Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Decoding Mental States After Severe Brain Injury, Raechelle M. Gibson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some patients with disorders of consciousness retain sensory and cognitive abilities that are not apparent from their outward behaviour. It is crucial to identify and characterise these covert abilities for diagnosis, prognosis, and medical ethics. This thesis uses neuroimaging techniques to investigate cognitive preservation and awareness in patients who are behaviourally non-responsive due to acquired brain injuries. In the first chapter, a large sample of healthy volunteers, including experienced athletes and musicians, imagined actions of varying complexity and familiarity. Motor imagery involving certain complex, familiar actions correlated with a more robust sensorimotor rhythm. In the second chapter, several patients with …

Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Dysfunction In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Wai-Jane V. Lee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sensitive and translational tasks that efficiently and accurately assess cognitive function during pre-clinical trials would be useful in developing novel treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. The Bussey-Saksida touchscreens employ various tasks similar to those used in humans to effectively evaluate high-level cognitive and executive functions in mice. This face validity provides the best chance of successful cognitive translation across species.

In our study, donepezil had minor effects on the performance of 5xFAD mice in the 5-CSRTT, a touchscreen task evaluating attention. Additionally, 5xFAD mice do not demonstrate impairments in the PVD task, which assesses visual discrimination/ cognitive flexibility. However, …

Pearls And Perils Of Pupillometry Using A Webcam, Mason Kadem, Rhodri Cusack

Undergraduate Honors Posters

Current methods to measure infants’ cognitive repertoire (i.e., collection of cognitive abilities) are limited. Previous testing paradigms required acquisition of non-age contextualized responses, and relied on measures that involved acquisition of other functions (e.g., language, motor). In addition to response limitations, cognitive functions may be difficult to observe in infants due to the difficulty in infant recruitment. Online testing has increased infant recruitment efforts and physiological responses have bypassed the motor, behavioural and linguistic limitations of infants. Recently, it has been shown that heart rate measures can be acquired through a webcam. Another feasible and reliable physiological measure is pupillometery, …