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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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- FMRI (3)
- Immediate early genes (2)
- Adolescent (1)
- Aging (1)
- Antibiotics (1)
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- Area Model (1)
- Auditory categorization (1)
- Auditory selectivity (1)
- Avian hippocampus (1)
- Bayesian perception (1)
- Bioarchaeology (1)
- Breastfeeding (1)
- COVID-19 (1)
- Children (1)
- Cluster N (1)
- Diffusion tensor imaging (1)
- Dorsal striatum (1)
- Early-life factors (1)
- Engagement (1)
- Estradiol (1)
- Food Knowledge (1)
- Food Literacy (1)
- Fraction Magnitude (1)
- Geography (1)
- Hippocampus (1)
- Human microbiome (1)
- Humor appreciation (1)
- Humor comprehension (1)
- Immunohistochemistry (1)
- Learning Models (1)
Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Neural Responses To Magnetic Orientation Information In Songbirds, Madeleine Ir Brodbeck
Neural Responses To Magnetic Orientation Information In Songbirds, Madeleine Ir Brodbeck
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Effective navigation and orientation is essential for animals to survive. The study of migratory birds provides insights into these processes, particularly through mechanisms like the geomagnetic compass, which uses Earth's magnetic field for directional information. A brain region in songbirds relevant to this is cluster N, known for its potential role in processing geomagnetic information. Notably, cluster N appears exclusive to nocturnally migratory birds, being active solely at night, and lesion studies reveal that an intact cluster N is necessary for geomagnetic compass orientation. However, given the scarcity of empirical data concerning cluster N, substantial questions persist regarding its function. …
Smartphones For Smart Eating: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Smartphone Applications On Improving Adolescent Food Knowledge, Heather A. Jantzi
Smartphones For Smart Eating: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Smartphone Applications On Improving Adolescent Food Knowledge, Heather A. Jantzi
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Many Canadian adolescents have unhealthy eating habits which are risk factors for developing chronic diseases later in life. Food literacy plays a role in healthy eating habits but teens in Ontario currently lack sufficient nutrition education learning opportunities in home and school environments. Across health research, smartphones have been utilized as a novel medium to promote learning and alter behaviour. This thesis seeks to understand the effectiveness of smartphone applications at improving food knowledge in adolescents through (i) a systematic review of published interventions, and (ii) by investigating the efficacy of a novel location-based smartphone application. Findings from this thesis …
White Matter Connectome Associations With Reading Functions In Children, Chenglin Lou
White Matter Connectome Associations With Reading Functions In Children, Chenglin Lou
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
This thesis investigated associations between the white matter connectome and reading in children with a wide range of reading abilities. It is well established that the connectome supports the interplay among brain regions and connections within an integrated system. In this dissertation, I examine the hypothesis that it could therefore represent multiple mapping processes among reading components and further explain variations in reading performance. Such associations between the organization of the connectome and reading skills have not been well explored. This thesis aimed to address this issue by considering both the relationship between connectome measures and standardized reading performance out …
The Role Of Serotonin In The Estradiol-Dependent Selectivity Of Auditory Regions In Songbirds, Calista J. Henry
The Role Of Serotonin In The Estradiol-Dependent Selectivity Of Auditory Regions In Songbirds, Calista J. Henry
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Breeding-typical levels of estradiol in songbirds has been shown to lead to selective auditory processing and induce a release of serotonin in auditory regions of the forebrain. These findings triggered the question of whether auditory discrimination is driven by estradiol directly, or by the associated release of serotonin. I treated non-breeding female white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) with either blank implants, 17β-estradiol, serotonin enhancer and blank implants, or serotonin antagonist and 17β-estradiol implants. Birds then heard male conspecific songs or control tones, and ZENK-immunoreactivity was quantified in the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) and caudomedial mesopallium (CMM). While I did not …
Fraction Magnitude Understanding Across Learning Formats: An Fmri Study, Chloe A. Henry
Fraction Magnitude Understanding Across Learning Formats: An Fmri Study, Chloe A. Henry
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Knowledge of fraction magnitudes are an important, but notoriously difficult mathematical concept to master. Behavioural work has begun to explore and compare the instructional tools used for fraction learning. However, how fraction instructional tools are processed in the brain remains an underexplored question. Therefore, in the present thesis, we used functional brain MRI methodology to examine the neural activity of adult participants while completing a fraction verification task using the number line and area model, two common methods of fraction learning. We found that both models commonly recruited fronto-parietal activity, the neural regions typically implicated in number processing. However, we …
Investigating The Roles Of The Dorsal And Ventral Striatum In Humor Comprehension And Appreciation Throughout Health, Aging, And Parkinson’S Disease, Maggie Prenger
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Humor processing is thought to involve two distinct components. The first, humor comprehension, involves detecting and resolving incongruities that are present within a humorous stimulus. This is related to cognitive processes such as ambiguity resolution, response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, functions that are mediated in part by the dorsal portion of the striatum (DS). Humor appreciation, on the other hand, refers to the subjective amusement and mirth that one experiences in response to a joke. This is related to reward processing, which implicates the ventral portion of the striatum (VS). Across three separate studies, we investigated the involvement …
“Return To Play”: The Impact Of, And Changes To, Ontario Children’S Physical Activity During Covid-19, Monika B. Szpunar Ms.
“Return To Play”: The Impact Of, And Changes To, Ontario Children’S Physical Activity During Covid-19, Monika B. Szpunar Ms.
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
This dissertation explored parents’ and their children’s perspectives of returning to play/sport during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada, and assessed how children’s physical activity levels changed during COVID-19. To understand the initial impact of the pandemic, Study 1 (August 2020) explored the influence of family sociodemographic factors (e.g., housing type) and risk tolerance (using the validated Tolerance of Risk in Play Scale) on parents’ return to play/sport attitudes. Via interviews with parents (n = 9) and children (n = 12), Study 2 (December 2020 – January 2021) gathered participants’ experiences of getting active …
From Micro To Macro: Examining Potential Microbiome Mediated Influences On Human Growth And Health Outcomes Through Breastfeeding And Antibiotic Exposures, Nicole K. Phillips
From Micro To Macro: Examining Potential Microbiome Mediated Influences On Human Growth And Health Outcomes Through Breastfeeding And Antibiotic Exposures, Nicole K. Phillips
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Human microbiome research has rapidly developed over the past two decades yet absent from most research is the composition and dynamics of microbiomes within human populations. Given the limitations in longitudinal studies which requires decades of repeated microbe taxonomic testing of a population sample, an alternative option is to examine microbiomes and their influences via proxies using pre-existing health datasets. This research demonstrates preliminary associations between presumed disrupted and supportive microbiomes dynamics proxied by antibiotic and breastmilk exposure respectively. Using health record data across the life span from approximately 500,000 U.K. participants, this research demonstrates variable altered growth and health …
Perceptual Benefits From Long-Term Exposure To Naturalistic Sound Patterns, Bruno A. Mesquita
Perceptual Benefits From Long-Term Exposure To Naturalistic Sound Patterns, Bruno A. Mesquita
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Our brains are proficient in learning recurring structures in the environment, in order to optimize perceptual inferences based on relevant information in a stochastic input. Sensory information is multi-dimensional, and the relationship between sound dimensions may be, in itself, a source of information. Many sounds in our environment covary dynamically, and these covariances may be learned, and therefore shape our perception, through exposure to them in our natural environment. In the present study we investigate how natural (long term), and experimental (short term), learning of statistical regularities in sounds may shape our ability to categorize them (Experiment 1) and to …