing accompanying bilingualism. The “bilingual advantage” refers to improved cognitive performance for bilingual compared to monolingual participants. Most bilingual advantages fall under the umbrella of cognitive control mechanisms, most frequently demonstrated using the Stroop task and the Simon task (e.g., Bialystok, 2008; Coderre, Van Heuven, & Conklin, 2013). The “bilingual disadvantage,” on the other hand, refers to bilinguals’ diminished performance on tasks that require word retrieval or switching between languages. This study examined the intersection of the bilingual advantage and the bilingual disadvantage to investigate whether they stem from a single cognitive control process. The …

Time, Perspectives, Verbs, And Imagining Events, Jeffrey P. Hong

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the processing of verbs, readers form internal representations of the events described by those verbs. Two key elements in the construction of event representations are temporal information, given by the verbs that describe the represented events, and the visual perspective from which the events are represented. The current study is composed of two experiments aimed at examining the roles these two factors play in event representation. Specifically, the study aimed to determine how temporal information and visual perspective are represented during event imagination.

Experiment 1 investigated the role of temporal information associated with verbs, given by grammatical aspect (GA) …