Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury On Spatial Working Memory, Amanda L. Smith

Master's Theses

Children born prematurely or at very low birth weight (VLBW) have an increased risk for hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HI). HI refers to a lack of adequate blood and oxygen flow in the brain. HI can also occur in the term infant due to birth complications such as prolonged labor, placental dysfunction, or cord prolapse. In both populations (though exact patterns of neuropathology vary) brain damage is likely to occur in the form of decreased hippocampal and cortical volume, and enlargement of the ventricles (Kesler et al., 2004, Nagy et al., 2009). Resulting neuropathology can in turn lead to cognitive …

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …

Promoting Early Skin-To-Skin Contact And Its Effect On Breastfeeding, Jamie Atkins, Grace Frederick, Ellen Lintemuth

Pharmacy and Nursing Student Research and Evidence-Based Medicine Poster Session

This study explores the implementation of skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately following birth and its effects on: successful breastfeeding initiation, duration of breastfeeding, and breastfeeding exclusivity.

Alcohol Intoxication And Self-Reported Risky Sexual Behaviour Intentions With Highly Attractive Strangers In Naturalistic Settings, Michael Lyvers, Emma Cholakians, Megan Puorro, Shanti Sundram

Mike Lyvers

Objective: The present investigation examined the relationship between alcohol intoxication and risky sex intentions in naturalistic settings.

Methods: Heterosexual young adults (n = 72) were approached at a campus pub and at campus parties. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was measured by a breath test and ranged from 0 to 0.18%. Participants rated their likely intent to have sex with 10 highly attractive unfamiliar models of the opposite gender, as depicted in photographs, if the opportunity arose. Photos varied in terms of accompanying information regarding risk, with three levels: slight risk, moderate risk and high risk.

Results: BAC …

Parental Bonding And Alexithymia: A Meta-Analysis, F. Thorberg, R. Young, K. Sullivan, Michael Lyvers

Mike Lyvers

The primary purpose of this meta-analysis was to explore, clarify and report the strength of the relationship between alexithymia, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and parenting style as measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI).

Methods - Web of Science, PsycInfo, PubMed and ProQuest: Dissertations and Theses searches were undertaken, yielding nine samples with sufficient data to be included in the meta-analysis.

Results - Evidence indicated moderate to strong relationships between maternal care and alexithymia, and between maternal care and two of the three TAS-20 alexithymia facets (Difficulties Describing Feelings and Difficulties Identifying Feelings, but not Externally …

Sweet Success, Bitter Defeat: A Taste Phenotype Predicts Social Status In Selectively Bred Rats., Clinton Chapman, Nancy Dess, John Eaton

Clinton D Chapman

For social omnivores such as rats and humans, taste is far more than a chemical sense activated by food. By virtue of evolutionary and epigenetic elaboration, taste is associated with negative affect, stress vulnerability, responses to psychoactive substances, pain, and social judgment. A crucial gap in this literature, which spans behavior genetics, affective and social neuroscience, and embodied cognition, concerns links between taste and social behavior in rats. Here we show that rats selectively bred for low saccharin intake are subordinate to high-saccharin-consuming rats when they compete in weight-matched dyads for food, a task used to model depression. Statistical and …

Asymmetry In Resting Alpha Activity: Effects Of Handedness, Ruth E. Propper, Jenna Pierce, Mark W. Geisler, Stephen D. Christman, Nathan Bellorado

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha band power during rest shows increased right, and/or decreased left, hemisphere activity under conditions of state or trait withdrawal-associated effect. Non-right-handers (NRH) are more likely to have mental illnesses and dispositions that involve such withdrawal-related effect. The aim of the study was to examine whether NRH might be characterized by increased right, relative to left, hemisphere activity during rest. Methods: The present research investigated that hypothesis by examining resting EEG alpha power in consistently-right-handed (CRH) and NRH individuals. Results: In support of the hypothesis, NRH demonstrated decreased right hemisphere alpha power, and therefore increased right hemisphere …

Distinct Retinohypothalamic Innervation Patterns Predict The Developmental Emergence Of Species-Typical Circadian Phase Preference In Nocturnal Norway Rats And Diurnal Nile Grass Rats, William D. Todd, Andrew J. Gall, Joshua A. Weiner, Mark S. Blumberg

Faculty Publications

How does the brain develop differently to support nocturnality in some mammals, but diurnality in others? To answer this question, one might look to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is entrained by light via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). However, because the SCN is more active during the day in all mammals studied thus far, it alone cannot determine circadian phase preference. In adult Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), which are nocturnal, the RHT also projects to the ventral subparaventricular zone (vSPVZ), an adjacent region that expresses an in-phase pattern of SCN-vSPVZ neuronal activity. In contrast, in adult Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis …

Development Of Scn Connectivity And The Circadian Control Of Arousal: A Diminishing Role For Humoral Factors?, Andrew J. Gall, William D. Todd, Mark S. Blumberg

Faculty Publications

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is part of a wake-promoting circuit comprising the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) and locus coeruleus (LC). Although widely considered a "master clock," the SCN of adult rats is also sensitive to feedback regarding an animal's behavioral state. Interestingly, in rats at postnatal day (P)2, repeated arousing stimulation does not increase neural activation in the SCN, despite doing so in the LC and DMH. Here we show that, by P8, the SCN is activated by arousing stimulation and that selective destruction of LC terminals with DSP-4 blocks this activational effect. We next show that bidirectional projections among the …

Joining The Dots: Neurobiological Links In A Functional Analysis Of Depression, Christopher F. Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika

Vicki Bitsika

Depression is one of the major contributors to the Total Disease Burden and afflicts about one-sixth of Western populations. One of the most effective treatments for depression focuses upon analysis of causal chains in overt behaviour, but does not include brain-related phenomena as steps along these causal pathways. Recent research findings regarding the neurobiological concomitants of depressive behaviour suggest a sequence of structural and functional alterations to the brain which may also produce a beneficial outcome for the depressed individual--that of adaptive withdrawal from uncontrollable aversive stressors. Linking these brain-based explanations to models of observable contingencies for depressive behaviour can …

Fmri Reveals The Neural Correlates Of Real And Pantomimed Tool Use In Humans, Joseph Umberto Paciocco

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to study the neural mechanisms underlying greatly expanded cognitive functions in humans like tool use, surprisingly little fMRI research has been done on actual tool use. In fact, due to technical constraints, most fMRI studies have used pantomimed actions as a proxy for real use. However, human neuropsychology patients who are impaired at pantomiming often improve when handling a tool suggesting potential neural differences. We used fMRI to record brain activation while 13 right-handed participants performed one of two tasks, real or pantomime tool use with one of two tools, a …

The Relationship Between Suicide Ideation And Parasuicide: An Electrophysiological Investigation Using The Loudness Dependence Of Auditory Evoked Potential, Angelika Marsic

Dissertations

The loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) has been proposed as a promising valid and a non-invasive indicator of behaviorally relevant central 5-HT functioning. There is limited research on the utility of the LDAEP in discriminating individuals who engage in various degrees of suicidal behavior. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine if the LDAEP, as a measure of central serotonergic functioning, can be useful in distinguishing groups of individuals who: (a) solely experience suicidal ideation (SI group); (b) experience suicidal ideation and have engaged in deliberate self-harm acts (SH group); and (c) individuals with …

The Effects Of An Online Sleep Hygiene Intervention On Students' Sleep Quality, Giuliana Farias

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Students in college or in their first year of medical school undergo increased educational and social pressure. To cope, students may sacrifice sleep to meet demands. Poor sleep affects learning, performance, and health. Studies have been successful at improving sleep quality through the use of in-person recruitment or cognitive-behavioral therapy delivered over the internet (Trockel, Manber, Chang, Thurston, & Tailor, 2011). The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether an online sleep hygiene intervention could improve sleep quality. One hundred thirty-eight students from one undergraduate institution in Southeast Virginia completed this study. Students were divided into groups; one …

Prospective Investigation Of A Ptsd Personality Typology Among Individuals With Personality Disorders, Meghan E. Mcdevitt-Murphy, M. Tracie Shea, Shirley Yen, Carlos M. Grilo, Charles A. Sanislow, John C. Markowitz, Andrew E. Skodol

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

This study investigated the replicability of a previously proposed personality typology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, and explored stability of cluster membership over a 6-month period. Participants with current PTSD (n = 156) were drawn from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study (CLPS). The CLPS project tracked a large sample of individuals who met criteria for 1 of 4 target diagnoses (borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive) and a contrast group of individuals who met criteria for depression but no personality disorder. A cluster analysis using scales from the Schedule of Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality yielded 3 clusters: “internalizing,” “externalizing,” and …

Physiological Politics: Stress And Dominance Responses To Political News, Erin Strauts

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Nicotine On Body Composition, Laura O'Dell

Laura Elena O'Dell

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Rhes, A Striatal Specific Protein, On The Expression Of Behavioral And Neuropathological Symptoms In A Transgenic Mouse Model Of Huntington's Disease, Brandon A. Baiamonte

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by choreiform movement of the limbs, cognitive disability, psychosis and dementia. It is untreatable, incurable, and ultimately fatal. HD is invariably associated with an abnormally long CAG expansion within the IT15 gene on human chromosome 4. Although the mutant huntingtin protein (mHtt) is ubiquitously expressed in HD patients, cellular degeneration occurs only in neurons within the striatum and cerebral cortex. The Ras homolog Rhes is expressed very selectively in the precise brain areas affected by HD. Recent work using cultured cells suggests that Rhes may be a co-factor with mHtt in cell …

A Multigroup Analysis Of The Psychological Factors That Contribute To Persisting Working Attention Problems In Mild Traumatic Brain Injury And Chronic Pain, Kelly L. Curtis

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A significant subset of mild traumatic brain injury (mild TBI) and chronic pain (CP) patients report, and sometimes show objective evidence of, persisting cognitive problems. Despite differences in injury mechanisms, there is considerable overlap in the types of persisting cognitive symptoms that are reported by the two populations. Psychogenic, rather than physiogenic, factors are thought to play an important role in the maintenance of these persisting symptoms. The current investigation examined the contributions somatization, depression, and anxiety had on an objective measure of “working attention.” In order to best elucidate the influences these psychological factors had on attentional performance, only …

Designing An Information-Experience Using Creativity Science & Tools, Stephanie Belhomme

Stephanie Belhomme

An “information-experience” encapsulated by a technological/digital audio-visual tool presents data and potentially meaningful information to prompt actionable knowledge concerning: “unspoken creative process elements;” their profound impacts on both how well our “physiology of creativity” functions but also; how well foundational creative thinking and behavioral prerequisites (energy, motivation, imagination, and ownership) are leveraged.

The product: 1) introduces the user to one component of the CPS (Creative Problem Solving) Facilitation Process - Exploring the Challenge; 2) features a content specific component which prompts exploration of the many correlations between societal, organizational / community, human physiological / behavioral data, and the direct relationships …

Sleep Deprivation And Delusion Proneness: Influence On Dream Bizarreness, Anna Leigh Lezon

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

While evidence for many types of psychotic experience exists in the general population, dreams have been a particularly prominent model for hallucinations and delusions in otherwise healthy individuals. This definition of "bizarreness" in dreams mirrors the description of psychosis in schizophrenia patients when their psychosis remits (Colace, 2003). Babkoff et al, (1989) found a linear association - less sleep caused more waking-state hallucinations. While the relationship between psychotic symptoms and sleep deprivation is well established, most existing data regard waking-state psychotic symptomology. The relationship between sleep deprivation and dream-state psychotic symptomology has not been investigated. Further, no sleep deprivation study …

Ketamine Can Disrupt Episodic Memory (Hours To Days) Consolidation: Effects Of Varying Dose And Retention Intervals, Ryan Darius Tabtabai

Honors Scholar Theses

Memory consolidation is the process wherein short-term, episodic memories are converted into stable, long-term representations. Forebrain N-methy-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), particularly frontal cortical and hippocampal receptors, are thought to play a key role in neuronal plasticity and memory consolidation. Ketamine is an NMDA antagonist that disrupts memory, particularly encoding and retrieval processes. Previously we have observed no effect of post-acquisition ketamine treatment (50-100 mg/kg) on memory consolidation in rats performing a delayed-match-to place radial water maze task. The current study reexamined the effects of ketamine (25-100 mg/kg) on memory consolidation in this task over varying retention intervals (4, 24, and 48 …

Adenosine-Dopamine Interactions In The Open Field Arena: Studies Related To Locomotion And Anxiety, Rothem Kovner

Honors Scholar Theses

Nucleus accumbens dopamine (DA) is an important regulator of locomotion. The neuromodulator adenosine also has a role in regulating locomotion. The adenosine A_2A receptor subtype is colocalized with DA D2 receptors on medium spiny neurons in the striatum and nucleus accumbens. Interactions between adenosine A_2A and DA D2 receptor antagonists are significant for regulating various aspects of motor and motivational function. The adenosine A_2A antagonist MSX-3 has been shown to reverse the suppression of locomotion induced by the DA D2 antagonist eticlopride. The structure of MSX-3 was modified to produce the prodrug MSX-4 which has high oral …

The Role Of Self‐Injury In The Organisation Of Behaviour, Curt A. Sandman, Aaron S. Kemp, Christopher Mabini, David Pincus, Magnus Magnusson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background—Self-injuring acts are among the most dramatic behaviours exhibited by human beings. There is no known single cause and there is no universally agreed upon treatment. Sophisticated sequential and temporal analysis of behaviour has provided alternative descriptions of self-injury that provide new insights into its initiation and maintenance.

Method—Forty hours of observations for each of 32 participants were collected in a contiguous two-week period. Twenty categories of behavioural and environmental events were recorded electronically that captured the precise time each observation occurred. Temporal behavioural/ environmental patterns associated with self-injurious events were revealed with a method (tpatterns; THEME) for …

Drd2 Polymorphisms Imparting Risk For Schizophrenia, Lauren Paish

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects 1% of the population and causes enormous deficits in functioning. The development of this disorder is through unclear mechanisms, yet studies suggest that genetics and dopamine processes play a major role in the manifestation of schizophrenia. This study considers the gene that encodes dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) and how single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affect alternative splicing of the gene and the balance between the two different protein isoforms, Long (D2L) and Short (D2S). Four mutations (rs12363125 and rs2511521 from intron 5 and rs6275 and rs6277 from exon 7) were studied. Constructs were derived …

The Physiological And Psychological Connection: The Body’S Response To Ceased Exercise From Athletic Injury, Patricia Rotella Ligon

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Social Status On Social Defeat-Induced Neural Activation In The Dorsal Raphe Nucleus, Danielle M. Gerhard, Kathleen E. Morrison, Matthew A. Cooper

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Mixed Emotional Experience Is Associated With And Precedes Improvements In Psychological Well-Being, Jonathan Adler, Hal Hershfield

Jonathan M. Adler

Background The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy. Methods 47 adults undergoing psychotherapy completed measures of psychological well-being and wrote private narratives that were coded by trained raters for emotional content. Results The specific concurrent experience of happiness and sadness was associated with improvements in psychological well-being above and beyond the impact of the passage of time, personality traits, or the independent effects of happiness and sadness. Changes …

Explicit Weight Biases Are Curvilinear: Testing Pathogen Avoidance, Intergroup Relations And Socialization Theories., Lauren Chaunt

Honors Projects

The present study builds on research (Malloy et al. 2011) that weight bias is best fit by a curvilinear function, that is; trait judgments should vary significantly as a function of weight. More weight bias should be elicited by those body types at extreme weights (i.e., skeletally thin and morbidly obese). Targets at such extreme weights were included to adequately test a new theoretical model of weight bias termed the Pathogen Avoidance Theory. Other theories of weight bias were also considered; Socialization and Intergroup Relations. Participants were presented with six female body types varying in weight and were then asked …

The Impact Of Sleepiness And Sleep Constructs On Driving Performance, Jennifer Freeman May

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sleepiness causes performance decrements that lead to thousands of crashes and fatalities annually. Research supports the conclusions that sleep duration and circadian rhythms impact sleepiness and affect driving performance. Conflicting in the literature is whether severity of sleep disorders, sleep quality and subjective sleepiness affect driving performance. The correlation between a driver's perception of their sleepiness and their driving performance is also unclear. The primary goal of this study was to create an in-depth model demonstrating which measures of sleepiness influence driving performance. It was hypothesized that sleep quality, sleep apnea severity and subjective sleepiness add to a model of …

The Association Of Cognitive Function With Autonomic-Cardiovascular Reactivity To And Recovery From Stress, Sanjay Mehta

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The contribution of stress in the development of chronic and terminal disease has garnered significant interest in contemporary research. The current study aims to look at how performance in domains of cognitive function may affect autonomic-cardiovascular reactivity and recovery to psychologically stressful tasks as such reactions, over time, may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.

The current study analyzed data from 209 healthy middle-age adults. This included four neuropsychological tests utilized here to represent abilities in four different cognitive domains: response inhibition, mental flexibility, verbal memory, and nonverbal memory. The participants were also introduced to three psychologically stressful tasks …