Cognitive Neuroscience Commons^™

The Cognitive Thalamus: Source Analysis Of Scene Working Memory Delay Activity, Bernard A. Gomes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working Memory represents a limited-capacity store for maintaining information and manipulating the store's contents over a short period for the guidance of goal-directed behavior. Working Memory is an essential component of executive functions that are intricately associated with the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC has been implicated in maintaining task-related information online for brief periods in the absence of relevant information. This active maintenance phase is called the delay period that occurs between encoding and retrieval of the stimulus. Previous studies have attempted to understand the relationship between working memory and the PFC, especially during the delay or maintenance phase …

Rehabilitative Movement Approaches And Dance Interventions In Parkinson’S Disease, Cecilia Fontanesi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The scope of this work is to address the functional deficits and symptoms experienced by those living with Parkinson’s Disease through movement interventions.

Chapter 1 offers a brief overview of current pharmacotherapy and rehabilitation approaches in Parkinson’s, focusing on dance in particular as a movement intervention that may be particularly suited to this population.

Chapter 2 focuses on brain plasticity and motor learning in PD, reporting the effects of rTMS applied after the acquisition of a motor skill. In this study, adaptation tested in patients with PD was comparable in the sham and TMS sessions, while retention indices tested on …

A Glance At The Mirror: Ensemble Perception Of Symmetry, Gene Jerskey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A growing body of research has demonstrated the ability of subjects to extract representative statistics from visual ensembles, images of similar but distinct groups of objects, without conscious effort or attention focused on individual members of the ensemble. When presented with ensembles, subjects have been able to accurately report the mean, range, and even distribution of various features in the ensemble. Research into ensemble perception, as it has become known, has divided mainly into studies of either low-level features, such as orientation, motion, and color, which are processed in early visual areas, at least for individual objects, or high-level features, …

Investigating The Neural Mechanisms Of Unconscious And Illusory Touch Perception, Lua Koenig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite our everyday reliance on touch, from manipulating tools to dressing ourselves, relatively little is known about the neural correlates of tactile perception. As with other modalities, our conscious, reportable experiences of touch can dissociate from the physical tactile stimulation processed by the skin. In unconscious touch perception, tactile stimuli can be processed and guide our behavior without an accompanying conscious percept. For example, we may swat away a mosquito without having consciously registered its presence on our skin. In tactile illusions, conscious tactile experiences occur without a corresponding tactile stimulus. Multisensory tactile illusions arise when stimulation of a different …

Comparison Of Longitudinal Changes In Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Between Alzheimer’S And Healthy Controls, Berk Can Yilmaz

Theses

Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) is a technique that is widely used for analyzing brain function using different approaches and methods. This study involves rs-fMRI analysis of Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signals acquired from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) Patients and Healthy Controls (HC). Each subject in the study had both functional and anatomical images with at least one rs-fMRI scan with their Anatomical (T1) scans. Previous rs-fMRI studies have demonstrated that AD shows differences in Amplitude of Low Frequency (<0.1 Hz) Fluctuations (ALFF), and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) measures according to HCs.

The aim of the study is to investigate individual and group level differences using ReHo and mALFF related …

Optimization And Validation Of A Modified Radial-Arm Water Maze Protocol Using A Murine Model Of Mild Closed Head Traumatic Brain Injury, Teresa Macheda, Kelly N. Roberts, Josh M. Morganti, David J. Braun, Adam D. Bachstetter

Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center Faculty Publications

Cognitive impairments can be a significant problem after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which affects millions worldwide each year. There is a need for establish reproducible cognitive assays in rodents to better understand disease mechanisms and to develop therapeutic interventions towards treating TBI-induced impairments. Our goal was to validate and standardize the radial arm water maze (RAWM) test as an assay to screen for cognitive impairments caused by TBI. RAWM is a visuo-spatial learning test, originally designed for use with rats, and later adapted for mice. The present study investigates whether test procedures, such us the presence of extra-maze cues …

Preliminary Evidence Of The Role Of Medial Prefrontal Cortex In Self-Enhancement: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study, Birgitta Taylor-Lillquist, Vivek Kanpa, Maya Crawford, Mehdi El Filali, Julia Oakes, Alex Jonasz, Amanda Disney, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Humans employ a number of strategies to improve their position in their given social hierarchy. Overclaiming involves presenting oneself as having more knowledge than one actually possesses, and it is typically invoked to increase one’s social standing. If increased expectations to possess knowledge is a perceived social pressure, such expectations should increase bouts of overclaiming. As the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is sensitive to social pressure and disruption of the MPFC leads to decreases in overclaiming, we predicted that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the MPFC would reduce overclaiming and the effects would be enhanced in the presence of …

Brainwaves And Intentions: The Readiness Potential And Its Relation To Free Will, Joanna Pak, Aaron Schurger, Adina Roskies, Pengbo Hu

SURF Posters and Papers

First discovered in 1965 by Kornhuber and Deecke, the readiness potential (RP) is a distinctive buildup of neural activity in motor areas of the brain that begins ~500 ms before voluntary movements. In 1983, Libet used the RP as the foundation for his argument against the existence of conscious free will. This argument became known as the classic model of the RP, which interprets the RP as a precursor to the conscious experience of volition and a quantifiable representation of unconscious brain activity preceding spontaneous movements. Although the classic model connected the RP to free will, the significance of the …

Nutraceutical Potential For Alzheimer's Disease Treatment, Alex Gewecke

Undergraduate Research Journal

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive disorder involving buildup of excessive amounts of proteins such as beta amyloid in the brain that leads to memory loss, inability to perform daily functions, and an early death. By 2060, the number of cases is forecast to nearly triple current numbers. Age is the primary risk factor for AD and no new drugs have been approved since 2003. Nutraceuticals, a broad category of substances that can be utilized for both medicinal and nutritional purposes may be able to help, which is why they are being more widely researched. Overall, a number of attempts …

Consider The Agent In The Arthropod, Nicolas Delon, Peter Cook, Gordon Bauer, Heidi Harley

Animal Sentience

Whether or not arthropods are sentient, they can have moral standing. Appeals to sentience are not necessary and retard progress in human treatment of other species, including invertebrates. Other increasingly well-documented aspects of invertebrate minds are pertinent to their welfare. Even if arthropods are not sentient, they can be agents whose goals—and therefore interests—can be frustrated. This kind of agency is sufficient for moral status and requires that we consider their welfare.

What Kind Of An Illusion Is The Illusion Of Self, Karsten J. Struhl

Comparative Philosophy

Both early and later forms of Buddhism developed a set of arguments to demonstrate that the self is an illusion. This article begins with a brief review of some of the arguments but then proceeds to show that these arguments are not themselves sufficient to dispel the illusion. It analyzes three ways in which the illusion of self manifests itself – as wish fulfillment, as a cognitive illusion, and as a phenomenal illusion (what might be called the “I” sense). With respect to this last, the article reviews some recent developments in cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience to discuss the way …

Variations In Slow-Wave Eeg And Working Memory Deficits During Letter Number Sequencing Task Post-Concussion, Morgan Sotoloff

Neuroscience Presentations

Concussions are associated with various types of consequences, both short-term and long-term: ranging from acute symptomatology, resting protocols, return-to-play decisions, and the lingering effects that have been found to have significant impacts on cognitive processes and function in many individuals several months post-concussion. Previous research has demonstrated that certain dimensions of executive function are especially susceptible to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), specifically working memory and attention. Studies that have previously utilized electroencephalography (EEG), have found that increased very low frequency oscillations (VLFO) are associated with a disruption of goal-oriented activities, difficulties in cognition, hyperactivity, and inattention in concussed individuals …

Brain Complexity, Sentience And Welfare, Donald M. Broom

Animal Sentience

Neither sentience nor moral standing is confined to animals with large or human-like brains. Invertebrates deserve moral consideration. Definition of terms clarifies the relationship between sentience and welfare. All animals have welfare but humans give more protection to sentient animals. Humans should be less human-centred.

Convergent Evolution Of Sentience?, Culum Brown Prof.

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell make a compelling case that some invertebrates may be sentient and that our moral obligations in the context of welfare should hence extend to them. Although the case is similar to that made for fishes, there is one obvious difference in that examples of invertebrate sentience probably arose independently from vertebrate sentience. We have unequivocal proof that complex cognition arose multiple times over evolutionary history. Given that cognition is our best tool for indirectly quantifying sentience, it seems highly likely that this multiple polygenesis may also have occurred for sentience. In acknowledging this, we must accept that …

Minds, Morality And Midgies, Brian Key, Deborah Brown

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell argue that the exclusion of the vast majority of arthropods from moral standing is unwarranted, particularly given the purported evidence for cognition and sentience in these organisms. The implied association between consciousness and moral standing is questionable and their assumption that rich forms of cognition and flexible behavior are dependent on phenomenal consciousness needs to be reconsidered in light of current neuroscientific evidence. We conclude by proposing a neural algorithmic approach for deciphering whether organisms are capable of subjective experience.

Olfaction Modulates Inter-Subject Correlation Of Neural Responses, Paul Deguzman, Anshul Jain, Matthias H. Tabert, Lucas C. Parra

Publications and Research

Odors can be powerful stimulants. It is well-established that odors provide strong cues for recall of locations, people and events. The effects of specific scents on other cognitive functions are less well-established. We hypothesized that scents with different odor qualities will have a different effect on attention. To assess attention, we used Inter-Subject Correlation of the EEG because this metric is strongly modulated by attentional engagement with natural audiovisual stimuli.We predicted that scents known to be “energizing” would increase Inter-Subject Correlation during watching of videos as compared to “calming” scents. In a first experiment, we confirmed this for eucalyptol and …

Investigation Of The Role Of Heparin-Binding Pocket In Amyloid Fibrils Formation Of Fgf-1, I Gusti Ayu Agung Septiari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF/hFGF-1) is one of the promising molecules to be investigated to generate an in-depth understanding of the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease (AD) neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the presence of amyloid fibrils. Some in vivo and human brain tissue studies proved the correlation of high-level expression of FGF-1-induced neuroinflammation and the occurrence of AD. The presence of amyloid fibrils as a hallmark of AD can be related to the generic property of the proteins to form amyloid fibrils; High level of FGF-1, in this case, may contribute to the formation of amyloid fibrils. As a …

An Eeg Study On Loneliness And Recognition Memory, Carmen Jia Wen Chek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loneliness, the perception of unmet social needs, has been shown to relate to recollection-based recognition deficits, but the relationship between loneliness and recognition memory (i.e., recollection and familiarity) has not been thoroughly examined. The current study hypothesized that more lonely individuals would have lower recognition memory performance, specifically recollection, with smaller ERP parietal old-new effects than less lonely individuals. Forty participants, grouped into less (n = 13) and more (n = 9) lonely groups based on their R-UCLA responses, completed an associative memory task. EEG was used to assess recognition memory effects. Results showed no significant difference in …

Proactive And Reactive Aggression, Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, And Sleep In Adolescents, Allison L. Brasch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Current research evaluating the relationship between proactive and reactive aggression, sleep, and autonomic dysfunction has shown inconsistencies. The unique etiologies, manifestations, and presentation of these two aggressive subtypes have garnered much speculation, and research has shown mixed, and oftentimes conflicting, results. Generally speaking, insufficient sleep has been linked to increased agitation, cognitive impairment, emotional dysregulation, and poorer physical health. Many studies have provided support for an inverse relationship existing between sleep problems and sympathovagal health, implicating hypo- or hyper-autonomic function with proactive and reactive aggression, respectively. Concurrently and conflictingly, additional research has shown support for the exact opposite relationships between …

The Impact Of A Single Session Of Mindfulness Meditation On The Attentional Blink In Non-Meditators, Arielle L. Klopsis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attentional resources are limited therefore a stimulus can go undetected if it closely follows another target by 200-500ms. This phenomenon is known as the attentional blink. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to be beneficial in target detection and in decreasing the attentional blink. Since there is no standard for the type of meditation or duration of practice that leads to attention benefits, this study compares the two most popular types of meditation in a group of non-meditators: focused attention and open monitoring meditation. This study utilized an attentional blink paradigm to measure if a single session of mindfulness meditation can …

The Effects Of Self-Esteem And Motivation On Cognitive Control, Andrea Benavides

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cognitive control describes a set of mechanisms that guide behavior towards a goal (Cohen, 2017). The successful execution of cognitive control is essential for effective learning, information processing, problem solving, and academic achievement (Visu-Petra et al., 2011). The Expected Value of Control framework (EVC; Shenhav et al., 2013) suggests that control carries an inherent cost, which is weighed against the potential benefits of expending it. This cost-benefit analysis determines the direction and intensity that a goal is pursued. Importantly, motivation plays a role in this cost-benefit analysis and may function as the factor that offsets the cost of control expenditure …

Two Nights Of Recovery Sleep Restores Hippocampal Connectivity But Not Episodic Memory After Total Sleep Deprivation, Ya Chai, Zhuo Fang, Fan Nils Yang, Sihua Xu, Yao Deng, Andrew Raine, Jieqiong Wang, Meichen Yu, Mathias Basner, Namni Goel, Junghoon J. Kim, David A. Wolk, John A. Detre, David F. Dinges, Hengyi Rao

Publications and Research

Sleep deprivation significantly impairs a range of cognitive and brain function, particularly episodic memory and the underlying hippocampal function. However, it remains controversial whether one or two nights of recovery sleep following sleep deprivation fully restores brain and cognitive function. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and examined the effects of two consecutive nights (20-hour time-in-bed) of recovery sleep on resting-state hippocampal connectivity and episodic memory deficits following one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) in 39 healthy adults in a controlled in-laboratory protocol. TSD significantly reduced memory performance in a scene recognition task, impaired hippocampal …

Exploring Effects Of Background Music In A Serious Game On Attention By Means Of Eeg Signals In Children, Fettah Kiran

LSU Master's Theses

Music and Serious Games are separately useful alternative therapy methods for helping people with a cognitive disorder, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The goal of this thesis is to explore the effect of background music on children with and without ADHD. In this study, a simple Tetris game is designed with Beethoven, Mozart music, and no-music. There are different brainwave techniques for recording; among others, the electroencephalography (EEG) allows for the most efficient use of BCI. We recorded the EEG brain signals of the regular and ADHD subjects who played the Tetris we designed according to our protocol that …

Mental Associations And Music Therapy: Including The History Of Associationism And The Neurology Of Associations, Dianna Rose

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Associations are formed in our minds based upon three elements: sensory experience, emotions, and memories. These associations, unique to each individual, dictate thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and actions. Some are necessary and supportive, while others can be maladaptive. Established associations can be changed, and new associations can be formed, to align with a client’s goals. The literature presents a strong history of associationism, as well as a body of research that demonstrates the neurological processes of how mental associations are formed. There are also studies showing how music activates the brain. However, there is a lack of research which draws direct …

Neuroprotection Against Alzheimer’S And Lifespan Extension Induced By Dietary Restriction Are Associated With Metabolomic Changes And Depend On Oxidative Resistance Protein 1 (Oxr1), George W. Brownridge Iii

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Biological Sciences Master's Theses

Dietary restriction (DR) has been demonstrated to be a robust means of extending the healthspan and lifespan, along with improving cognitive performance in various model organisms from yeast to primates, possibly by mediating neuroprotection. We utilized the Drosophila melanogaster model organism to better understand the molecular pathways that enable DR-induced benefits. By performing a genome-wide associated screening of the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) that catalogues all natural genetic variants, we discovered that Oxidative resistance protein 1 (OXR1) showed the most significant difference in expression between DR and the inverse intervention of ad libitum (AL). Our research found that OXR1 …

Using Machine Learning To Conduct A Detailed Behavioral Analysis In An Appetitive Social Learning Task, Thomas Shao

Honors Scholar Theses

Learning by watching others, or observational learning, is important for social development and survival. However, not much is known about the brain mechanisms underlying this type of learning. Since the 1960s, observational learning has been widely studied in humans, but developing and analyzing experiments for animals has been challenging. Here, I explore observational learning using a novel paradigm while performing an analysis that involves tracking the rats using an active learning paradigm called DeepLabCut. In this novel paradigm, customized operant conditioning chambers are used for the rats to observe and learn from another animal repeatedly on multiple trials each day. …

Effects Of Repeated Intermittent Episodes Of Social Stress On The Acquisition And Extinction Of A Reward-Seeking Task, Nikki Sullivan

Honors Theses

Repeated exposure to stress is known to have a myriad of effects on the brain, contributing to the development of psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and drug addiction. For example, rats undergoing repeated social stress develop increased cocaine self-administration. These effects of stress are not well-understood and are related to changes in the brain reward system. This study investigated the effects of repeated social stress on reward-seeking behavior via the acquisition and extinction of a discriminative stimulus (DS) task and on anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM). Male rats underwent intermittent social defeat (4 sessions in 10 …

Dynamic Oscillatory Interactions Between Neural Attention And Sensorimotor Systems, Alex Wiesman

Theses & Dissertations

The adaptive and flexible ability of the human brain to preference the processing of salient environmental features in the visual space is essential to normative cognitive function, and various neurologically afflicted patient groups report negative impacts on visual attention. While the brain-bases of human attentional processing have begun to be unraveled, very little is known regarding the interactions between attention systems and systems supporting sensory and motor processing. This is essential, as these interactions are dynamic; evolving rapidly in time and across a wide range of functionally defined rhythmic frequencies. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a range of novel cognitive paradigms …

The Current Neuroscientific Understanding Of Alzheimer's Disease, Rachel A. Brandes

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative neurological illness characterized by the deterioration of brain regions implicated in memory and cognitive function. While researchers have yet to find a cure or effective treatment, they have gained a better understanding of its pathology and development. Through years of neuroscience research, scientists have discovered much of what happens in the brain during Alzheimer’s disease onset and how this causes its symptoms; many hypotheses regarding this aspect of the illness involve temporal lobe atrophy, neurofibrillary tangles, and amyloid plaques. Although Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people every day, it seems that most are unaware of …

Neurocognitive Risk Factors And Current Intervention Strategies For Survivors Of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Abigail Taber

Senior Honors Theses

The improved survival rate for pediatric cancer patients is one of the greatest triumphs of recent medicine, but the late effects faced by these survivors have been uncovered through this new population of survivors. Many survivors of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) experience cognitive deficits in areas such as attention, memory, processing speed, and academic achievement following cancer treatment. Recent research has pointed to chemotherapeutic agents, host risk factors, and genetic predispositions as perpetrators of these deficits, although other factors are also under investigation. Consequently, the search for appropriate interventions for the amelioration of these deficits has dominated the literature …