Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

An Adaptationist Perspective On Animal Suicide, Timothy P. Racine

Animal Sentience

Peña-Guzmán’s discussion of suicide in nonhuman animals has broad implications. In this commentary, I focus on the logical relation between suicide and intention. Proximate cause must be distinguished from ultimate function in explanations of suicide. I briefly discuss two adaptationist accounts of suicidal behavior.

Lessons From Chimpanzee Sign Language Studies, Mary Lee Jensvold

Animal Sentience

Claims are often made about behaviors being unique to humans; the evidence usually shows they are not. Sign language studies on chimpanzees may provide a useful model for comparative studies of suicide. A productive approach to comparative studies is to focus on observable behaviors rather than getting lost in the pitfalls of vague definitions and changing measures.

Can Nondolphins Commit Suicide?, David M. Peña-Guzmán

Animal Sentience

This Response addresses the scientific and philosophical criticisms of my 2017 target article “Can nonhuman animals commit suicide?” It defends my key claims and explores topics (such as animal judgment, animal theory of mind, and the evolution of suicide) that did not appear in the original article. It also points out areas in which further research is needed and concludes that we should be wary of accusations of “anthropomorphism” in debates about animal suicide.

Sourcing Enchantment: From Elemental Appropriation To Imaginal Symbolics, Schwartz, Michael

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Critical theorists and social commentators agree that modernity and postmodernity suffer from historical pathologies of world disenchantment. What might be done? Drawing on John Sallis’ phenomenology of the elemental and Tibetan Buddhist teachings on elemental practices, this paper investigates the imagination in its doubling as imaginal in generating a symbolics of the self, world, and other that is always already enchanted; an aesthetics of existence where the world itself shows forth like a work of art replete with exorbitant logics.

Animal Suicide: Evolutionary Continuity Or Anthropomorphism?, Antonio Preti

Animal Sentience

Evolutionary processes are characterized by both continuity and discontinuity. Evidence on suicide in nonhuman animals is faint and often rests on the metaphorical or anthropomorphic use of the term. Suicidal behavior might be an evolutionary jump relatively recent in our species: a byproduct of living in groups of people who are not as closely related genetically as in social groups of nonhuman mammals.

Roots Of Self-Preservation Failure In Animal Behavior, Denys Decatanzaro

Animal Sentience

Affective variation from euphoria to dysphoria, best understood in humans, is also found in the behavior and neurochemistry of many other mammals. Suicide in humans typically occurs in highly dysphoric and despondent individuals. Self-injurious behavior has been observed in dysphoric and despondent nonhuman primates. In humans, suicide is facilitated by a highly-evolved neocortex giving rise to behavioral flexibility and culture. As Peña-Guzmán indicates, some other mammals also have elaborate neocortices and the capacity for cognitive insight, particularly apes, delphinids, and whales. Suicide is most likely to occur in species where individuals live in stable groups of highly interdependent kin.

Animal Suicide And "Anthropodenial", Ryan Hediger

Animal Sentience

Increasing understanding of the impressive cognitive and social capacities of nonhuman animals suggests the possibility that they may sometimes commit suicide. Such notions tend to be dismissed as “anthropomorphism.” That interpretive hazard, I argue, must be weighed against the opposite hazard of “anthropodenial” — “the a priori rejection of shared characteristics between humans and animals” (de Waal 2006). If animals do commit suicide, how often is it motivated precisely by the impact of humans on animal life?

Continuum And Temporality, Gerard Kuperus

Animal Sentience

I fully support the continuum proposed in the target article and argue along the same lines that we should be suspicious of drawing any strict borders between human and non-human animals. Since we can say very little with absolute certainty about human intentions regarding suicide, we have no certainty about the intentions of non-human animals. Although I am very sympathetic to Peña-Guzmán’s overall argument, I suggest that time could be taken into consideration as well.

Thinking About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

This response focuses on three major conceptual threads that run through the peer commentary on my target article: (1) how the use of chickens influences our views of them, (2) whether education is effective, and (3) what components of chicken psychology are most relevant to understanding who chickens are.

A Gut Feeling: A Hypothesis Of The Role Of The Microbiome In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders., Xue Ming, Neil Chen, Carly Ray, Gretchen Brewer, Jeffrey Kornitzer, Robert A Steer

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurologic disorder characterized by hyperactivity/impulsivity and/or inattentiveness, with genetic and environmental factors contributing to the disorder. With the growing recognition of the microbiome's role in many neurological disorders, the authors propose that it may also be implicated in ADHD. Here, we describe several evolving areas of research to support this hypothesis. First, a unique composition of gut bacteria has been identified and linked to behaviors in ADHD. Second, our research found an increased incidence of 2 gastrointestinal symptoms (constipation and flatulence) in children with ADHD, as compared to controls. Finally, emerging data may be interpreted …

Targeted Delivery Of A Therapeutic Protein For The Treatment Of Alzheimer's Disease, Heather Holman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease are linked to mitochondrial dysfunction and the underexpression of TOM40, a protein with chaperone-like qualities that is responsible for transporting precursor proteins into the mitochondria. Overexpression of TOM40 is reported to partially restore mitochondrial dysfunction and decrease the accumulation of neurotoxic aggregates of α-synuclein. Our goal is to develop an effective method for delivery of TOM40 protein to the brain.

Previous studies have used lentiviruses to carry TOM40 into the hippocampus of α-synuclein transgenic mice. The disadvantage of lentiviral transfection is the random insertions of the target gene into the host …

Baseline White Matter Hyperintensities And Hippocampal Volume Are Associated With Conversion From Normal Cognition To Mild Cognitive Impairment In The Framingham Offspring Study., Katherine J Bangen, Sarah R Preis, Lisa Delano-Wood, Philip A Wolf, David J Libon, Mark W Bondi, Rhoda Au, Charles Decarli, Adam M Brickman

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

INTRODUCTION: We examined associations between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers of cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) diagnosis at baseline and conversion from normal cognition to MCI at follow-up.

METHODS: Framingham Offspring participants underwent brain MRI and neuropsychological assessment at baseline (n=1049) and follow-up (n=561). Participants were classified at baseline and at follow-up as cognitively normal or MCI using sensitive neuropsychological criteria. White matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume, covert brain infarcts, hippocampal volume, and total cerebral brain volume were quantified.

RESULTS: Baseline measures of WMH and hippocampal volume were associated with MCI status cross-sectionally and also with conversion …

Factor Structure And Gender Invariance Testing For The Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (Sas-2), Leilani Madrigal, Vincenzo Roma, Todd Caze, Arthur C. Maerlender, Debra Hope

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

This study aimed to provide further psychometric validation of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2) by assessing the factor structure, invariance across gender, and convergent and divergent validity of the SAS-2 by correlating both related (i.e., anxiety sensitivity, brief fear of negative evaluation, intolerance of uncertainty, and negative affect) and unrelated constructs (i.e., positive affect, self-confidence). A total of 542 current and former competitive athletes completed a questionnaire through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system. All data were collected via online survey. Participants were randomly assigned to an exploratory factor analysis (n = 271) and confirmatory factor analysis group (n = 271). Results …

Accumulating Data To Optimally Predict Obesity Treatment (Adopt): Recommendations From The Biological Domain, Michael Rosenbaum, Tanya Agurs-Collins, Molly S. Bray, Kevin D. Hall, Mark Hopkins, Maren Laughlin, Paul S. Maclean, Padma Maruvada, Cary R. Savage, Dana M. Small, Luke Stoeckel

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Background: The responses to behavioral, pharmacological, or surgical obesity treatments are highly individualized. The Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict obesity Treatment (ADOPT) project provides a framework for how obesity researchers, working collectively, can generate the evidence base needed to guide the development of tailored, and potentially more effective, strategies for obesity treatment. Objectives: The objective of the ADOPT biological domain subgroup is to create a list of high-priority biological measures for weight-loss studies that will advance the understanding of individual variability in response to adult obesity treatments. This list includes measures of body composition, energy homeostasis (energy intake and output), …

Left Lateralized Cerebral Glucose Metabolism Declines In Amyloid-Β Positive Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Christopher M. Weise, Kewei Chen, Yinghua Chen, Xiaoying Kuang, Cary R. Savage, Eric M. Reiman

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Background: Previous publications indicate that Alzheimer's Disease (AD) related cortical atrophy may develop in asymmetric patterns, with accentuation of the left hemisphere. Since fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) measurements of the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRgl) provide a sensitive and specific marker of neurodegenerative disease progression, we sought to investigate the longitudinal pattern of rCMRgl in amyloid-positive persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, hypothesizing asymmetric declines of cerebral glucose metabolism. Methods: Using florbetapir PET and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measures to define amyloid-β (Aβ) positivity, 40 Aβ negative (Aβ-) cognitively unimpaired controls (CU; 76 ± 5y), …

Novel Biomarkers Of Physical Activity Maintenance In Midlife Women: Preliminary Investigation, Kelly A. Bosak, Vlad B. Papa, Morgan G. Brucks, Cary R. Savage, Joseph E. Donnelly, Laura E. Martin

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The precision health initiative is leading the discovery of novel biomarkers as important indicators of biological processes or responses to behavior, such as physical activity. Neural biomarkers identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) hold promise to inform future research, and ultimately, for transfer to the clinical setting to optimize health outcomes. This study investigated resting-state and functional brain biomarkers between midlife women who were maintaining physical activity in accordance with the current national guidelines and previously acquired age-matched sedentary controls. Approval was obtained from the Human Subjects Committee. Participants included nondiabetic, healthy weight to overweight (body mass index 19–29.9 kg/m …

Relationship Between Tdp-43 Toxicity And Aggregation In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Martin Anthony Aguilar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Protein aggregation and inclusion body formation are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These neurodegenerative diseases share a common pathology in that all include accumulation of insoluble protein aggregates in the brain. TAR-DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) is the major component found in the pathological inclusions of two of these diseases, ALS and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusions (FTLD-U). This thesis focuses upon the biophysical basis for TDP-43 aggregation in S. cerevisiae. Current in vitro evidence indicates that TDP-43 is a natively dimeric protein and that binding to RNA inhibits aggregation. Corresponding …

Maturation In Auditory Event-Related Potentials Explains Variation In Language Ability In Children., Elaine Yuen Ling Kwok, Marc F Joanisse, Lisa Archibald, Margot E. Stothers, Heather M Brown, Janis Oram Cardy

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Publications

Processing of auditory information in the cortex continues to develop into later childhood and adolescence. Recent research has indicated that intraclass correlation (ICC) is the best method for capturing maturation in auditory event-related potentials (AEPs) of school-age children. However, the sensitivity of the ICC approach in discerning AEP changes in children has not been consistently demonstrated and positive results have not been replicated. We attempted this replication and further explored whether AEP maturation estimated using the ICC approach predicts cognitive and linguistic abilities in addition to chronological age. We measured AEPs in response to simple tones in groups of 7-, …

A Multi-Domain Approach To Prevention And Reversal Of Cognitive Decline, Chanah Oberlander

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Incidence of dementia has been on the rise over the last few decades and it is projected that more than 130 million people will be affected by dementia worldwide by 2050. The underlying cause remains incompletely determined, and despite numerous clinical trials, no drug to date has proven effective in preventing or reversing symptoms of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s disease. The amyloid hypothesis as a basis for drug development of Alzheimer’s disease has thus far proven to be ineffective, suggesting that perhaps a new approach is required. New studies have shown the efficacy of a multi-domain approach which targets …

Exercise Can Potentially Cure Parkinson’S Disease: A Comprehensive Review, Ilana Tokarsky

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease that negatively affects many American lives. It is characterized by the degeneration of dopamine-secreting neurons in the Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta (SNpc). Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease lack motor coordination and experience severe motor impairments. Unfortunately, there is currently no treatment method available that can successfully cure the disease. In fact, all of the mainstream available treatments only eliminate some PD symptoms, and they cause many negative side effects. Although nontraditional, exercise is a side effect free treatment method that can potentially slow the progression of the disease and alleviate some symptoms. …

Mesotocin Influences Pinyon Jay Prosociality, J. F. Duque, W. Leichner, H. Ahmann, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Many species exhibit prosocial behavior , in which one individual’s actions benefit another individual, often without an immediate benefit to itself. The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important hormonal mechanism influencing prosociality in mammals, but it is unclear whether the avian homologue mesotocin plays a similar functional role in birds. Here, we experimentally tested prosociality in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), a highly social corvid species that spontaneously shares food with others. First, we measured prosocial preferences in a prosocial choice task with two different pay-off distributions: Prosocial trials delivered food to both the subject and either an empty cage …

If Nonhuman Animals Can Suicide, Why Don’T They?, C. A. Soper, Todd K. Shackelford

Animal Sentience

An evolutionary analysis suggests that selection is unlikely to have tolerated the capacity for intentional self-killing in nonhuman animals. The potential to escape pain by suicide would have presented a recurrent and severe adaptive problem for an animal with a reproductive future to protect. If the potential for suicide arose in the evolutionary past, anti-suicide mechanisms may have co-evolved, as we believe they have in adult humans. Peña-Guzmán’s (2017) argument that some nonhuman animals can suicide is incomplete without an account of the defences that result in the vast majority opting not to.

Can A Comprehensive Transition Plan To Barefoot Running Be The Solution To The Injury Epidemic In American Endurance Runners?, Michael A. Scarlett

CMC Senior Theses

Fossils belonging to the genus Homo, dating as far back as two million years ago, exhibit uniquely efficient features suggesting that early humans had evolved to become exceptional endurance runners. Although they did not have the cushion or stability-control features provided in our modern day running shoes, our early human ancestors experienced far less of the running-related injuries we experience today. The injury rate has been estimated as high as 90% annually for Americans training for a marathon and as high as 79% annually for all American endurance runners. There is an injury epidemic in conventionally shod populations that …

Quantifying The Spectrum Of Depression, Octavious Bishop

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Walden University

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by

Octavious Bishop

has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects,

and that any and all revisions required by

the review committee have been made.

Review Committee

Dr. Thomas Edman, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty

Dr. Ricardo Thomas, Committee Member, Psychology Faculty

Dr. Joanna Bissell-Havran, University Reviewer, Psychology Faculty

Chief Academic Officer

Eric Riedel, Ph.D.

Quantifying the Spectrum of Depression

by

Octavious Bishop

MA, University of Texas at Austin, 2008

BS, University of Texas at Austin, 2001

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment …

Effect Of Attentional Capture And Cross-Modal Interference In Multisensory Cognitive Processing, Michael Jennings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite considerable research, the effects of common types of noise on verbal and spatial information processing are still relatively unknown. Three experiments, using convenience sampling were conducted to investigate the effect of auditory interference on the cognitive performance of 24 adult men and women during the Stroop test, perception of object recognition and spatial location tasks, and the perception of object size, shape, and spatial location tasks. The data were analyzed using univariate analysis of variance and 1-way multivariate analysis of variance. The Experiment 1 findings indicated reaction time performance for gender and age group was affected by auditory interference …

Chicken Minds And Moral Standing, Kristin Andrews

Animal Sentience

Some of the cognitive traits that Marino reviews are not in themselves relevant to ethics, either for chickens or human infants, but affective traits are, among them desires.

Simultaneous Use Of Physiological Sensors For A Neuromarketing Task, Charles Descheneaux

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physiological measurements have become more popular in Psychological research over the past ten years. These advancements allowed different objective sensors to become another measurement tool in a scientific arsenal of collecting data. Traditionally, performance and after task subjective measures have been used for most studies in Psychological research. With the opportunity to use these subjective measures along with objective measures, more data can be collected during research and therefore potentially produce better quality conclusions. Eye Tracking (ET), functional near infrared (fNIR), transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD), electrocardiogram (EKG) and the electroencephalogram (EEG) have shown great promise in their ability to produce …

Deep Learning-Based Framework For Autism Functional Mri Image Classification, Xin Yang, Saman Sarraf, Ning Zhang

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

The purpose of this paper is to introduce deep learning-based framework LeNet-5 architecture and implement the experiments for functional MRI image classification of Autism spectrum disorder. We implement our experiments under the NVIDIA deep learning GPU Training Systems (DIGITS). By using the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) LeNet-5 architecture, we successfully classified functional MRI image of Autism spectrum disorder from normal controls. The results show that we obtained satisfactory results for both sensitivity and specificity.

Test Of Bpa's Estrogenic Effects On Brain Aromatase Expression, Neural Activity, And Locomotive Behavior In Zebrafish Larvae, Ryan J. Mcauley

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a well-known endocrine disrupting chemical that mimics the effects of estrogens. Aromatase B (Cyp19a1b) is a brain-specific enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen and is highly upregulated in response to estrogen receptor activation localized to radial glial cells. During embryonic zebrafish development, there is a small window of time denoted by an increase in neurogenesis and estrogen receptor activity. Previous studies have demonstrated that a low dose BPA exposure (0.1µM) during this window causes hyperlocomotion in larval zebrafish, yet no further explanation for this behavior change has been described. The purpose of this study was to …

Objectively Measuring Effects Of Electro-Acupuncture In Parkinsonian Rhesus Monkeys, Rui Zhang, Anders H. Andersen, Peter A. Hardy, Eric Forman, April Evans, Yi Ai, Jin Yue, Guihua Yue, Don M. Gash, Richard Grondin, Zhiming Zhang

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center Faculty Publications

Acupuncture has increasingly been used as an alternative therapy for treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the efficacy of acupunture for PD still remains unclear. The present study was designed to objectively and safely monitor anti-parkinsonian effects of electroacupuncture (EA) and brain activity in nonhuman primates modeling human PD. Six middle-aged rhesus monkeys were extensively studied by a computerized behavioral testing battery and by pharmacological MRI (phMRI) scans with specific dopaminergic drug stimulations. All animals were evaluated for behavior and phMRI responses under normal, parkinsonian, parkinsonian with EA treatment and parkinsonian after EA treatment conditions. Stable parkinsonian features were observed …