Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Studies Investigating The Role Of The Dlpfc In Memory And Metamemory, Casey M. Imperio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Metamemory, broadly defined as knowledge about one’s own memory, is thought to consist of two separate processes, monitoring, the ability to assess the contents of your own memory, and control, altering behavior in service of memory, that work together to aide in encoding and retrieval processes. Prior work has shown that metamemory monitoring accuracy can be improved in a semantic memory task via high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Over three experiments, the current dissertation sought to replicate and extend this work by: 1) testing the effects …

Into The Unknown: Exploring The Role Of Uncertainty In Threat-Safety Discrimination, Maia Kinney-Petrucha

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Learning to predict the arrival of threat is crucial to survival. Key to this learning process is the ability to discriminate between which stimuli signify safety and which signify threat. The extent to which a threat is uncertain impacts this ability, but which factors of uncertainty are primarily responsible remains unresolved. Uncertainty at the level of the stimulus can be examined in threat learning paradigms by adjusting threat reinforcement rate, referring to the frequency at which a cue is reinforced with an aversive stimulus. Previous research has shown that a continuous (more certain) threat reinforcement is associated with enhanced threat …

The Effects Of Music Therapy On Elderly Adults With Dementia, Jeante J. Jackson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As people age, the brain is more susceptible to changes that diminish cognitive function. In recent years neuroscience has found convergent evidence between music therapy and brain architecture, as it has shown the generation of new connections in the brain or a reorganization and possible strengthening of existing connections already in the brain. However, the literature regarding music training’s effects on executive control, selective attention, and speech processing is lacking particularly when it comes to older populations.

This study investigated Verbal Working Memory, Visuospatial Attention and Task Initiation, and Auditory Selective Attention in a 91-year-old adult (B.P.) diagnosed with dementia. …

Modulatory Effects Of Schreckstoff On The Startle Escape Response Of Goldfish (Carassius Auratus), Denis Shor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Fish face a variety of stressors in nature, a prominent one being a predatory threat to which they respond with an adaptive behavioral response thus maximizing their chances of survival. A primary anti-predatory behavior is a startle response or C-start. This behavior is controlled by two large reticulospinal neurons, the Mauthner cells (M-cells) which integrate multimodal sensory inputs. Detecting a predator involves various sensory information such as visual and mechanosensory cues but also olfaction. Indeed, following an attack, an injured fish will release an alarm pheromone (Schreckstoff) and thus acutely alert close by conspecifics. However, whether the alarm pheromone in …

Neural Correlates Of Post-Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Attention Deficits In Children, Meng Cao

Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children is a major public health concern worldwide. Attention deficits are among the most common neurocognitive and behavioral consequences in children post-TBI which have significant negative impacts on their educational and social outcomes and compromise the quality of their lives. However, there is a paucity of evidence to guide the optimal treatment strategies of attention deficit related symptoms in children post-TBI due to the lack of understanding regarding its neurobiological substrate. Thus, it is critical to understand the neural mechanisms associated with TBI-induced attention deficits in children so that more refined and tailored strategies can …

Deep Hybrid Modeling Of Neuronal Dynamics Using Generative Adversarial Networks, Soheil Saghafi

Dissertations

Mechanistic modeling and machine learning methods are powerful techniques for approximating biological systems and making accurate predictions from data. However, when used in isolation these approaches suffer from distinct shortcomings: model and parameter uncertainty limit mechanistic modeling, whereas machine learning methods disregard the underlying biophysical mechanisms. This dissertation constructs Deep Hybrid Models that address these shortcomings by combining deep learning with mechanistic modeling. In particular, this dissertation uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to provide an inverse mapping of data to mechanistic models and identifies the distributions of mechanistic model parameters coherent to the data.

Chapter 1 provides background information on …

Plant Sentience: Getting To The Roots Of The Problem, Krzysztof Dolega, Savannah Siekierski, Axel Cleeremans

Animal Sentience

Segundo-Ortin’s (2023) target article invites us to consider the possibility that plants can experience subjectively felt states. We discuss this speculation on the basis of the functional neurobiology of consciousness. We suggest that demonstrating plant sentience would require that we identify not only behaviors analogous to those exhibited by sentient creatures, but also the functional analogues of the mechanisms causing such behaviors. The lack of clear evidence for any kind of integration between self-states, self-movement, environmental states, memory, or affective communication within plants suggests that plant sentience remains an admittedly fascinating, but ultimately merely provocative speculation.

Dissociation Between Conscious And Unconscious Processes As A Criterion For Sentience, Ivan Ivanchei, Nicolas Coucke, Axel Cleeremans

Animal Sentience

Based on the literature on human consciousness, we suggest that to demonstrate sentience in a system, one needs to demonstrate both conscious and unconscious processing in the system. Major theories of consciousness require the existence of both conscious and unconscious processes. Contrasting effects of conscious and unconscious processes have been successfully used in human studies and have begun being applied in animal sentience research as well.

Neuropsychiatric Sequelae Of Traumatic Brain Injury: The Impact Of Aggression And Self-Perception On The Quality Of Life Of The Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors, Aida Bazarganpour

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The occurrence of neuropsychiatric sequelae is frequently observed among survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI). These neuropsychiatric sequelae can characterize the quality of life of TBI survivors. Among these neuropsychiatric conditions, aggression and self-perception are significant because of their potential to impair survivors’ well-being. Long-term social isolation, common among TBI survivors, has also been linked with an increased likelihood of aggressive behavior. However, research investigating the effects of aggression and self-perception on quality of life of TBI survivors is limited. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationships connecting aggression and self-perception with quality of life of …

Investigating Sexual Dimorphism In Lateral Hypothalamic Melanin-Concentrating Hormone Neuron Subpopulations, Mahitha Juttu

Honors Scholar Theses

The lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) is an area crucial for coordinating key behaviors such as sleep, wakefulness, stress, and feeding. Within this area in the brain, Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons are exclusive to the LHA and also contribute to these key homeostatic behaviors. These neurons can be divided into two different subpopulations: MCH neurons that express cocaine amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) tachykinin-3 receptor (NK3R) and MCH neurons that do not express CART and NK3R. These neuronal subpopulations have been implicated in coordinating key behaviors but have not been well studied.

In this paper, our project seeks to analyze how the …

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

Examining The Use Of Expressive Arts Therapies In Neurorehabilitation Treatment Planning, Rebecca J. Horner

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Those undergoing neurorehabilitation after stroke and traumatic brain injury report a diminished sense of overall wellness. This paper examines the conceivable benefits of introducing expressive arts therapies, which is the therapeutic use and combination of the visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing and other intermodal creative processes, into physical therapy and neurorehabilitation treatment planning. Expressive arts therapies have the capacity to engage with an individual’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual states concurrently. They simultaneously offer the ability to promote an increased sense of well-being, address mind-body disconnects, and process trauma non-verbally.

The sections of this narrative literature review focus on …

The Role Of Complement In Stroke And Traumatic Brain Injury, Christine Couch

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Brain and neural injury are a non-specific disease category that includes traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. Both TBI and stroke are common, costly, and leading causes of severe disability in adults. Both stroke and TBI are responsible for substantial disability in working age adults, with stroke being the second leading cause of death worldwide [1] and TBI a major cause of disability in people younger than their 40's [2]. The immune response after brain injury is multifactorial and involves both local and systemic events at the cellular and molecular level. The complement system is a component of both the …

Social Creatures: The Impact Of Solitary Confinement On Psychophysiological Health And How Inmates Percieve Their Humanity And Social Well-Being, Julia Austin

Honors Projects

This paper will define and examine the use of solitary confinement within the United States prison system and review its mental, physical, and social impacts. As social creatures, human mental and physical well-being depends on meaningful social interactions absent in segregation units. As it currently stands, vulnerable populations, including racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with developmental disabilities or psychological disorders, are at risk of irrevocable harm and abuse within these facilities from staff as well as other inmates. With a rotating 80,000 inmates held in solitary confinement every day, the current structure of the prison system deemphasizes rehabilitation and …

Demystifying The Mind-Body Connection: The Neuroscience Behind How Thoughts Impact Physical Health, Sofia Pantis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The beliefs, emotions, and experiences that constitute a mindset shape numerous aspects of one’s reality, but in particular, health. Health is defined by not only the physical state of one’s body, but also the content of one’s mind. The integration of the mind and body is often associated with naturopathic medicines or pseudoscience, and thus is usually left out of Western medicinal practices. This review aims to demystify the mind-body connection in health and wellness by introducing it within an empirical, neuroscientific landscape. This research supports the hypothesis that mind over matter rings true even at the biochemical level. Activation …

Disentangling Sentience From Developmental Plasticity, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

Plants, like animals, display remarkable developmental plasticity, inviting the metaphorical use of terms like “decision” and “choice”. In the animal case, this is not taken to be evidence of sentience, because sentience is a complex product of development, not something that guides it. We should apply the same standards when evaluating the evidence in plants. It is hard to overstate the contrast with the case of invertebrates such as octopuses, where pain markers that were originally developed for use in mammals have been clearly demonstrated and plausible neural substrates for sentience have been identified.

Gap Junctions And Synchronization Clusters In The Thalamic Reticular Nuclei, Anca R. Radulescu, Michael Anderson

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Computing Brain Networks With Complex Dynamics, Anca R. Radulescu

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Physiological Rationale For Fixation Eye-Movements, Qasim Zaidi

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Task-Driven Influences On Fixational Eye Movements, Jonathan Victor, Yen-Chu Lin, Michele Rucci

MODVIS Workshop

There is now compelling evidence that the spatiotemporal remapping carried out by fixational eye movements (FEMs) is an essential step in visual processing. Moreover, the overall Brownian-like statistics of FEMs are calibrated to map fine spatial detail into the temporal frequency range to which retinal circuitry is tuned. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the detailed spatial characteristics of FEMs can be adjusted to task demands via cognitive influences that operate even in the absence of a visual stimulus. We examined FEMs in a task that required subjects (N=6) to report which of two letters was displayed. Trials were blocked; …

Active Encoding Of Space Through Time, Michele Rucci, Jonathan D. Victor

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Extracting Edges In Space And Time During Visual Fixations, Lynn Schmittwilken, Marianne Maertens

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Automated Delineation Of Visual Area Boundaries And Eccentricities By A Cnn Using Functional, Anatomical, And Diffusion-Weighted Mri Data, Noah C. Benson, Bogeng Song, Toshikazu Miyata, Hiromasa Takemura, Jonathan Winawer

MODVIS Workshop

Delineating visual field maps and iso-eccentricities from fMRI data is an important but time-consuming task for many neuroimaging studies on the human visual cortex because the traditional methods of doing so using retinotopic mapping experiments require substantial expertise as well as scanner, computer, and human time. Automated methods based on gray-matter anatomy or a combination of anatomy and functional mapping can reduce these requirements but are less accurate than experts. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are powerful tools for automated medical image segmentation. We hypothesize that CNNs can define visual area boundaries with high accuracy. We trained U-Net CNNs with ResNet18 …

Toward A Manifold Encoding Neural Responses, Luciano Dyballa, Andra M. Rudzite, Mahmood S. Hoseini, Mishek Thapa, Michael P. Stryker, Greg D. Field, Steven W. Zucker

MODVIS Workshop

Understanding circuit properties from physiological data presents two challenges: (i) recordings do not reveal connectivity, and (ii) stimuli only exercise circuits to a limited extent. We address these challenges for the mouse visual system with a novel neural manifold obtained using unsupervised algorithms. Each point in our manifold is a neuron; nearby neurons respond similarly in time to similar parts of a stimulus ensemble. This ensemble includes drifting gratings and flows, i.e., patterns resembling what a mouse would “see” running through fields.

Regarding (i), our manifold differs from the standard practice in computational neuroscience: embedding trials in neural coordinates. Topology …

Constraining The Binding Problem Using Maps, Zhixian Han, Anne Sereno

MODVIS Workshop

We constrained the binding problem by creating maps of different attributes. We compared the performance of different models with different maps in our current study. Our preliminary results showed that the performance of the model is the highest when location maps were used. These results suggest that the optimal way to constrain the binding problem is to create location maps of different attributes.

From Image Gradients To A Perceptual Metric Space, Alan Johnston

MODVIS Workshop

How do we achieve a sense of spatial dimension from a sense of location? There are three predominant ideas about how we achieve this; spatial isomorphism, in which what we see reflects differences in distance or size in the brain; that spatial extent depends upon motor sensations or intentions related to eye movements; and that distance is computed from the degree of correlation in neural activity between adjacent locations, with distance inversely proportional to the correlation. There are problems with each of these approaches, for example, neural correlation may depend more on image structure than adjacency - consider the case …

V1 Saliency Hypothesis And Central-Peripheral Dichotomy (Cpd), Li Zhaoping Prof. Dr.

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Dynamical Model Of Binding In Visual Cortex During Incremental Grouping And Search, Daniel Schmid, Daniel A. Braun, Heiko Neumann

MODVIS Workshop

Binding of visual information is crucial for several perceptual tasks. To incrementally group an object, elements in a space-feature neighborhood need to be bound together starting from an attended location (Roelfsema, TICS, 2005). To perform visual search, candidate locations and cued features must be evaluated conjunctively to retrieve a target (Treisman&Gormican, Psychol Rev, 1988). Despite different requirements on binding, both tasks are solved by the same neural substrate. In a model of perceptual decision-making, we give a mechanistic explanation for how this can be achieved. The architecture consists of a visual cortex module and a higher-order thalamic module. While the …

Efficient Coding Of Local 2d Shape, James Elder, Timothy D. Oleskiw, Ingo Fruend, Gerick M. Lee, Andrew Sutter, Anitha Pasupathy, Eero Simoncelli, J Anthony Movshon, Lynne Kiorpes, Najib Majaj

MODVIS Workshop

Efficient coding provides a concise account of key early visual properties, but can it explain higher-level visual function such as shape perception? If curvature is a key primitive of local shape representation, efficient shape coding predicts that sensitivity of visual neurons should be determined by naturally-occurring curvature statistics, which follow a scale-invariant power-law distribution. To assess visual sensitivity to these power-law statistics, we developed a novel family of synthetic maximum-entropy shape stimuli that progressively match the local curvature statistics of natural shapes, but lack global structure. We find that humans can reliably identify natural shapes based on 4^th and …

Manage Your Money Wisely: How Consumers And Marketers Can Effectively Communicate Money Issues, Alexander Park

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Consumers and marketers find it challenging to communicate money matters. For example, consumers experience discomfort and uneasiness when discussing financial issues with their social relationships. Firms often receive backlash when sharing their good financial deeds (e.g., charitable efforts) with consumers. Because financial matters can be a sensitive topic, in my research, I explore the difficulties consumers and marketers experience when communicating money issues and how they can better navigate these problems.In Chapter One, I investigate a particularly uneasy interaction that consumers often face with their friends and acquaintances: the need to ask for money back. Seven fully preregistered studies (N …