Biological Psychology Commons^™

Event-Related Potentials Of Individuals With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Performing The Attention Network Task, P. Dennis Rodriguez, Justin E. Stauffacher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The current study sought to investigate the neural basis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by examining the performance of individuals with ADHD on the Attentional Networks Test (ANT) by Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, and Posner (2002), while recording electroencephalography (EEG) utilizing event-related potentials (ERP) methodology. Fifty-seven university students were divided into three groups: control, ADHD-inattentive subtype (ADHD-IA), and ADHD-combined/hyperactive impulsive subtype (ADHD-C/HI). The average peak amplitudes of the P300 waveform for each group were compared and analyzed for performance on each attention network measured by the ANT: the alerting network, the orienting network, and the executive control network. The average P3 …

Classical Conditioning Of Cognitive States, Arthur Burns

Neuroscience Honors Papers

Classical conditioning has been a fundamental concept and practice throughout the history of psychology. While classical conditioning traditionally seeks to elicit target behaviors in correlation to specific stimuli, we sought to do the same with cognitive states in place of behaviors. Specifically, we wanted to determine the effectiveness of conditioning states of cognitive arousal in human participants in conjunction with cues presented in a designed learning task. We designed a cognitive task specifically for this research, referred to as “the Tone Pitching Task”, which utilized a combination of working memory and mental processing in order to elicit cognitive arousal and …

An Examination Of Working Memory, Spatial Awareness And Expertise In Athletes, Non-Athletes And Sports-Fans, Camilia Rios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sport-specific practice of movement techniques is undoubtedly important in young athletes' sport performance. However, in sports that are more heavily reliant on open skills, cognitive factors, such as working memory (WM), attention, and spatial awareness, are more likely to become a barrier for proficiency than form or physical prowess. Nevertheless, the intricacies of the relationships that exist between these cognitive factors has gone relatively unexplored, particularly in the context of sport. The present research explored the impact of sport-specific experience on measures of WM, attentional control, and spatial awareness, and their interactions, through the lens of athletic expertise. Participants consisted …

The Effect Of A Mindfulness-Based Intervention On Attention And Cognitive Control As A Function Of Smartphone Notifications., Joshua D. Upshaw

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Barriers to accessing mobile technology, particularly smartphones, have decreased substantially since the iPhone’s release in 2007, resulting in increased ownership and usage across all ages, genders, and races. Despite their ubiquity in our society, relatively little empirical work has investigated the influence of smartphones on our higher order executive functioning. Prior work has linked smartphone use with impaired cognitive control during cognitively demanding tasks, especially in heavier smartphone users. The goals of the current study were twofold. First, the study aimed to examine the effects of smartphone notifications on cognitive control and attention. And second, to determine the effects of …

Cerebellum-Seeded Functional Connectivity Changes In Trait-Anxious Individuals Undergoing Attention Bias Modification Training, Katherine Elwell

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct …

Evaluating Brain Performance Enhancing Drugs, Kristina Toropova

Open Educational Resources

Students read about drugs which enhance student academic performance.They will connect the found information to prior course material, addressing neuroanatomy and neurophysiology as well as connect to the attention course chapter. Students will also delve into the ethical components of the use of brain enchasing drugs and compare them to sports performance-enhancing drugs.

The Relationship Of Executive Function And Alpha Band Activity During The Eriksen Flanker Task: An Eeg Study, Destiny A. Willis

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: Neural frequencies, measured by electroencephalogram, can be indicative of certain cognitive states. One oscillation, called the alpha wave, has become a proxy for the cognitive ability related to attention. Research suggests that anxiety may result in atypical alpha oscillations when engaging in an attention task, thereby also resulting in potentially dysfunctional attentional abilities. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between alpha wave frequency, executive function, trait anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and response selection.

Method: The Eriksen flanker task was used to measure response selection, while an electroencephalogram recorded alpha brainwave activity (N = 47). This study incorporated …

Minocycline As A Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Impulsive And Attentional Deficits, Kristen M. Pechacek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts millions worldwide and can cause lasting psychiatric symptoms. Chronic neuroinflammation is a characteristic of post-injury pathology and is positively associated with psychiatric conditions such as ADHD and bipolar disorder. Therefore, the current study sought to treat TBI-induced impulsivity and inattention using minocycline, an antibiotic with anti-inflammatory properties. Rats were trained on the five-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRT), a measure of motor impulsivity and attention. After behavior was stable on the 5CSRT, rats received either a bilateral frontal TBI or sham procedure. Minocycline was given at either 1 h post-injury or beginning at 8 weeks …

Frontal Brain Injury: Effects On Flexibility, Impulse Control, And Attention, Christopher Matthew O'Hearn

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is defined as an impact to the head, penetration of the skull, or rapid deceleration of the skull, resulting in an alteration of brain function or neurological deficit. Cognitive deficits are common following TBI and often go unresolved due to a lack of effective treatments. These deficits often perseverate into the chronic post injury phase, so the development of rehabilitative strategies is imperative. Behavioral flexibility, impulse control, and attention are a few cognitive processes that are commonly affected by TBI. The current research compares these processes between rats with and without a severe frontal brain injury …

Emotion Processing Deficits In Psychopathy: Does Cueing To Relevant Facial Features Increase Cognitive And Emotional Empathy?, Shawn E. Fagan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychopathy is a multifaceted disorder characterized by a lack of cognitive and emotional empathy. The traditional model of psychopathy divides the disorder into two factors: Factor 1 consists of the interpersonal and affective traits of psychopathy while Factor 2 measures antisocial behaviors and lifestyle choices. The attention-to-the-eyes hypothesis argues that psychopathic individuals have impaired emotion recognition (specifically for fear) due to deficits in orienting attention to salient facial features like the eyes. Psychopathic individuals also display blunted autonomic responding to emotional stimuli, though whether this is due to attention-orienting deficits remains to be clarified. The present project investigated whether empathy-related …

Quantitative Reasoning: Individual Differences In Heart Rate And Response Latency, Abigail L. Van Nuland

MSU Graduate Theses

Math is something that all students are required to use at some point during their academic careers. Then they must use it again in the real world. Unfortunately, many students struggle with quantitative processing. In the current study, participants answered first grade level math problems in order to assess cognitive effort when solving math problem. Participants were then assigned randomly to one of two conditions; Answer or Equation. In the Answer Condition participants were asked to solve a series of math problems, whereby they were given a math equation and then they were asked to choose an answer. In the …

The Effects Of Adenosine Antagonists On Vigilant Attention In Sleep Restricted Rats, Morgan Crewe

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The relation between chronic sleep restriction and performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) have been well documented in the human literature, with chronic sleep restriction as little as 7 hours per night resulting in significant impairment in sustained attention performance measured via the PVT. Recently, an analogous version of the human PVT has been developed for use with rodent models (rPVT). Recent studies have measured the effects of sleep restriction on rPVT performance, citing similar results found in the human literature. However, few studies to date have directly examined the role of adenosine accumulation during sleep deprivation in producing …

Hearing And Seeing A Speaker: How Perceptual And Cognitive Factors Modulate The Dynamics Of Audiovisual Speech Perception, Elina Kaplan

Doctoral Dissertations

In face-to-face conversations, listeners process and combine speech information obtained from hearing and seeing the speaker talk. Audiovisual speech typically leads to more robust recognition of speech, as it provides more information for recognition but also as it helps listeners adjust to speaker idiosyncrasies. The goal of the current thesis was to examine how certain perceptual and cognitive factors modulate how listeners use visual speech to facilitate momentary speech perception and to adjust to a speaker’s idiosyncrasies. Results showed that (older) listeners’ sensitivity to cross-modal synchrony is related to the size of the audiovisual interactions during early perceptual processing. Furthermore, …

The Effects Of Sports Related Head Impact On Balance And Neurocognitive Functions, Shaquanda D. Ross-Simmons, Michelle L. Vieyra, Abhishek Jain, Keri Weed

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of sports-related head injury on balance, attention, and memory. Reliable differences have been found using measures that directly tap into brain functioning, such as the auditory oddball task combined with EEG recording. We hypothesized that athletes reporting a diagnosed concussion or participation in high-risk sports would have compromised balance and neurocognitive functioning compared to athletes in low risk sports. Forty-five undergraduate participants were identified as either concussed, non-concussed in high-risk sports, or non-concussed in low-risk sports using a survey of athletic history, head trauma and demographics. The Biopac MP36 system, …

The Effect Of Text Color And Text Grouping On Attention And Short Term Recall Memory, Emily Haynes

Honors College Research

This study sought to discover whether there was a connection between the attentional draw of a word, as represented by text color and grouping, and the likelihood of it being transferred into short term recall memory. College students at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas were given one of six timed memory test scenarios and asked to recreate the list to the best of their ability. The students were then asked to complete a series of post-test questions designed to measure their perception of their own performance on the test. The students were also asked to complete a demographics questionnaire that …

Understanding The Role Of The Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex In Emotional Memory Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation And Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, R. Rachel Weintraub-Brevda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emotional stimuli can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on memory, such that emotional stimuli can be distracting from current neutral working memory goals, while also leading to enhanced episodic memory for the distracting emotional stimuli. Recent evidence suggests that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) has multiple roles in the enhancing effects of emotion on memory through top-down/controlled processes, including 1) coping with negative distraction and 2) elaborative encoding of negative information. Additionally, previous research has alluded to hemispheric differences in the VLPFC (Chapter 1). However, previous research has been correlational, with no strong laterality tests of the VLPFC. Two …

Restoration Of Attentional Deficits After Concussion, Katharine B. Earle

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Difficulties with concentration and attention are among the most prevalent symptoms experienced after concussion. Rest has been the most common form of recovery from concussion; however, new research is suggesting mild mental exertion to be an effective aid in recovery. Drawing from Attention Restoration Theory, this study evaluated the idea that cognitive engagement with natural environments can mitigate post-concussion directed-attention deficits. A between subjects repeated measures design was used to test directed-attention after video exposure to restorative/nature and nonrestorative/city environments. Measures of mood, connectedness to environment, and symptomology scores were also collected. No meaningful difference between exposure type was found …

The Neurophysiology Of Intersensory Selective Attention And Task Switching, Jeremy W. Murphy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our ability to selectively attend to certain aspects of the world and ignore others is fundamental to our day-to-day lives. The need for selective attention stems from capacity limitations inherent in our perceptual and cognitive processing architecture. Because not every elemental piece of our environment can be fully processed in parallel, the nervous system must prioritize processing. This prioritization is generally referred to as selective attention. Meanwhile, we are faced with a world that is constantly in flux, such that we have to frequently shift our attention from one piece of the environment to another and from one task to …

Activating The Biological And Behavioral Immune Systems, Julia Christensen

Departmental Honors Projects

Psychology recognizes two distinct facets of the immune system: the biological immune system (BIO), covering all processes of the typical immune system, and the behavioral immune system (BEH), a set of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to environmental stimuli. Research on this dual immune system indicates that each is capable of influencing the other (Schaller & Park, 2011). For example, perception of illness in others can activate the sympathetic nervous system (Schaller, Miller, Gervais, Yager, & Chen, 2010). Furthermore, evidence suggests that these two systems are capable of influencing moral judgment (Inbar, Pizarro, & Bloom, 2008). This study aims to …

Visual Search And Attention In Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata): Associative Cuing And Sequential Priming, Kazuhiro Goto, Alan B. Bond, Marianna Burks, Alan C. Kamil

Alan Bond Publications

Visual search for complex natural targets requires focal attention, either cued by predictive stimulus associations or primed by a representation of the most recently detected target. Because both processes can focus visual attention, cuing and priming were compared in an operant search task to evaluate their relative impacts on performance and to determine the nature of their interaction in combined treatments. Blue jays were trained to search for pairs of alternative targets among distractors. Informative or ambiguous color cues were provided before each trial, and targets were presented either in homogeneous blocked sequences or in constrained random order. Initial task …

Exploring The Impact Of Meditation On Attentional Allocation To Emotion, Sychopathology, And Acute Stress, In A Community Sample With Mixed Anxiety And Depression, Nicholas Thomas Van Dam

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Attempts to define mindfulness in the clinical and psychological sciences have been marred by contradictions, inconsistencies, and controversies. In this wait-list (WL) controlled mindfulness meditation training (MMT) study, the efficacy and potential mechanisms of MMT was tested in a community sample with undiagnosed, but significant, symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. In a pre/post design, which also included 3 month follow-up, participants completed self-report measures, participated in a psychosocial stress task (before and after which they completed self-report mood questionnaires and had physiological and salivary neuroendocrine markers collected), and completed an emotional attentional blink paradigm. Compared to WL (n = …

The Differential Effects Of Genetic And Dietary Alterations In Folate Status On Prefrontal Cortical Functions, Jessica Amanda Ash

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Folate status plays an essential role in embryogenesis and brain development; however, its importance in supporting cognitive functioning throughout adulthood is less clear. The present study was interested in examining the effects of genetic and dietary alterations in folate status on prefrontal cortical functions in mice, modeling a common polymorphism in the MTHFD1 gene in folate metabolism. A factorial design was used crossing two genotypes (mice with a gene trap insertion in the Mthfd1 gene exhibiting 50% decreased Mthfd1 expression: Mthfd1gt/+ mice or wildtype mice) with two levels of dietary folate (folate sufficient or folate deficient). The mice were tested …

A Psychophysiological Assessment Of The Efficacy Of Event-Related Potentials And Electroencephalogram For Adaptive Task Allocation, Lawrence J. Prinzel Iii

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study was designed to test the efficacy of using Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) for making task allocations decisions. Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to an experimental, yoked, or control group condition. Under the experimental condition, a compensatory tracking task was switched between manual and automatic task modes based upon the participant's EEG. ERPs were also gathered to an auditory, oddball task. Participants in the yoked condition performed the same tasks under the exact sequence of task allocations that participants in the experimental group experienced. The control condition consisted of a random sequence of task allocations that …