Cognitive Neuroscience Commons^™

Mapping The Neuroexposome: Integrative Analysis Of Dementia Risk Factors Through Multi-Omics And Environmental Profiling In The Egyptian Population., Mai Ahmed Saadzaghloul Othman

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Dementia represents one of the most pressing public health challenges of the twenty-first century, with the global burden projected to reach 153 million cases by 2050. Egypt, as the most populous Arab nation, faces a corresponding rise in age-related diseases, yet comprehensive data from low- and middle-income countries remain severely limited. The neuroexposome framework, integrating genetic susceptibility, environmental exposures, and metabolic alterations, offers a powerful strategy to characterize the complex interplay between internal and external risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease Related Dementias (ADRD).

Objectives: This thesis aimed to: (1) examine the distribution of APOE alleles …

Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy, Marwa Moustafa Nassef

Theses and Dissertations

Corporal punishment (CP) and severe physical punishment (SPP) remain a major public health, child rights, and child protection policy concern. In Egypt, despite legislative reforms, survey-weighted analysis of the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS) 2021 (CAPMAS, 2022) reveals prevalence rates of 60.5% for CP and 27.4% for SPP among children aged 1–14 (author’s calculations using EFHS-2021, n=7623), yet evidence distinguishing the determinants of routine corporal punishment from escalation to severe physical punishment remains limited in low- and middle-income contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this mixed-methods study identifies key drivers of CP and its escalation to SPP among Egyptian …

An Impact Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Utilizing Informal Health Communication Interventions To Spread Health Recommendations And Change Public Perception, Lina Mohamed Ezzat Ahmed Abdel Mawgoud

Theses and Dissertations

Brain health is an increasingly urgent but critically under-addressed public health priority in Egypt and the wider MENA region. Despite its centrality to aging, productivity, and overall quality of life, public understanding of brain health remains limited, and stigma continues to shape responses to dementia and cognitive decline. This study evaluates the effectiveness of informal, culturally adapted health communication as a tool to shift perception, increase awareness, and promote behavior change among non-medically trained adults in Egypt.

Grounded in global evidence on cognitive reserve, neuroplasticity, and the life-course approach to brain health, the intervention translated expert-informed brain health recommendations into …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Impairment In Psychiatric Patients And Readmission Rate To An Inpatient Facility, Cherilyn Isis Schuff

Theses and Dissertations

The primary intention of this study was to further understand the impact of assessing cognitive impairment in psychiatric patients, as a mediating factor on readmission rates. Mild cognitive dysfunction impacts a patient’s functional outcomes (Bowie & Harvey, 2006; Davis et al., 2012; Marcantonio, et al., 2001). Little information exists to guide best practices in the treatment of adults with cognitive impairment who are hospitalized for acute conditions (Davis et al., 2012). A cognitive impairment may impact patient prognosis and ability to function outside of a setting focused on stabilization. Neuropsychological testing is a valuable tool in predicting a patient’s cognitive …

Individual Differences In Structure Learning, Philip Newlin

Theses and Dissertations

Humans have a tendency to impute structure spontaneously even in simple learning tasks, however the way they approach structure learning can vary drastically. The present study sought to determine why individuals learn structure differently. One hypothesized explanation for differences in structure learning is individual differences in cognitive control. Cognitive control allows individuals to maintain representations of a task and may interact with reinforcement learning systems. It was expected that individual differences in propensity to apply cognitive control, which shares component processes with hierarchical reinforcement learning, may explain how individuals learn structure differently in a simple structure learning task. Results showed …

Chronic Adolescent Stress As A Predictive Factor For The Risk Of Developing Ptsd-Like Symptoms In Adulthood, Grace K. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress and trauma based psychological disorder that is defined by the DSM-IV as an anxiety disorder that affects approximately 7.8% of people in the United States. PTSD is when those who suffer a traumatic event have intense and distressing feelings, emotions, and memories for a prolonged period of time after the event. A prominent feature of PTSD is the impaired ability to properly extinguish a fear response after a dangerous trigger or stressor is no longer present, also known as safety learning. Stressors are threats perceived within the environment that activate a response within the …

Contextually Modulated Avoidance Behavior In Rats Post-Pavlovian Extinction, Lauren Branigan

Theses and Dissertations

The following study sought to examine the psychological substrates of renewal (e.g.., context dependent extinction processes) for conditioned avoidance behaviors in rats. Using signaled active avoidance conditioning, rats acquired two-way shuttle responding, to two different auditory stimuli. These behaviors were then extinguished through exposure to the auditory stimuli where shuttling behavior was now without consequence. Subjects were then tested for renewal of avoidance in three distinct renewal sequences (e.g., ABA vs ABB, AAB vs AAA, and ABC vs ABB) in three separate groups of rats. It was found that subjects showed more responding to a stimulus presented outside of its …

Galantamine's Deconstruction In The Quest Of A Pam Pharmacophore, Malaika Argade

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder generally affecting people above the age of 65 years. Even though the pathophysiological hallmarks of AD were established more than a hundred years ago, there is yet to be a drug that can stop its characteristic neuronal damage. Of the five currently FDA-approved drugs, galantamine has a unique mechanism of action. Apart from being an AChE inhibitor, galantamine can effectively potentiate (positive allosteric modulator) the effect of agonists at nAChRs at concentrations lower than those required for its action as an AChE inhibitor. Perhaps the clinical benefits observed with galantamine are associated mainly …

Integrating Genetics And Neuroimaging To Study Subtypes Of Binge Drinkers, Megan E. Cooke

Theses and Dissertations

Risky alcohol use is a major health concern among college students, with 40.1% reporting binge drinking (5 or more drinks in one occasion) and 14.4% reporting heavy drinking (binge drinking on 5 or more occasions) in the past month. Risky alcohol use is thought to be the result of a complex interplay between genes, biological processes, and other phenotypic characteristics. Understanding this complex relationship is further complicated by known phenotypic heterogeneity in the development of alcohol use. Developmental studies have suggested two pathways to risky alcohol use, characterized by externalizing and internalizing characteristics, respectively. However, the underlying biological processes that …