Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Integrating Mrna And Mirna Weighted Gene Co-Expression Networks With Eqtls In The Nucleus Accumbens Of Subjects With Alcohol Dependence, Mohammed Mamdani, Vernell Williamson, Gowon O. Mcmichael, Tana Blevins, Fazil Aliev, Amy Adkins, Laura Hack, Tim Bigdeli, Andrew D. Van Der Vaart, Bradley Todd Webb, Silviu-Alin Bacanu, Gursharan Kalsi, Coga Consortium, Kenneth S. Kendler, Michael F. Miles, Danielle Dick, Brien P. Riley, Catherine Dumur, Vladimir I. Vladimirov

Psychology Publications

Alcohol consumption is known to lead to gene expression changes in the brain. After performing weighted gene co-expression network analyses (WGCNA) on genome-wide mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) expression in Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) of subjects with alcohol dependence (AD; N = 18) and of matched controls (N = 18), six mRNA and three miRNA modules significantly correlated with AD were identified (Bonferoni-adj. p≤ 0.05). Cell-type-specific transcriptome analyses revealed two of the mRNA modules to be enriched for neuronal specific marker genes and downregulated in AD, whereas the remaining four mRNA modules were enriched for astrocyte and microglial specific marker genes and …

Developmental Changes In Genetic And Shared Environmental Contributions To Smoking Initiation And Subsequent Smoking Quantity In Adolescence And Young Adulthood, Cristina B. Bares, Kenneth S. Kendler, Hermine H. Maes

Psychiatry Publications

Background

Few studies examining the genetic architecture of cigarette smoking have focused on adolescents or examined developmental changes in additive genetic, shared environment and unique environmental influences on liability to initiate cigarette smoking and quantity of cigarettes smoked. The aim of this study is to add to the literature on liability to initiate and use cigarettes during adolescence using a nationally representative sample.

Method

Data for this study came from adolescent and young adult twin pairs (ages 14-33) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We ran a series of developmental causal-contingent-common pathway models to examine whether …

Genetic Network Properties Of The Human Cortex Based On Regional Thickness And Surface Area Measures, Anna R. Docherty, Chelsea K. Sawyers, Matthew S. Panizzon, Michael C. Neale, Lisa T. Eyler, Christine Fennema-Notestine, Carol E. Franz, Chi-Hua Chen, Linda K. Mcevoy, Brad Verhulst, Ming T. Tsuang, William S. Kremen

Psychiatry Publications

We examined network properties of genetic covariance between average cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) within genetically-identified cortical parcellations that we previously derived from human cortical genetic maps using vertex-wise fuzzy clustering analysis with high spatial resolution. There were 24 hierarchical parcellations based on vertex-wise CT and 24 based on vertex-wise SA expansion/contraction; in both cases the 12 parcellations per hemisphere were largely symmetrical. We utilized three techniques—biometrical genetic modeling, cluster analysis, and graph theory—to examine genetic relationships and network properties within and between the 48 parcellation measures. Biometrical modeling indicated significant shared genetic covariance between size of several …

Political Attitudes Develop Independently Of Personality Traits, Peter K. Hatemi, Brad Verhulst

Psychiatry Publications

The primary assumption within the recent personality and political orientations literature is that personality traits cause people to develop political attitudes. In contrast, research relying on traditional psychological and developmental theories suggests the relationship between most personality dimensions and political orientations are either not significant or weak. Research from behavioral genetics suggests the covariance between personality and political preferences is not causal, but due to a common, latent genetic factor that mutually influences both. The contradictory assumptions and findings from these research streams have yet to be resolved. This is in part due to the reliance on cross-sectional data and …

Genome-Wide Association Data Suggest Abcb1 And Immune-Related Gene Sets May Be Involved In Adult Antisocial Behavior, J E. Salvatore, A C. Edwards, J N. Mcclintick, T B. Bidgeli, A Adkins, F Aliev, H J. Edenberg, T Foround, V Hesselbrock, J Kramer, J I. Nurnberger, M Schuckit, J A. Tischfield, X Xuei, D Dick

Psychiatry Publications

Adult antisocial behavior (AAB) is moderately heritable, relatively common and has adverse consequences for individuals and society. We examined the molecular genetic basis of AAB in 1379 participants from a case–control study in which the cases met criteria for alcohol dependence. We also examined whether genes of interest were expressed in human brain. AAB was measured using a count of the number of Antisocial Personality Disorder criteria endorsed under criterion A from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV). Participants were genotyped on the Illumina Human 1M BeadChip. In total, all single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) accounted for …

Who Are Those “Risk-Taking Adolescents”? Individual Differences In Developmental Neuroimaging Research, James M. Bjork, Dustin A. Pardini

Psychiatry Publications

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has illuminated the development of human brain function. Some of this work in typically-developing youth has ostensibly captured neural underpinnings of adolescent behavior which is characterized by risk-seeking propensity, according to psychometric questionnaires and a wealth of anecdote. Notably, cross-sectional comparisons have revealed age-dependent differences between adolescents and other age groups in regional brain responsiveness to prospective or experienced rewards (usually greater in adolescents) or penalties (usually diminished in adolescents). These differences have been interpreted as reflecting an imbalance between motivational drive and behavioral control mechanisms, especially in mid-adolescence, thus promoting greater risk-taking. While intriguing, …

Impact Of Task Load And Gaze On Situation Awareness In Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control, Joseph T. Coyne, Ciara M. Sibley

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Increasing levels of automation and rising costs of manpower are pushing the DoD towards a supervisory control paradigm for future unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions. Using the Supervisory Control Operations User Testbed, a group of 20 participants completed two twenty minute supervisory control missions where eye tracking and performance data were collected. Each mission had 3 levels of task load; which were manipulated by varying the frequency of events to which the user responded. During each level, the simulation paused and a situation awareness (SA) probe appeared with all UAVs and targets randomly placed on the map. Participants were tasked …

Behavioral Traps In Crew-Related Aviation Accidents, Jonathan Velázquez, Allen Peck, Timothy Sestak

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

The majority of aviation accidents are still attributed to human error, with flight crew actions accounting for the majority of these mishaps. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has identified 12 behavioral traps that can ensnare even experienced pilots. This study examined the FAA-defined behavioral traps and the regularity with which they occurred in flight crew related accidents. The top three traps were Neglect of Flight Planning, Preflight Inspection, and Checklists; Loss of Positional or Situational Awareness; and Getting Behind the Aircraft, which were found in 72%, 61%, and 48% of aviation accidents, respectively. The results showed the contributing factors of …

Fusion: A Framework For Human Interaction With Flexible-Adaptive Automation Across Multiple Unmanned Systems, Allen J. Rowe, Sarah E. Spriggs, Daylond J. Hooper

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Future unmanned systems operators and heterogeneous unmanned systems must be able to work as agile synchronous teams to complete tactical reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition related missions requiring the use of automation to assist the human operator. Interface research in this area is critical to the success of human-automation teaming, thus requiring a research test bed that brings together humans, autonomy, and systems. Fusion is a framework that enables natural human interaction with flexible and adaptive automation via the use of intelligent agents reasoning among disparate domain knowledge sources, machine learning providing monitoring services and intelligent aids to the operator, …

Haptic Guidance, Interaction Between The Guidance Model And Tuning, M.M. (Rene) Van Paassen, Rolf P. Boink, David A. Abbink, Mark Mulder, Max Mulder

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

A haptic interface, also called haptic display, is a system that informs and aids a human operator by forces on the control device (stick, steering wheel or other). These interfaces are being explored for many fields, e.g., for UAV control, (tele-)robotics, automotive control and flying. The force feedback helps in control tasks and increases the operator’s awareness. Proper design of such interfaces promotes “shared control”, where an autonomous agent and the human operator can jointly exercise control on a dynamic system. The human’s flexibility and adaptivity of his neuromuscular system offers ways to override the haptic support, should this be …

A Regression Of Consumer Atttitudes Toward Airport Water Reuse, Ismael Cremer, Stephen Rice, Scott R. Winter

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Recent studies have focused on characterizing and understanding the public’s perceptions of risk with respect to general reuse projects (Baggett, Jefferson & Jefferson 2005; Hurlimann 2011; Toze, 2005). These studies have shown varying attitudes toward water reuse and are necessary to assess the public’s risk perception and acceptance of water reuse before implementing it. To date, no studies have examined whether certain variables affect people’s attitudes toward the water reuse concepts at airports. Four hundred and four participants from India and the United States participated in a study wherein various socio-economic were collected along with their attitude scores toward water …

Toward Head-Up And Head-Worn Displays For Equivalent Visual Operations, Lawrence (Lance) J. Prinzel Iii, Jarvis (Trey) J. Arthur, Randall E. Bailey, Kevin J. Shelton, Lynda J. Kramer, Denise R. Jones, Steven P. Williams, Stephanie J. Harrison, Kyle K. Ellis

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

A key capability envisioned for the future air transportation system is the concept of equivalent visual operations (EVO). EVO is the capability to achieve the safety of current-day Visual Flight Rules (VFR) operations and maintain the operational tempos of VFR irrespective of the weather and visibility conditions. Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS) offer a path to achieve EVO. NASA has successfully tested EFVS for commercial flight operations that has helped establish the technical merits of EFVS, without reliance on natural vision, to runways without category II/III ground-based navigation and lighting requirements. The research has tested EFVS for operations with both …

Perspectives Of Unsuccessful Air Traffic Control Specialists, Linda G. Pierce, Cristina L. Byrne

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Approximately one-quarter of air traffic controller trainees fail field training at their first facility assignment. In some cases, those who fail the training qualifications at their first air traffic control facility assignment are allowed to transfer to a less complex facility. We surveyed a sample of these controllers to identify their perceptions of work-related and external factors that contributed to their failure and subsequent request for reassignment. For example, although these controllers were selected to work at their first facility, in part, based on their aptitude for the job, some said they simply could not do the work at the …

A3ir-Coree And Flightprofiler: An Academic-Industry Partnership For Sms Development, John H. Mott, Mark C. Ball

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

FlightProfiler, a safety management system software for general aviation that has been under development since 2000, quantifies and illustrates how 79 different factors collectively affect planning for general aviation flights. The software uses advanced collaborative decision-making technology and NextGen analytics to prescreen an entire flight cycle, with objectives of improving flight safety and reducing costs. The Advanced Aviation Analytics Institute for Research (A3IR-CORE) at Purdue University has entered a partnership with the software developer to improve the usability of the product in a collegiate aviation environment. This includes creating process flow diagrams of the software and of Purdue flight operations, …

Using Augmented Reality And Computer-Generated Three-Dimensional Models To Improve Training And Technical Tasks In Aviation, Amadou Anne, Yu Wang, Timothy D. Ropp

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has considerably improved since its inception, and especially over the last few years, to the point of becoming a relatively reliable and potentially cost-effective tool in many fields. Significant advances have been made by software developers to improve the quality of AR tools and the hardware necessary to access these tools has become common. However, AR is mostly unknown or underused in the aviation industry, either in education and training or in professional environments. This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of AR for training and professional technical applications in aviation, especially when combined with 3D …

A Multi-Year Study Of The Safety And Training Impacts Of Introducing The Live, Virtual, Constructive Training Strategy Into Navy Air Combat, Sarah Sherwood, Kelly Neville, Angus L.M. Thom Mclean Iii, Jessica Cruit, Katherine Kaste

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

In the Navy’s proposed Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) training system, virtual entities that represent pilots in flight simulators and computer-generated constructive entities will be injected into the cockpits of F/A-18 aircraft during live-flight training. The Navy expects LVC to ameliorate many of the economic and environmental impacts of live-flight training and to support future training requirements. However, the potential impact of LVC on training effectiveness and safety is not completely understood. While the naval air combat training system is notably robust, its inherent complexity precludes a straightforward analysis of potential hazards and mitigations. Two years ago, researchers began to identify …

Experimental Investigation Of Flight Crew Strategies In Handling Unexpected Events, Joris Field, Rogier Woltjer, Amy Rankin, Max Mulder

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

This paper reports a flight simulation study where airline flight crews were to handle unexpected situations, as part of the “Manual Operations for 4th Generation Airliners” (Man4Gen) EU research project. The analysis of their behaviour combined a cognitive systems engineering perspective with behavioural analysis methods used in aviation industry. Hollnagel’s Contextual Control (COCOM) and Extended Control (ECOM) Models are applied to examine the strategies with which the flight crew responded to the simulated events. The outcome of this analysis is combined with the results of industry expert analysis of the actions that flight crew were expected to perform. ECOM illustrates …

Nigeria’S Aviation At A Glance: The Assessment Of Nigerians’ Perceived Trust Level In Nigeria’S Aviation Industry, Ibrahim G. Miya, Stephen C. Rice

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

The recent occurrences of fatal aviation crashes in Nigeria have significantly affected Nigerians’ trust in the overall performance efficiency of Nigeria’s aviation. In the context of Africa’s aviation, Nigeria in particular, it appeared that very little is being done on trust. This study assessed Nigerians trust level in Nigeria’s aviation industry with respect to “Familiarity-Based Trust Model,” (Zhang, Ghorbani & Cohen, 2007). The study used a 7-point Likert-type survey questionnaires as the primary data collection tools. Ten predictor variables (income, age, gender, political view, aircraft ownership, purpose of flying, class ticket, relationship status, distance flown, and flight frequency) were regressed …

"Proof Of The Loop": Patterns Of Habitual Denial In Tim O'Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods And Don Delillo's Libra, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

The Need For Theory To Guide Concussion Research, Dennis Molfese

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

While the focus on concussion research has expanded greatly over the past decade, progress in identifying the mechanisms and consequences of head injury, the recovery path and the development of potential interventions to facilitate recovery have been largely absent. Instead, the field has largely progressed through an accumulation of data without the guidance of any systematic theory to guide the formulation of research questions or generate testable hypotheses. As part of this special issue on sports concussion, we advance a theory to describe the evolution of a neural network during the development of a cognitive process as well as the …

Resting-State Brain Connectivity After Surgical And Behavioral Weight Loss, Rebecca J. Lepping, Amanda S. Bruce, Alex Francisco, Hung-Wen Yeh, Laura E. Martin, Joshua N. Powell, Laura Hancock, Trisha M. Patrician, Florence J. Breslin, Niazy Selim, Joseph E. Donnelly, William M. Brooks, Cary R. Savage, W. Kyle Simmons, Jared M. Bruce

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Objective: Changes in food-cue neural reactivity associated with behavioral and surgical weight loss interventions have been reported. Resting functional connectivity represents tonic neural activity that may contribute to weight loss success. This study explores whether intervention type is associated with differences in functional connectivity after weight loss. Methods: Fifteen participants with obesity were recruited prior to adjustable gastric banding surgery. Thirteen demographically matched participants with obesity were selected from a separate behavioral diet intervention. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was collected 3 months after surgery/ behavioral intervention. ANOVA was used to examine post-weight loss differences between the two groups in …

Differences In Prefrontal Cortex Activation And Deactivation During Strategic Episodic Verbal Memory Encoding In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Joana B. Balardin, Marcelo C. Batistuzzo, Maria Da Graca Moraes Martin, Joao R. Sato, Jerusa Smid, Claudia Porto, Cary R. Savage, Ricardo Nitrini, Edson Amaro Jr., Eliane C. Miotto

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

In this study we examined differences in fMRI activation and deactivation patterns during episodic verbal memory encoding between individuals with MCI (n = 18) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 17). Participants were scanned in two different sessions during the application of self-initiated or directed instructions to apply semantic strategies at encoding of word lists. MCI participants showed reduced free recall scores when using self-initiated encoding strategies that were increased to baseline controls' level after directed instructions were provided. During directed strategic encoding, greater recruitment of frontoparietal regions was observed in both MCI and control groups; group differences …

High Fidelity Simulation And Aviation Training To Improve Problem Solving Skills And Coordination, Evan M. Lester, Paul A. Craig

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

The Flight Operations Center – Unified Simulation (FOCUS) lab was created in 2010 to break down the “barrier” between aerospace concentrations at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and address several aspects of teamwork in aviation. While participating in the FOCUS lab’s high-fidelity simulations, teams of senior undergraduate aerospace students work together to solve complex and real-world scenarios, which helps improve each student’s coordination, teamwork, problem-solving, and communication skills. Each team’s performance in the FOCUS lab’s simulations is evaluated by the FOCUS lab research team and discussed at the team’s After Action Review (AAR) to determine how the team can improve …

Procedure Used For Establishing Screening Test Cut-Points Based On Aviation Occupational Task Performance, Nelda Milburn, Thomas Chidester, Kevin Gildea, Linda Peterson, Carrie Roberts, Deborah Perry

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Previous research has shown that some individuals with color vision deficiencies (CVD) are capable of performing some aviation occupational tasks as well as those with normal color vision (NCV); implying that passing a screening test with a diagnosis of NCV may not be necessary for all aviation occupations. Our goal was to find outcome consistency between performance on occupational tasks and several screening tests; further, to compare those pass/fail outcomes to the Colour Assessment and Diagnosis (CAD) test for aviation certification. The strategy involved establishing a pass/fail cut-point separately for four occupational tasks at the 5th percentile of the NCV …

A Coalition Study Of Warfighter Acceptance Of Wearable Physiological Sensors, Lauren E. Menke, Christopher Best, Gregory J. Funke, Adam J. Strang

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

Combat operations are often high tempo, resulting in undesirable levels of operator workload and stress. Adaptive automation has been suggested as a solution to these issues. However, this augmentation approach is predicated on operator consent to monitoring. Acceptance of such systems may be influenced by concerns regarding the use of monitor data and mistrust of automation technology. The purpose of the current investigation was to examine operator acceptance of physiological monitoring and future augmentation strategies after limited exposure to one device. During a simulated exercise, eleven command and control operators were equipped with a physiological monitor prior to each mission. …

Toward An Integrated Ecological Plan View Display For Air Traffic Controllers, Brem Beernink, Clark Borst, Joost Ellerbroek, Rene Van Paassen, Max Mulder

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

To cope with increasing demand on the air traffic management system, this paper proposes a novel user interface which supports air traffic controllers in conflict detection and resolution. The concept is based on previous work on 3D solution space displays for air traffic control, but then aimed at improving the interaction by better integrating speed, heading, and altitude constraints on the Plan View Display. A preliminary, subjective human-in-the-loop evaluation study was performed using five participants with various experience levels in real-life air traffic control. Results from the evaluation indicate that both successful use of the interface as well as the …

The Effects Of Workload And Stress On Teamwork In A High Fidelity Simulation, Andrea M. Georgiou

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2015

With a unique high fidelity simulation lab, participants completed 3 hour work shifts to a run a simulated regional airline. The experimental design consisted of three teams randomly assigned to either a minimal, moderate, or maximum level of difficulty. Increases in workload and stress were implemented with various triggers and the participants had to quickly develop solutions to mitigate the problems. After the simulation, the participants completed the CATME (Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness) online survey for evaluations of their performance for five variables. (Ohland et al., 2012). Based on one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), the results suggest only …

Mending Broken Fences, Mary E. Pritchard

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tears streamed freely down my face as I watched waves crash on the beach.

My husband put his arms around me. "For what it's worth," he said, "I'm sorry this is happening to us."

So was I. We'd been through so much in our twenty-one years together: the loss of both of our fathers and two dogs, six surgeries for my endometriosis, four failed rounds of fertility treatments, the loss of his job thirteen years prior that had placed all our financial burdens squarely on my shoulders. Despite—or maybe because of—all of these things, I knew my marriage was over.

Beyond The Colonial Divide: African Diasporic And Indigenous Youth Alliance Building For Hiv Prevention, Ciann L. Wilson

Psychology Faculty Publications

African diasporic and North American Indigenous communities have both been greatly impacted by the colonization of the Americas. Historic and contemporary relations between these communities have been fraught with complex commonalities, contradictions and conflicts. These communities have remained connected across time and space through their shared and distinct histories of resistance and oppression. Both communities have suffered the embodiment of systemic violence in the form of elevated rates of communicable and chronic diseases such as HIV. This paper examines the decolonizing potential of collaboration between these two communities in their response to HIV. It begins by unpacking the history of …

Tweeting About Sexism: The Well-Being Benefits Of A Social Media Collective Action., Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although collective action has psychological benefits in non-gendered contexts (e.g., Drury et al., 2005), the benefits for women taking action against gender discrimination are unclear. This study examined how a popular, yet unexplored potential form of collective action, namely tweeting about sexism, affects women’s well-being. Women read about sexism and were randomly assigned to tweet, or to one of three control groups. Content analyses showed tweets exhibited collective intent and action. Analyses of linguistic markers suggested public tweeters used more cognitive complexity in their language than private tweeters. Profile analyses showed that compared to controls, only public tweeters showed decreasing …