Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Cognitive And Mental Health Challenges: Addressing The Impact Of Traumatic Brain Injuries In Adults, Hannah E. Smith, Lesley Khan-Farooqi, Phd, Otd, Otr, Anne Mcdonnell, Mpa, Otr/L, Cbist

Student Capstone Papers

This capstone examined the challenges adults face following traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and explored interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive functioning and mental health. This capstone also aimed to reduce caregiver stress and burnout by expanding knowledge and resources focused on cognitive and mental health within the population. TBIs can result from a variety of causes, affecting cognitive abilities, mental health, and functional outcomes. This capstone shows evidence-based interventions designed to improve cognitive functioning, facilitate engagement in meaningful activities to improve mental health, and enhance overall quality of life for adults recovering from TBI. This also will demonstrate potential for occupational …

Examining Links Between Somatosensation And Cognition In Children With Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy, Kassandra M. Hewitt, Donna M. Bayliss, Belinda A. Mclean, Ashleigh L. Thornton, Jonson J. Moyle

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are at increased risk of impaired somatosensation and cognition. Among children with hemiplegia, approximately three-quarters have impaired somatosensation and one-third have intellectual impairment. While somatosensation may relate to cognitive functioning in CP, this relationship has not previously been investigated. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between somatosensation and cognition in children with hemiplegic CP, and whether the pattern of brain injury, classified using an established MRI classification system, moderates this relationship. Forty-seven children (26 females) with hemiplegic CP participated (mean age = 11.0 years; SD = 3.6; range: 6–16 years). Parent questionnaires provided demographic, educational, …

Potential Mechanisms Of Influence Between Spiritual Practices And Cognitive Health: A Systematic Review And Conceptual Model, Katherine Carroll Britt, Hayoung Oh, Augustine Cassis Obeng Boateng, Sherry Morgan, Sato Ashida, Corey Nagel, Roland J Thorpe, Harold G Koenig

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background/Objectives: This systematic review summarizes the evidence regarding potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between spiritual practices and cognitive health in adults. The review was performed based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist.

Methods: An extensive search of six electronic databases (i.e., PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, Sociological Abstracts, ATLA, CINAHL) was conducted using keywords related to spiritual practices, religious activities, and cognitive health from 1 January 2000 to December 2025. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal tool aligned with the study design.

Results: A total of …

Examining Domain-Specific Neuropsychological Differences Across Cognitive Status Groups In Utrgv South Texas Alzheimer’S Disease Research Center Cohort, Andrea Ramirez, Estrella Palomo, Rosa Pirela, Hector Rodriguez, Roberto Reyes, Eron Manusov, Ney Alliey-Rodriguez, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Gladys E. Maestre, Silvia Mejia-Arango

Research Colloquium

Background: The Uniform Data Set 3.0 Neuropsychological Battery (UDS3NB) is a standardized tool for assessing cognitive function in aging populations. Factor analytic studies on the UDS 3 have shown that performance across cognitive domains, such as memory, attention, executive function, language, and visuospatial abilities, can differentiate between cognitive status groups, cognitively normal (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia. Understanding how specific cognitive domains relate to diagnostic categories, CN, MCI, and dementia, is essential for early identification. Additionally, socioeconomic and health factors may influence cognitive outcomes and should be considered alongside cognitive performance. The aims of this study are to: …

Cognitive Impairment In Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Clinical Implications And Novel Treatment Strategies, Alexis J. Vega, Gabriel V. Hernandez, Ahmed I. Anwar, Bahareh Sharafi, Rahib K. Islam, Sahar Shekoohi, Alan D. Kaye

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a lifelong condition; however, traditional treatment focuses on hyperactivity and inattention, which is largely a manifestation of pediatric ADHD. Studies are limited regarding cognitive difficulties, as seen in adult ADHD, as well as treatment strategies for this population. This review of the literature examines multiple recent studies that discuss various novel treatment strategies for cognitive impairment in adults with ADHD. A targeted literature review was conducted using PubMed to identify recent studies on cognitive dysfunction in adults with ADHD, with an emphasis on emerging treatment strategies. Data collected included sample size, intervention strategies, cognitive …

Expanding “Brain Games”: What Have We Learned From A Program Designed To Support Healthy Brain Aging In Older Adults?, Ella Mckinney

Honors Capstones

This study was part of a larger investigation examining the feasibility and impact of “Brain Games,” an intergenerational program designed to provide brain health education and cognitive training for healthy aging adults to maximize cognitive function and quality of life. The purpose of this project was to explore whether and how short- and long-term effects of “Brain Games” were tempered by demographic variables, including cognitive self-efficacy and socioeconomic factors. Study participants included older adults residing in two senior living centers in the DeKalb area. All participants received cognitive training and brain health education via “Brain Games”, which was offered in …

Just As Expected? Older Adults’ Aging Expectations Are Associated With Subjective Cognition, Nikki Hill, Sakshi Bhargava, Justin Do, Emily Bratlee-Whitaker, Monique Brown, Renata Komalasari, Rachel Wu, Jacqueline Mogle

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the relationship between older adults' expectations regarding aging and subjective cognition. Specifically, we examined whether the three domains of aging expectations (physical health, mental health, and cognitive function) were associated with two aspects of subjective cognition: current subjective cognition and subjective cognitive decline (SCD).

METHOD: An online survey was conducted among U.S. adults aged 65-90 (N = 581; M_age=71.4, SD ± 4.81; 51% female). Measures included the 12-item Expectations Regarding Aging scale, the 8-item PROMIS Cognitive Abilities scale (current subjective cognition), and the 12-item Everyday Cognition scale (SCD). We used generalized linear models …

The Pointer Imaging Baseline Cohort: Associations Between Multimodal Neuroimaging Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Health, And Cognition, Theresa M Harrison, Tyler Ward, Jacinda Taggett, Pauline Maillard, Samuel N Lockhart, Youngkyoo Jung, Laura C Lovato, Robert Koeppe, William J Jagust, Danielle Harvey, Joseph C Masdeu, Hwamee Oh, Darren R Gitelman, Neelum T Aggarwal, Mark A Espeland, Maryjo L Cleveland, Rachel Whitmer, Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, Stephen Salloway, Valory Pavlik, Melissa Yu, Christine Tangney, Heather Snyder, Maria Carrillo, Laura D Baker, Prashanthi Vemuri, Charles Decarli, Susan M Landau

Staff and Researcher Publications

Introduction: The U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) is evaluating lifestyle interventions in older adults at risk for cognitive decline and dementia. Here we characterize the baseline data set of the POINTER Imaging ancillary study.

Methods: Participants underwent health and cognitive assessments and neuroimaging with multimodal positron emission tomography (PET) (beta-amyloid [Aβ] and tau) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Framingham risk score (FRS) was used to quantify cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Results: A total of 1052 participants (31% from underrepresented ethnoracial groups) were enrolled. Compared to Aβ-, Aβ+ (29%) participants were older, …

A Review Of The Association Between Dietary Intake And Brain Iron Levels In Older Adults: Preliminary Findings And Future Directions., Valentinos Zachariou, Christopher E. Bauer, Colleen A. Pappas, Brian T. Gold

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: Non-heme iron is essential for critical neuronal functions such as ATP generation, synaptogenesis, neurotransmitter synthesis, and myelin formation. However, as non-heme iron accumulates with age, excessive levels can contribute to oxidative stress, potentially disrupting neuronal integrity and contributing to cognitive decline. Despite growing evidence linking high brain iron with poorer cognitive performance, there are currently no proven methods to reduce brain iron accumulation in aging or to protect cognitive function from iron’s negative effects. Recent studies suggest that nutrition may influence brain iron levels, though the evidence remains limited and mixed. Methods: In this review, we explore recent findings, …

The Short Stress State Questionnaire In German (Sssq-G), Veronika Ringgold, Grant Shields, Felicitas Hauck, Miriam Kurz, Lena Schindler-Gmelch, Luca Abel, Robert Richer, Bjoern M. Eskofier, Nicolas Rohleder

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Although the physiological stress response is well established, self-reported stress has received less attention. Some validated measures assess task-related stress via self-report in English. However, no such measure exists in Germany. Aims: To address this research gap, we translated and validated the Short Stress State Questionnaire in German (SSSQ-G). It assesses stress-related affective states (e.g., anger) and appraisals (e.g., feelings of control). We expected to replicate the factor structure of the English SSSQ in the SSSQ-G. Methods: We included the SSSQ-G in five studies that induced stress either via the gold standard task for acute stress …

Expert Consensus In A Politically-Charged Environment: Motivated Reasoning In Information Processing, Austin L. Katz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the abundance of information online, what drives news consumption? It has been theorized that there are two distinct conflicting motivations which operate simultaneously when consumers encounter new information: the motivation to reach accurate conclusions and the directional motivation to reach conclusions that are consistent with a person’s preexisting beliefs or predispositions (e.g., Kunda 1990). This experiment tests situations in which both motivations are simultaneously made salient in the context of reading headlines to decide what news to read and how accurate the news is likely to be.

A new fact-check manipulation was used to draw attention to the accuracy …

Purpose In Life And Associated Cognitive And Affective Mechanisms, Louis Fang, Alfred Allan, Joanne M. Dickson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose in life is a well-established contributor to positive well-being. However, for a more comprehensive understanding of purpose in life, further exploration is needed about the processes implicated in purpose from a cognitive and affective perspective. This scoping review aims to identify the cognitive and/or affective mechanisms (CAMs) correlating with purpose in life and to examine these relationships based on relevant existing literature. Using search terms related to CAMs and purpose in life, we conducted a comprehensive search across five databases (Web of Science, Medline, Pubmed, Scopus, and psycinfo) to identify those examining the relationship between these constructs. Ninety-nine manuscripts …

The Mccusker Subjective Cognitive Impairment Inventory (Mcsci): A Novel Measure Of Perceived Cognitive Decline, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Brandon E. Gavett, Michael Weinborn, Craig P. Speelman, Romola S. Bucks, Ralph N. Martins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), i.e. self/other-reported concerns on one’s cognitive functioning without objective evidence of significant decline, is an indicator of dementia risk. There is little consensus on reliability and validity of the available SCD measures. Therefore, introducing a novel and psychometrically sound measure of SCD is timely.

Objective: The psychometric properties of a new SCD measure, the McCusker Subjective Cognitive Impairment Inventory–Self-Report (McSCI-S), are reported.

Methods: Through review of previously published measures as well as our clinical and research data on people with SCD, we developed a 46-item self-report questionnaire to assess concerns on six cognitive domains, namely, …

Cognitive Enhancing Effect Of Rtms Combined With Tdcs In Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Sham-Controlled Study, Xingxing Li, Junyao Liu, Shuochi Wei, Chang Yu, Dongmei Wang, Yuchen Li, Jiaxin Li, Wenhao Zhuang, Rui-Chen-Xi Luo, Yanli Li, Zhiwang Liu, Yuqiu Su, Jimeng Liu, Yongming Xu, Jialin Fan, Guidong Zhu, Weiqian Xu, Yiping Tang, Hui Yan, Raymond Y Cho, Thomas R Kosten, Dongsheng Zhou, Xiangyang Zhang

Staff and Researcher Publications

BACKGROUND: Cognitive dysfunction is one of the common symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have been studied separately in the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in MDD patients. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of rTMS combined with tDCS as a new therapy to improve neurocognitive impairment in MDD patients.

METHODS: In this brief 2-week, double-blind, randomized, and sham-controlled trial, a total of 550 patients were screened, and 240 MDD inpatients were randomized into four groups (active rTMS + active tDCS, active rTMS + sham tDCS, …

Emotional, Behavioral, And Cognitive Symptom Associations With Community Participation In Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury, Shannon B Juengst, Brittany Wright, Leia Vos, Robert Perna, Michael Williams, Emily Dudek, Annalyn Demello, Zinat Taiwo, Luis Leon Novelo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: To determine the association between self-reported emotional and cognitive symptoms and participation outcomes in chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to explore the relative contribution of self-reported versus performance-based cognition to participation outcomes.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling adults ( n = 135) with a lifetime history of mild to severe TBI.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study on neurobehavioral symptoms in chronic TBI.

MAIN MEASURES: Behavioral Assessment Screening Tool (BAST) (Negative Affect, Fatigue, Executive Dysfunction, Impulsivity, Substance Abuse subscales) measured self-reported neurobehavioral symptoms; Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools (Productivity, Social Relations, and Out and About) measured self-reported participation …

The Impact Of Severity Of Motor Delay, Timing Of Task Mastery, And Start-Play Intervention On The Development Of Means-End Problem Solving In Young Children, Andrea B. Cunha, Iryna Babik, Dongho Choi, Natalie Koziol, Regina T. Harbourne, Stacey C. Dusing, Sarah W. Mccoy, Sandra L. Willett, James A. Bovaird, Michele A. Lobo

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Children with motor delays are at increased risk for delayed means-end problem-solving (MEPS) performance.

Objectives: To evaluate children with motor delays: 1) the impact of motor delay severity and MEPS mastery timing on developmental trajectories of MEPS; and 2) the effectiveness of Sitting Together And Reaching To Play (START-Play) intervention for improving MEPS.

Methods: This represents a secondary analysis from a multi-site randomized controlled trial, with blinded assessors and prospective registration. Children with mild or significant motor delays (n = 112, mean age=10.80, SD=2.59 months at baseline) were randomly assigned to START-Play or usual care early …

An Examination Of Working Memory In Dancers And Non-Dancers, Mason Low

All Master's Theses

The present study examined the behavioral working memory differences between dancers and non-dancers. Previous research has indicated that dance can provide an enhancing effect on working memory, particularly in non-dancers. A Dance History Questionnaire along with the letters backward, digits backward, digits forward, letters forward, and abstract visual subtests of the Test of Learning and Memory II was used to collect data. The current study found that dancers had greater visuospatial memory than non-dancers and that dance experience may have an effect on certain working memory tests such as the letters forward subtest.

Opioid System's Potential Involvement In Ketamine's Cognitive And Antidepressant-Like Effects In Rats, Fan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Depression stands as one of the most pervasive mental health challenges worldwide, including the United States. Conventional antidepressants typically display a delayed onset of therapeutic action (4-8 weeks) and lack efficacy in a substantial portion of patients (over 40% of depressed patients are treatment-resistant). The dissociative anesthetic ketamine, which is a glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, has emerged as a promising novel treatment due to its rapid and prolonged antidepressant effects, and it is especially beneficial for treatment-resistant depression. Nevertheless, the precise neurochemical mechanisms underlying ketamine’s antidepressant properties remain elusive, hampering the development of safer and more efficacious treatments. The present …

Acute Exposure To Diisopropylfluorophosphate In Mice Results In Persistent Cognitive Deficits And Alterations In Senescence Markers In The Brain, Alvin V Terry, Wayne D Beck, Victoria Zona, Yutaka Itokazu, Ashutosh Tripathi, Amit Kumar Madeshiya, Anilkumar Pillai

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Organophosphates (OPs) are found in hundreds of important products used worldwide; however, they have been associated with adverse long-term health consequences ranging from neurodevelopmental deficits to age-related neurological diseases. OP exposure has also been implicated in Gulf War Illness; a cluster of medically unexplained chronic symptoms estimated to affect 25-32% of veterans of the Persian Gulf war in 1991. The development of multiple types of chronic illnesses in these veterans at an early age compared to the general population has led to the suggestion that they are experiencing signs of premature or accelerated aging. The process of cellular senescence and …

Neurocognitive Dysfunction With Neuronal Injury In People With Hiv On Long-Duration Antiretroviral Therapy, Cynthia Mcmahan, Devon K Dietrich, Elizabeth F Horne, Erin Kelly, Katrina Geannopoulos, Peter Selim Siyahhan Julnes, Lillian Ham, Ulisses Santamaria, Chuen-Yen Lau, Tianxia Wu, Hsing-Chuan Hsieh, Anuradha Ganesan, Catherine Berjohn, Suad Kapetanovic, Daniel S Reich, Govind Nair, Joseph Snow, Brian K Agan, Avindra Nath, Bryan R Smith

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background and objectives: Neurologic outcomes in people with HIV (PWH) on long-duration antiretroviral therapy (ART) are not fully understood, and the underlying pathophysiology is unclear. To address this, we established a cohort of such individuals and compared them with HIV-negative controls using a novel matching technique. Both groups underwent extensive cognitive testing, evaluation for psychiatric measures, and MRI and CSF analyses.

Methods: Participants underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing and completed standardized questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms, perceptions of own functioning, and activities of daily living as part of an observational study. Brain MRI and lumbar puncture were optional. Coarsened Exact Matching was …

Social Cognition Across Bipolar Disorder And Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia: An Exploratory Study, Izabela Guimarães Barbosa, Flávia Da Mata Chiácchio Leite, Maxime Bertoux, Henrique Cerqueira Guimarães, Luciano Inácio Mariano, Leandro Boson Gambogi, Antônio Lúcio Teixeira, Paulo Caramelli, Leonardo Cruz De Souza

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Bipolar disorder type 1 (BD1) and behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) share similar behavioral and cognitive symptoms, rendering the differential diagnosis between them a clinical challenge. We investigated the accuracy of social cognition (SC) measures to differentiate bvFTD from BD.

METHODS: We included three groups of participants: early-onset BD1 (in remission, n=20), bvFTD (n=18), and cognitively healthy controls (HC) (n=40), matched for age, schooling, and sex. All participants underwent cognitive assessment, including the Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) and Modified Faux-Pas (mFP) tests, which assess mentalizing.

RESULTS: Compared to HC, BD1 and bvFTD patients underperformed on both SC measures. BD1 and …

Vortioxetine Improves Physical And Cognitive Symptoms In Patients With Post-Covid-19 Major Depressive Episodes, Marco Di Nicola, Maria Pepe, Silvia Montanari, Maria Chiara Spera, Isabella Panaccione, Alessio Simonetti, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) following COVID-19 are frequent, can have a characteristic clinical picture, and are associated with immune-inflammatory changes. Vortioxetine is known to improve physical and cognitive performance in patients with depression and shows anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities. This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the effects of vortioxetine after 1 and 3 months of treatment in 80 patients (44.4% males, 54±17.2 years) with post-COVID-19 MDE. The primary outcome was improvement in physical and cognitive symptoms measured by specific items of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Short Form-36 Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36), Digit Symbol …

Psychotic Symptom, Mood, And Cognition-Associated Multimodal Mri Reveal Shared Links To The Salience Network Within The Psychosis Spectrum Disorders, Chuang Liang, Godfrey Pearlson, Juan Bustillo, Peter Kochunov, Jessica A Turner, Xuyun Wen, Rongtao Jiang, Zening Fu, Xiao Zhang, Kaicheng Li, Xijia Xu, Daoqiang Zhang, Shile Qi, Vince D Calhoun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Schizophrenia (SZ), schizoaffective disorder (SAD), and psychotic bipolar disorder share substantial overlap in clinical phenotypes, associated brain abnormalities and risk genes, making reliable diagnosis among the three illness challenging, especially in the absence of distinguishing biomarkers. This investigation aims to identify multimodal brain networks related to psychotic symptom, mood, and cognition through reference-guided fusion to discriminate among SZ, SAD, and BP. Psychotic symptom, mood, and cognition were used as references to supervise functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fusion to identify multimodal brain networks for SZ, SAD, and BP individually. These features were then used to assess the ability …

The Influence Of Early Childhood Parental Feeding Behaviors On Self-Regulation & Food Decision-Making In Young Adults, Natasha Singareddy

CMC Senior Theses

This study used data from a diverse set of undergraduates from the Claremont Colleges to examine the relationship between cognitive control (impulsivity and response inhibition) and self-regulatory ability as an indicator of sustained early childhood parental feeding behaviors in adulthood. In addition, the current study explored if early childhood parental feeding behaviors predicted food decision-making in adulthood as a result of perceived taste and nutritional value of food items. It was hypothesized that heightened impulsivity and impaired response inhibition as measures of cognitive control would correlate to poorer self-regulation, in turn reflecting a particular mode of early childhood parental feeding …

Developing Ecologically Valid Clinical Tools For Persons With Tbi: Understanding The Role And Impact Of Distractions, Deanna Pinnow

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

There is a critical need for the development of ecologically valid clinical tools to assess real-life cognitive functioning in persons impacted by traumatic brain injury (TBI). Chronic cognitive impairments that are exacerbated by distractions are one of the core factors contributing to poor home and community re-integration post injury. Simulation-based digital platforms (i.e., virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality) have become potential solutions for eliciting real-world cognitive performance in clinical settings. Yet, there is a paucity of research investigating the role and impact of distractions on cognition. As a result, there is no clear framework of measuring distractions to …

"I Just Want To Be Me, Authentically": Identity Shifting Among Racially And Ethnically Diverse Young Adults, Aerika Brittian Loyd, Dulce Wilkinson Westberg, Lenisha Williams, Marisha Humphries, Alan Meca, Julie Carmen Rodil

Psychology Faculty Publications

Identity shifting represents a common but complex social, behavioral, and cognitive phenomenon. However, some forms of identity shifting originate in response to structural, institutional, and interpersonal marginalization enacted on lower status groups, such as people of color in the United States. The current study investigated ways young adults from diverse ethnic/racial groups discussed shifting to fit in with White Americans (a dominant group) in the United States and their own ethnic/racial group (a minoritized group) and elucidated self-reported motivations for shifting. Participants consisted of 764 young adults (ages = 18–23) recruited from two large public universities in the Southeast and …

Genome-Transcriptome-Functional Connectivity-Cognition Link Differentiates Schizophrenia From Bipolar Disorder, Jiayu Chen, Zening Fu, Juan R Bustillo, Nora I Perrone-Bizzozero, Dongdong Lin, Jose Canive, Godfrey D Pearlson, Julia M Stephen, Andrew R Mayer, Steven G Potkin, Theo G M Van Erp, Peter Kochunov, L Elliot Hong, Bhim M Adhikari, Ole A Andreassen, Ingrid Agartz, Lars T Westlye, Jing Sui, Yuhui Du, Fabio Macciardi, Faith M Hanlon, Rex E Jung, Jessica A Turner, Jingyu Liu, Vince D Calhoun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) share genetic risk factors, yet patients display differential levels of cognitive impairment. We hypothesized a genome-transcriptome-functional connectivity (frontoparietal)-cognition pathway linked to SZ-versus-BD differences, and conducted a multiscale study to delineate this pathway.

STUDY DESIGNS: Large genome-wide studies provided single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) conferring more risk for SZ than BD, and we identified their regulated genes, namely SZ-biased SNPs and genes. We then (a) computed the polygenic risk score for SZ (PRSSZ) of SZ-biased SNPs and examined its associations with imaging-based frontoparietal functional connectivity (FC) and cognitive performances; (b) examined the spatial …

Early Life Exposure To Unpredictable Parental Sensory Signals Shapes Cognitive Development Across Three Species, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Kari Mccormack, Hina Arora, Desiree Sharpe, Annabel K. Short, Jocelyne Bachevalier, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Hal S. Stern, Mar Sanchez, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Exposure to early life adversity has long term consequences on cognitive function. Most research has focused on understanding components of early life adversities that contribute to later risk, including poverty, trauma, maltreatment, and neglect. Whereas these factors, in the aggregate, explain a significant proportion of emotional and cognitive problems, there are serious gaps in our ability to identify potential mechanisms by which early life adversities might promote vulnerability or resilience. Here we discuss early life exposure to unpredictable signals from the caretaker as an understudied type of adversity that is amenable to prevention and intervention. We employ a translational approach …

Cognitive Functioning And Prevalence Of Seizures Among Older Persons In Uganda: A Hospital-Based, Cross-Sectional Study, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

There is limited data on the prevalence of seizures and dementia among older persons in Uganda. We evaluated cognitive functioning, and the prevalence and factors associated with seizures among older persons attending an outpatient medical clinic in Uganda. We randomly selected older adults (60 years and above) attending Kiruddu National Referral Hospital medical outpatient clinics between October 2020 and March 2021. We excluded individuals with a history of head injury, brain tumors, mental retardation, co-morbidity with HIV and patients who have had recent brain surgery. Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Identification for Dementia in Elderly Africans (IDEA) tool. We …

Concerns About The Use Of Polygenic Embryo Screening For Psychiatric And Cognitive Traits, Todd Lencz, Maya Sabatello, Anna Docherty, Roseann E Peterson, Takahiro Soda, Jehannine Austin, Laura Bierut, David Crepaz-Keay, David Curtis, Franziska Degenhardt, Laura Huckins, Gabriel Lazaro-Munoz, Manuel Mattheisen, Bettina Meiser, Holly Peay, Marcella Rietschel, Consuelo Walss-Bass, Lea K Davis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Private companies have begun offering services to allow parents undergoing in-vitro fertilisation to screen embryos for genetic risk of complex diseases, including psychiatric disorders. This procedure, called polygenic embryo screening, raises several difficult scientific and ethical issues, as discussed in this Personal View. Polygenic embryo screening depends on the statistical properties of polygenic risk scores, which are complex and not well studied in the context of this proposed clinical application. The clinical, social, and ethical implications of polygenic embryo screening have barely been discussed among relevant stakeholders. To our knowledge, the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics is the first professional …