Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Long-Term Stimulant Use Is Associated With Normalized White Matter Integrity In The Vta-Nacc Pathway In Adolescents, Isaac T. Arsenault

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Medical practitioners are diagnosing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at a high and ever-increasing rate. The use of stimulant medication to treat ADHD is also increasing and is associated with changes in the brain. Past research found that children with ADHD have lower volume in reward neurocircuitry, such as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Research has also found that stimulant usage in those with ADHD might “normalize” the reward circuits. However, few longitudinal studies have directly tested the long-term effects of stimulant medication on brain development. Here we tested whether long-term stimulant use is associated with changes …

Characterizing The Medial Forebrain Bundle In Adolescents With Anhedonic Depression, Tina Nguyen

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Adolescent depression has quickly grown in prevalence, yet the underlying neuropathology remains poorly understood. Anhedonia–the diminished ability to experience pleasure–is a core symptom of melancholic depression. Early identification of biomarkers associated with anhedonic depression could help mitigate the severity of the disorder by enhancing treatment efficacy. Blunted functionality of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the reward center of the brain, and abnormal dopaminergic activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have both been linked to depression. Furthermore, glutamatergic input from the hypothalamus modulates the VTA which in turn, downregulates dopamine release in the NAcc. However, there is limited evidence supporting that …

Poor Sleep Quality Is Associated With Decreased Structural Coherence Of Mesolimbic Dopamine Projections In Children, William A. Walker

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Insomnia is the second most common mental disorder that affects approximately 10% of the population. An additional one-third of the population experiences occasional symptoms of insomnia like difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Sleep quality is also a key indicator of overall mental and physical health; however, researchers have only begun to study the effects of the structure of the mesolimbic pathway on sleep cycle regulation and quality. Emerging research suggests that mesolimbic dopamine projections from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) to the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) play a role in sleep-wake regulation. In this study, I analyzed data from the …

Health Coaching Intervention Retained Anu-Adri Scores Over A 2-Year Period In Apoe E4 Carriers Among Older Adults At Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease, Michelle Gray, Anthony Campitelli, Ray G. Urbina, Megan Jones

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The Apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele (APOE ε4) gene is known as the most prevalent genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, many lifestyle risk factors that are modifiable influence the development of AD. Reducing the prevalence of risk factors can prevent or delay up to 33% of AD cases. Health coaching is known to improve health over time in older adults by using a motivational interviewing technique resulting in positive behavior modification. The purpose of this study was to determine if a 2-year health coaching intervention improves AD risk score among older adults at risk for AD aged …

A Health Intervention Improves Cognition In Older Adults At Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease, Michelle Gray, Ray G. Urbina, Megan Jones, Anthony Campitelli, Joshua L. Gills, Sally Paulson, Jordan M. Glenn

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the 7th leading cause of death and 6th most burdensome disease among US older adults. With pharmacological treatments for AD being predominantly ill-effective, alternative, non-pharmacological prevention and treatment strategies warrant exploration. Personal health coaching provides individualized strategies designed to improve physical, social, and emotional health leading to positive behavior changes that may improve cognitive ability. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of a health intervention on cognitive outcomes. Method: Adults (n = 184), 60+ years, completed a 24-month health intervention. All participants had their APOE4 status determined at baseline. …

The Neural Mechanisms Of Visual Art Expertise During Different Stages Of The Creative Process: An Eeg Study, Kim N. Awa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Generating and drafting ideas are creative processes linked to internal neural mechanisms, such as directed attentional states, reflected in alpha band synchronization patterns. Previous research has demonstrated that these mechanisms vary based on levels of expertise during creative tasks. However, few studies have examined the multifaceted nature of ideation and externalization across multiple stages of the creative process, particularly when accounting for domain-specific expertise in imagery and figural tasks. The present study investigates alpha band synchronicity (lower and upper) across visual art backgrounds, specifically among artists, intermediates, and non-artists, during three distinct stages of the creative process: thinking of ideas, …

Structural Molecular And Developmental Evidence For Cell-Type Diversity In Cnidarian Mechanosensory Neurons, Julia Baranyk, Kristen Malir, Miguel A.P. Silva, Sakura Rieck, Gracie Scheve, Nagayasu Nakanishi

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deploying a conserved mechanosensory neuron known as the concentric hair cell, cnidarians have evolved diverse mechanoreceptors from hydroid filiform tentacles to jellyfish statocysts. However, it is unknown whether cnidarian mechanoreceptor evolution has relied solely on repurposing a single ancestral mechanosensory neuron type. Here we report evidence for cell-type diversity of mechanosensory neurons in sea-anemone cnidarian Nematostella vectensis. Uncovered in the ectoderm of feeding tentacles are conventional type I hair cells and previously unrecognized type II hair cells differing in the structure of apical sensory apparatus and synapses. Moreover, we identify TRP channel-encoding gene polycystin-1 as a type-II-hair-cell-specific essential mediator of …

Structural Projections To The Nucleus Accumbens Link To Impulsive Components Of Human Risk Preference, Loreen Tisdall, Kelly H. Macniven, Josiah Leong, Renato Frey, Jörg Rieskamp, Ralph Hertwig, Brian Knutson, Rui Mata

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Functional responses in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) to risk- and reward-related cues can predict real-life risk-taking behavior. Since NAcc activity depends on neurotransmission from connected brain regions, projections to the NAcc may also predict risk preference. To quantify risk preference, we employed latent variables previously derived in a comprehensive, independent study examining the psychometric structure of risk preference, which yielded a general risk preference factor as well as several specific factors, including a factor capturing impulsivity. Informed by previous work, we preregistered a set of hypotheses concerning the association between different risk preference factors and fractional anisotropy (or FA, which …

Simultaneous Modulation Of Pulse Charge And Burst Period Elicits Two Differentiable Referred Sensations, T. R. Benigni, A. E. Pena, S. S. Kuntaegowdanahalli, J. J. Abbas, R. Jung

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective. To investigate the feasibility of delivering multidimensional feedback using a single channel of peripheral nerve stimulation by complementing intensity percepts with flutter frequency percepts controlled by burst period modulation. Approach. Two dimensions of a distally referred sensation were provided simultaneously: intensity was conveyed by the modulation of the pulse charge rate inside short discrete periods of stimulation referred to as bursts and frequency was conveyed by the modulation of the period between bursts. For this approach to be feasible, intensity percepts must be perceived independently of frequency percepts. Two experiments investigated these interactions. A series of two alternative forced …

Co-Activation Patterns During Viewing Of Different Video Game Genres, Ruifang Cui, Zihao Zheng, Lijun Jiang, Weiyi Ma, Dainkun Gong, Dezhong Yao

General Human Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Past research has revealed cognitive improvements resulting from engagement with both traditional action video games and newer action-like video games, such as action real-time strategy games (ARSG). However, the cortical dynamics elicited by different video gaming genres remain unclear. This study explored the temporal dynamics of cortical networks in response to different gaming genres. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were obtained during eye-closed resting and passive viewing of gameplay videos of three genres: life simulation games (LSG), first-person shooter games (FPS), and ARSG. Data analysis used a seed-free Co-Activation Pattern (CAP) based on Regions of Interest (ROIs). When comparing …

Towards Understanding The Function Of An Ets-Like Gene In Nematostella Vectensis: Generation Of A Knockout Mutant Line And A Transgenic Reporter Line, Emily Bullock

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to their unique phylogenic position as sister to Bilateria, Cnidaria are often credited with the utility of allowing for reconstruction of ancestral biology based on characteristics shared with bilaterians and other animals. This factor makes investigation into the nervous systems of cnidarians critical in understanding early neural evolution. Wamides, a class of neuropeptides, have been shown to play a regulatory role in life cycle transitions across many different species. The cnidarian specific Wamide neuropeptide, GLWamide, has previously been identified to play an accelerator role in the metamorphic timing of a specific species of sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. However, …

Competition And Criticality In Cortical Neural Circuits Underlie Behavior And Optimize Working Memory, Jacob Harrison Barfield

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the primary goals of neuroscience is to explain how brain function emerges from dynamic interactions among large populations of neurons. A long-standing hypothesis at the interface of physics and neuroscience posits that neural circuits may operate close to the critical point of a phase transition. In this dissertation, we will investigate a new form of criticality and the implications that it has in working memory and the generation of voluntary body movements. We will utilize this new form of criticality to investigate the functional benefits that can be harnessed by operating near the critical point when performing working …

Low-Dimensional Criticality Embedded In High-Dimensional Awake Brain Dynamics, Antonio J. Fontenele, J. Samuel Sooter, V. Kindler Norman, Shree Hari Gautam, Woodrow L. Shew

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Whether cortical neurons operate in a strongly or weakly correlated dynamical regime determines fundamental information processing capabilities and has fueled decades of debate. We offer a resolution of this debate; we show that two important dynamical regimes, typically considered incompatible, can coexist in the same local cortical circuit by separating them into two different subspaces. In awake mouse motor cortex, we find a low-dimensional subspace with large fluctuations consistent with criticality—a dynamical regime with moderate correlations and multi-scale information capacity and transmission. Orthogonal to this critical subspace, we find a high-dimensional subspace containing a desynchronized dynamical regime, which may optimize …

Brainlife.Io: A Decentralized And Open-Source Cloud Platform To Support Neuroscience Research, Soichi Hayashi, Bradley A. Caron, Anibal Solon Heinsfeld, Sophia Vinci-Booher, Brent Mcpherson, Daniel N. Bullock, Giulia Berto, Guiomar Niso, Sandra Hanekamp, Daniel Levitas, Kimberly Ray, Anne Mackenzie, Paolo Avesani, Lindsey Kitchell, Josiah K. Leong, Filipi Nascimento-Silva, Serge Koudoro, Hanna Willis, Jasleen K. Jolly, Derek Pisner, Taylor R. Zuidema, Jan W. Kurzawski, Kyriaki Mikellidou, Aurore Bussalb, Maximilien Chaumon, Nathalie George, Christopher Rorden, Conner Victory, Dheeraj Bhatia, Dogu Baran Aydogan, Fang-Chen F. Yeh, Franco Delogu, Javier Guaje, Jelle Veraart, Jeremy Fischer, Joshua Faskowitz, Ricardo Fabrega, David Hunt, Shawn Mckee, Shawn T. Brown, Stephanie Heyman, Vittorio Iacovella, Amanda F. Mejia, Daniele Marinazzo, R. Cameron Craddock, Emanuale Olivetti, Jamie L. Hanson, Eleftherios Garyfallidis, Dan Stanzione, James Carson, Robert Henschel, David Y. Hancock, Craig A. Stewart, David Schnyer, Damian O. Eke, Russell A. Poldrack, Steffen Bollmann, Ashley Stewart, Holly Bridge, Ilaria Sani, Winrich A. Freiwald, Aina Puce, Nicholas L. Port, Franco Pestilli

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Neuroscience is advancing standardization and tool development to support rigor and transparency. Consequently, data pipeline complexity has increased, hindering FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) access. brainlife.io was developed to democratize neuroimaging research. The platform provides data standardization, management, visualization and processing and automatically tracks the provenance history of thousands of data objects. Here, brainlife.io is described and evaluated for validity, reliability, reproducibility, replicability and scientific utility using four data modalities and 3,200 participants.

The Current State Of Artificial Intelligence Generative Language Models Is More Creative Than Humans On Divergent Thinking Tasks, Kent F. Hubert, Kim N. Awa, Darya L. Zabelina

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emergence of publicly accessible artificial intelligence (AI) large language models such as ChatGPT has given rise to global conversations on the implications of AI capabilities. Emergent research on AI has challenged the assumption that creative potential is a uniquely human trait thus, there seems to be a disconnect between human perception versus what AI is objectively capable of creating. Here, we aimed to assess the creative potential of humans in comparison to AI. In the present study, human participants (N = 151) and GPT-4 provided responses for the Alternative Uses Task, Consequences Task, and Divergent Associations Task. We found …

Accelerating Neurotechnology Development Using An Agile Methodology, Anil Kumar Thota, Ranu Jung

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Novel bioelectronic medical devices that target neural control of visceral organs (e.g., liver, gut, spleen) or inflammatory reflex pathways are innovative class III medical devices like implantable cardiac pacemakers that are lifesaving and life-sustaining medical devices. Bringing innovative neurotechnologies early into the market and the hands of treatment providers would benefit a large population of patients inflicted with autonomic and chronic immune disorders. Medical device manufacturers and software developers widely use the Waterfall methodology to implement design controls through verification and validation. In the Waterfall methodology, after identifying user needs, a functional unit is fabricated following the verification loop (design, …

Heightened Neural Activity And Functional Connectivity Responses To Social Rejection In Female Adolescents At Risk For Depression: Testing The Social Signal Transduction Theory Of Depression, Grant S. Shields, Meghan Vinograd, Theresa Bui, Stassja Sichko, Michael R. Irwin, George M. Slavich

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Method

Sensory Input To Cortex Encoded On Low-Dimensional Periphery-Correlated Subspaces, Andrea K. Barreiro, Antonio J. Fontenele, Cheng Ly, Prashant Chama Raju, Shree Hari Gautam, Woodrow L. Shew

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

As information about the world is conveyed from the sensory periphery to central neural circuits, it mixes with complex ongoing cortical activity. How do neural populations keep track of sensory signals, separating them from noisy ongoing activity? Here, we show that sensory signals are encoded more reliably in certain low-dimensional subspaces. These coding subspaces are defined by correlations between neural activity in the primary sensory cortex and upstream sensory brain regions; the most correlated dimensions were best for decoding. We analytically show that these correlation-based coding subspaces improve, reaching optimal limits (without an ideal observer), as noise correlations between cortex …

Adolescents With Family History Of Alcohol-Use Disorders Have Reduced Structural Coherence Of Anterior Insula To Nucleus Accumbens Tract, Grace Wood

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Genetics play a significant role in predisposition towards alcohol use disorders. Analyzing the neural phenotypes related to alcohol use disorder development could allow researchers to predict one’s predisposition. The anterior insula (AIns) contributes to binge drinking tendencies while exhibiting downstream signaling towards the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Recent research has examined this relationship simultaneously with alcohol consumption, but the genetic effect of the AIns and NAcc functional relationship prior to alcohol consumption has yet to be examined. In this study, we used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study to analyze the structural coherence of the AIns to NAcc …

Early Life Stress Predicts Future Conduct Disorder In Adolescents, Savannah Ellis

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Early Life Stress (ELS) and adversity increase people’s risk for developing mental, social, or emotional dysregulation and disorders later in life. The objective of this study was to test whether ELS in adolescents could prospectively predict future conduct disorder. The study additionally tested potential neural mediators of the effect of ELS on future conduct disorder, and specifically targeted the structural connections from the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex to the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc). Data for the project came from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD study), which is a longitudinal multi-site consortium funded by the National Institutes of …

Psychopathy In Society: Understanding The Neural Mechanisms That Give Rise To Psychopathic Traits, Phoebe Zalenski

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Psychopathy is characterized as an individual exhibiting callousness, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and manipulative behavior towards others over a long period of time. Given these symptoms, psychopathy is associated with a markedly increased risk of arrest and imprisonment. Together, these findings highlight the importance of understanding the cause(s) of psychopathy, as doing so may help to develop treatments or preventative interventions. Prior work has suggested that structural abnormalities in the amygdala may play a role in clinical psychopathy; however, it is less clear whether amygdala abnormalities exist on a continuum of psychopathic traits. In this study, I aimed to determine …

Scale-Free Behavioral Dynamics Directly Linked With Scale-Free Cortical Dynamics, Sabrina A. Jones, Jacob H. Barfield, V. Kindler Norman, Woodrow L. Shew

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Naturally occurring body movements and collective neural activity both exhibit complex dynamics, often with scale-free, fractal spatiotemporal structure. Scale-free dynamics of both brain and behavior are important because each is associated with functional benefits to the organism. Despite their similarities, scale-free brain activity and scale-free behavior have been studied separately, without a unified explanation. Here, we show that scale-free dynamics of mouse behavior and neurons in the visual cortex are strongly related. Surprisingly, the scale-free neural activity is limited to specific subsets of neurons, and these scale-free subsets exhibit stochastic winner-take-all competition with other neural subsets. This observation is inconsistent …

Radiogenomics Of C9orf72 Expansion Carriers Reveals Global Transposable Element Derepression And Enables Prediction Of Thalamic Atrophy And Clinical Impairment, Luke W. Bonham, Ethan G. Geier, Daniel W. Sirkis, Josiah K. Leong, Eliana Marisa Ramos, Qing Wang, Anna Karydas, Suzee E. Lee, Virginia E. Sturm, Russell P. Sawyer, Adit Friedberg, Justin K. Ichida, Aaron D. Gitler, Leo Sugrue, Michael Cordingley, Walter Bee, Eckard Weber, Joel H. Kramer, Katherine P. Rankin, Howard J. Rosen, Adam L. Boxer, William W. Seeley, John Ravits, Bruce L. Miller, Jennifer S. Yokoyama

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) within C9orf72 is the most common genetic cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Thalamic atrophy occurs in both sporadic and familial FTD but is thought to distinctly affect HRE carriers. Separately, emerging evidence suggests widespread derepression of transposable elements (TEs) in the brain in several neurodegenerative diseases, including C9orf72 HRE-mediated FTD (C9-FTD). Whether TE activation can be measured in peripheral blood and how the reduction in peripheral C9orf72 expression observed in HRE carriers relates to atrophy and clinical impairment remain unknown. We used FreeSurfer software to assess the effects of C9orf72 HRE and clinical diagnosis (n …

A Structural Examination Of The Connection Between The Amygdala And Nucleus Accumbens In Adolescents With Clinical Anxiety, Alyssa Griffith

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The prominence of anxiety disorders in today’s general population is a major public health concern. Advancing research of the underlying pathophysiology of anxiety disorders can lead to the discovery of effective treatment interventions to treat the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety, and thus improve quality of life. This study aimed to examine two brain areas in the limbic and reward systems, the amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc), and the structural white matter connection between them. This neural circuit assigns affective valence to environmental stimuli and motivates behavior to avoid potential harm. This study utilized diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) …

Changes In The Expression Of Inflammatory And Epigenetic-Modulatory Genes After An Intensive Meditation Retreat, Maria Jesus Alvarez-Lopez, Quinn A. Conklin, Marta Cosin-Tomas, Grant S. Shields, Brandon G. King, Anthony P. Zanesco, Perla Kaliman, Clifford D. Saron

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Method

Neural And Peripheral Markers Of Reward During Positive Social Evaluation Are Associated With Less Clinician-Rated Depression Symptom Severity In Adolescence, Zach J. Gray, Grant S. Shields, Stassja Sichko, Theresa Q. Bui, Meghan Vinograd, Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez, George M. Slavich

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although blunted sensitivity to reward is thought to play a key role in promoting risk for depression, most research on this topic has utilized monetary reward paradigms and focused on currently depressed adults. To address this issue, we analyzed neural reward and β-endorphin data from the Psychobiology of Stress and Adolescent Depression (PSY SAD) Study, which recruited a well-characterized sample of adolescent girls at high vs. low risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) (N = 52, M_age = 14.90, SD = 1.35) based on their mothers’ lifetime history of MDD. As hypothesized, greater striatal activity while receiving positive …

The Effects Of Physical Function And Genetics On Cognition And Blood Biomarkers In Individuals At-Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias, Joshua Louis Gills

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) rates are expected to triple by the year 2050. Early detection and specific mitigation efforts are warranted to blunt the alarming rate. Physical function (PF) declines with age, but higher physical function is associated with better cognitive functioning in middle-to- older age individuals. Moreover, greater physical activity (PA) is associated with better global cognition; however, Apoliporotein e4 carriers may not gain the same benefits with exercise. Additionally, plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) has been identified as a novel diagnostic ADRD biomarker which needs further research to examine associations with risk factors. Therefore, the aims …

Cumulative Lifetime Acute Stressor Exposure Interacts With Reward Responsiveness To Predict Longitudinal Increases In Depression Severity In Adolescence, Kreshnik Burani, C. J. Brush, Grant S. Shields, Daniel N. Klein, Brady Nelson, George M. Slavich, Greg Hajcak

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Life stress and blunted reward processing each have been associated with the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. However, much of this work has been cross-sectional, conducted in separate lines of inquiry, and focused on recent life stressor exposure, despite the fact that theories of depression posit that stressors can have cumulative effects over the lifespan. To address these limitations, we investigated whether acute and chronic stressors occurring over the lifespan interacted with blunted reward processing to predict increases in depression over time in healthy youth. Method

Participants were 245 adolescent girls aged 8–14 years old (M …

Brain Tract Structure Predicts Relapse To Stimulant Drug Use, Loreen Tisdall, Kelly H. Macniven, Claudia B. Padula, Josiah K. Leong, Brian Knutson

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Diffusion tractography allows identification and measurement of structural tracts in the human brain previously associated with motivated behavior in animal models. Recent findings indicate that the structural properties of a tract connecting the midbrain to nucleus accumbens (NAcc) are associated with a diagnosis of stimulant use disorder (SUD), but not relapse. In this preregistered study, we used diffusion tractography in a sample of patients treated for SUD (n = 60) to determine whether qualities of tracts projecting from medial prefrontal, anterior insular, and amygdalar cortices to NAcc might instead foreshadow relapse. As predicted, reduced diffusion metrics of a tract …

Ongoing Calculus In The Cerebral Cortex, Luke Long

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Various modes of neuronal computations have long been theorized to be possible based on the structure and geometry of the brain. These computations also seem necessary for many of the integral functions of the brain, like information processing and regulatory processes in the body. However, experimental data directly supporting these claims have been rare.

In this study, data collected in mice from a large number of neurons over a long period of time provided the opportunity to search for some of these computations, specifically change detection and squaring calculations. Using Matlab, the goal of this analysis was to find statistically …