Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Potential Applications Of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Fmri) To Organizational Research: A Primer And Sample Study, Allen I. Huffcutt, Wen-Ching Liu, Lori A. Russell-Chapin

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The first purpose of this manuscript is to provide a primer for organizational researchers on both fMRI and brain physiology because few are likely to have encountered an in-depth treatment of either previously. The second purpose is to present the results of an actual fMRI study on an organizational topic (structured employment interviews) as a sample to help illustrate the potential of this type of research. Results of the sample study enhanced understanding of the brain processes behind responding to situational (SI) and behavior description (BDI) interviews, and offered several promising directions for follow-up research. To illustrate the latter, there …

Alterations In Resting State Functional Connectivity Associated With Alcohol Use Severity And Impulsivity In A Community Sample, Elena R. Stein

Psychology ETDs

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is characterized by neurocognitive and behavioral impairments including the multidimensional construct of impulsivity. Increased impulsivity is both a risk factor for, and a consequence of problematic alcohol use. Individuals with AUD exhibit alterations in neural circuitry when compared to those who do not have AUD. These circuit-level changes in AUD may underlie the difficulties that these individuals experience with heightened impulsivity. The present study uses data-driven resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) methodology to examine the differences in intrinsic functional networks between individuals with AUD and those who are social drinkers (SD). Participants in this secondary data …

Exploring The Neural Mechanisms Of Physics Learning, Jessica E. Bartley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a series of neuroimaging investigations and achievements that strive to deepen and broaden our understanding of human problem solving and physics learning. Neuroscience conceives of dynamic relationships between behavior, experience, and brain structure and function, but how neural changes enable human learning across classroom instruction remains an open question. At the same time, physics is a challenging area of study in which introductory students regularly struggle to achieve success across university instruction. Research and initiatives in neuroeducation promise a new understanding into the interactions between biology and education, including the neural mechanisms of learning and development. These …

The Relationship Between Cognitive And Neural Bases Of Metamemory Judgments, Alexandra M. Gaynor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Metamemory monitoring, the process of making subjective assessments of the status of one’s own memory, is crucial to guiding behavior and effective learning. Past cognitive research has shown that subjective confidence judgments are inferential in nature, and based on cues available at the time of the judgment. When confidence is based on cues that are related to objective memory performance, metamemory accuracy is high. However, past studies have shown that metamemory monitoring tends to be inaccurate because individuals base their confidence on information that is not predictive of memory success, such as the fluency with which items were encoded during …

A Functional Neuroimaging Study Of Self-Regulatory Control In Adults With Gambling And Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, Nidhi Parashar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Recent findings suggest phenomenological similarities across gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The key similarity between the disorders is the failure to inhibit or control a repetitive behavior (or urges to engage in a behavior) and intrusive thoughts. Our current understanding of the neural pathophysiological mechanisms linking gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders is limited. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the functioning of frontostriatal brain regions that support self-regulatory control in adults with gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Methods: The study compared functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen level dependent response in 19 adults with pathological gambling (PG), …

Levels Of Processing And The Parietal Memory Network, Hung-Yu Chen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The parietal memory network (PMN) is a functional brain network that has been recently described through the convergence of task-based fMRI and resting-state functional MRI studies (Gilmore et al., 2015). The networkճ characteristic encoding/retrieval flip (deactivation at encoding and activation at later retrieval, discussed by Gilmore and colleagues) and its manifestation of a negative subsequent memory effect (greater deactivation at encoding for items that will later be recognizedѩ.e., subsequent hitsѴhan for those that will notѳubsequent misses) (Cabeza et al., 2004; Daselaar, Prince, & Cabeza, 2004; De Chastelaine & Rugg, 2014; Elman, Rosner, Cohn-Sheehy, Cerreta, & Shimamura, 2013; Kim, 2011; Otten …

Hpa Axis Genetic Variation And Life Stress Influences On Functional Connectivity In Resting State Networks, Tara Ann Miskovich

Theses and Dissertations

Stressful or traumatic experiences are a key risk factor for developing psychopathology, primarily through the impact that chronic stress has on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The HPA axis regulates the stress response but can become dysregulated with chronic activation and impact brain functioning. In addition to environmental stressors, genetic variation in genes in the HPA axis appear to influence HPA axis functioning and is also related to disruption in brain functioning, particularly in the context of high life stress. The current study focused on examining potential mechanisms through which trauma and stress interacts with HPA axis genes to impact key …

Neural Correlates Of Memory Decisions Made In The Face Of Conflict, Elaine Mahoney

Theses and Dissertations

We’ve all experienced moments where, for some reason or another, we don’t want to reveal to others what we truly know. The current experiment investigated questions about the behavioral and neural correlates of these types of memory decisions made in the face of a conflicting goal. Participants in this experiment studied several scene-face pairs and were tested with three-face displays preceded by studied scene cues. They were instructed to indicate whether the three-face display contained the matching associate or not. Critically, half of the participants were instructed to simulate feigned memory impairment (i.e. simulators), while the remainder were instructed to …

A Graph Theoretical Analysis Of Functional Brain Networks Related To Memory And Healthy Aging, Ty Alvin Bodily

Theses and Dissertations

The cognitive decline associated with healthy aging begins in early adulthood and is important to understand as a precursor of and relative to mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease. Anatomical atrophy, functional compensation, and network reorganization have been observed in populations of older adults. In the current study, we examine functional network correlates of memory performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale IV and the Mnemonic Discrimination Task (MST). We report a lack of association between global graph theory metrics and age or memory performance. In addition, we observed a positive association between lure discrimination scores from the MST and right …

When Less Is More: Mindfulness Predicts Adaptive Affective Responding To Rejection Via Reduced Prefrontal Recruitment, Alexandra M. Martelli, David S. Chester, Kirk Warren Brown, Naomi I. Eisenberger, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a distressing and painful event that many people must cope with on a frequent basis. Mindfulness—defined here as a mental state of receptive attentiveness to internal and external stimuli as they arise, moment-to-moment—may buffer such social distress. However, little research indicates whether mindful individuals adaptively regulate the distress of rejection—or the neural mechanisms underlying this potential capacity. To fill these gaps in the literature, participants reported their trait mindfulness and then completed a social rejection paradigm (Cyberball) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Approximately 1 hour after the rejection incident, participants reported their level of distress during …

Gray Matter Correlates Of Emotional Intelligence In Incarcerated Males, Devin Marie Ulrich

Psychology ETDs

Emotional intelligence (EI) is form of social intelligence that is important for navigating one’s social environment. Deficits in these abilities have been associated negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety, substance use, and aggression. Here, we extend current literature that suggests that EI is correlated with gray matter volume (GMV) in limbic regions (e.g. insula ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and cerebellum) in healthy samples, by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to assess the relationship between GMV and EI. In study 1, emotional intelligence was positively correlated with GMV in the cerebellum and anterior cingulate cortex in a sample of incarcerated adult …

Neural Mechanisms Of The Rejection-Aggression Link, David S. Chester, Donald R. Lynam, Richard Milich, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a painful event that often increases aggression. However, the neural mechanisms of this rejection–aggression link remain unclear. A potential clue may be that rejected people often recruit the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s (VLPFC) self-regulatory processes to manage the pain of rejection. Using functional MRI, we replicated previous links between rejection and activity in the brain’s mentalizing network, social pain network and VLPFC. VLPFC recruitment during rejection was associated with greater activity in the brain’s reward network (i.e. the ventral striatum) when individuals were given an opportunity to retaliate. This retaliation-related striatal response was associated with greater levels of …

The Rewarding Nature Of Provocation-Focused Rumination In Women With Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Fmri Investigation, Jessica R. Peters, David S. Chester, Erin C. Walsh, C. Nathan Dewall, Ruth A. Baer

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Understanding why individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) ruminate on prior provocations, despite its negative outcomes, is crucial to improving interventions. Provocation-focused rumination may be rewarding in the short term by amplifying anger and producing feelings of justification, validation, and increased energy, while reducing self-directed negative affect. If provocation-focused rumination is utilized regularly as a rewarding emotion regulation strategy, it could result in increased activation in reward-related neural regions. The present pilot study examined neural correlates of provocation-focused rumination, relative to other forms of thought, in BPD.

Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was utilized to examine this theory …

Jealousy, Competition, Or A Contextual Cue For Reward?, Thomas R. Zentall

Animal Sentience

Emotions are difficult to assess, even in humans. The attribution of jealousy in an animal like a dog is especially difficult because performance of a particular behavior in the context of another animal receiving a reward may not be easily distinguishable from intra-species competition or simply a response to a contextual cue for the availability of reward. The authors provide distinguishing evidence in the form of fMRI data to show that in the presence of a “fake” dog being fed, there is bilateral activation in the amygdala, an area associated with anxiety, anger, fear, and even jealousy in humans.