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Full-Text Articles in Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Hemispheric Specialization For Musical Structure Processing: A Dichotic Listening Study, Deirdre M. Finnegan Jun 2011

Hemispheric Specialization For Musical Structure Processing: A Dichotic Listening Study, Deirdre M. Finnegan

Honors Theses

In a dichotic listening study using a musical priming paradigm Hoch and Tillman (2010) found a left-ear advantage for the tonal function effect on spoken syllable identification, suggesting a right-hemispheric specialization for musical structure processing. A pilot study was performed using healthy right-handed non-musician participants to investigate the possible moderating effects of the Hoch and Tillman (2010) findings caused by alternating response hand as well as response key orientation. Several interactions were found which indicated that response hand and response key orientation moderated task performance. Modulations appeared to be due to a Coherence between response hand and response key orientation, …


Physiology Of Yawning : Proximate Mechanisms Supporting An Ultimate Function, Melanie Lee Shoup-Knox Jan 2011

Physiology Of Yawning : Proximate Mechanisms Supporting An Ultimate Function, Melanie Lee Shoup-Knox

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Recent research suggests that yawning functions to cool the brain during periods of mild hyperthermia. Evidence for this hypothesis is largely behavioral, and includes reports of increased yawning during increases in ambient temperature and times of stress as well as an amelioration of yawning upon nasal breathing and forehead cooling. Little research has been published on the physiological mechanisms supporting a brain cooling function, however. The current set of studies explores human and animal physiological parameters in search of evidence of brain cooling during yawning. In humans, heart rate, skin temperature, and skin conductance findings suggest that yawning involves an …


Cortical-Spinal Interactions In Skill Acquisition And Performance And Their Implications For Rehabilitation, Chadwick Bruno Jean Boulay Jan 2011

Cortical-Spinal Interactions In Skill Acquisition And Performance And Their Implications For Rehabilitation, Chadwick Bruno Jean Boulay

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Many people in the United States have motor impairments due to stroke or other central nervous system (CNS) traumas. Motor impairments also burden the U.S. economy and health care system. Current rehabilitative therapies are moderately effective but can be improved upon. Improvements to rehabilitation protocols are informed by increased understanding of the CNS including understanding interactions between different structures in the CNS and understanding CNS plasticity in response to trauma or skill acquisition.