Biological Psychology Commons^™

Assessment Of Dopaminergic And Serotonergic Receptor Antagonists In Male Rats Trained To Discriminate 4-Methylmethcathinone (Mephedrone), Rachel L. Burroughs

Masters Theses

Preclinical drug discrimination studies of the synthetic cathinone, 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) have demonstrated its effects are comparable to those of other popular psychostimulant drugs. Few studies have directly examined the contribution of specific neurotransmitter receptors to mephedrone’s discriminative stimulus effects. The present study investigated the role of dopamine and serotonin receptors in these effects. Eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 3.0 mg/kg mephedrone from saline. After dose-response curves were determined with mephedrone (0.375-3.0 mg/kg), a series of stimulus antagonism tests were conducted with dopamine antagonists (Sch 23390, haloperidol) and serotonin antagonists (WAY 100,635, MDL 100,907, pirenperone) administered as …

Efficacy Of Creative Interventions In Virtual Reality, Matthew Thomas Richesin

Masters Theses

Engaging in creative activities is known to increase well-being by reducing levels of stress, anxiety, and improve life satisfaction. Interventions utilizing creative activities have proven to enhance therapeutic results in various mental disorders. Similarly, virtual reality has emerged as an effective method of decreasing negative aspects of mental disorders. While both creative interventions and virtual reality show promise in enhancing well-being, the efficacy of combining the two has not been explored. This study aimed to combine and compare 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art-making on stress, anxiety, and mood in a non-clinical college student sample. To accomplish this, both physiological and self-report …

Construct Validity Of The Teate Depression Inventory: Convergent And Discriminant Validity And Equivalence For Black/African American And White/Caucasian Samples, Dylin Coons

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to replicate the construct validity of a new measure of depression, the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI; Balsamo & Saggino, 2013), with the primary focus on Black/African American participants. Research has purported that Black/African Americans experience inequality in obtaining mental health care for internalizing disorders. This may partially be caused by errors in diagnosing these individuals with symptoms. Correctly diagnosing internalizing disorders is a critical step in obtaining appropriate treatment. More research on depression and anxiety is needed to enhance mental health practices by addressing the need for professionals to be culturally competent and conscious …

Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott

Masters Theses

Depression and related disorders are characterized by motivational dysfunctions, including deficits in behavioral activation and exertion of effort. Animal models of relevance to depression represent a critical starting point in elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying motivational dysfunctions. The present study explored the use of the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) animal model of depression to examine effort-related functions as measured by voluntary wheel running and performance on a mixed fixed ratio 5/progressive ratio (FR5/PR) operant task. Given the known link between activational aspects of motivation and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system, the behavioral effects of d-amphetamine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, IP), a psychostimulant …

Obesity In Society: The Importance Of Perception, Michael Darnell Oliver Ii

Masters Theses

In the current study, I examined the role of positive and negative media images of obese individuals on attitudes and physiological responding in relation to an actual discrimination incident. Various surveys were administered and Body Mass Index (BMI), salivary Alpha Amylase (sAA), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) or Skin Conductance (SC) were measured. Participants read a vignette in which an obese individual was discriminated against and further questions were administered to assess attributional blame. My primary hypothesis in this study was that there would be a decrease in stigma due to positive priming, specifically stigma directed at the obese population. …

The Relationship Between Arousal, Personality, And Perception Of Control In A Gambling Task, Guillaume J. Pagnier

Masters Theses

The somatic marker hypothesis posits that physiological arousal is partially responsible for decision-making behavior. Arousal, measured by skin conductance responses (SCR), increases before deck choice in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). These markers co-vary with performance -- pathological gamblers lack these markers and perform poorly. Personality also modulates IGT behavior – high-novelty-seeking (NS) individuals tend to perform worse. In the IGT, participants decide which deck to select, creating a potential confound between personality, performance, and arousal. For example, high-NS individuals select the bad decks more often, potentially causing habituation and a muted SCR. The first goal of this research was …

Differential Effects Of Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (Mdpv) And Mephedrone In Rats Trained To Discriminate Mdma Or A D-Amphetamine+Mdma Mixture, Eric Louis Harvey

Masters Theses

Recent reports on the abuse of novel synthetic cathinone derivatives call attention to serious public health risks of these substances. In response to this concern, a growing body of preclinical research has characterized the psychopharmacology of these substances, particularly mephedrone (MEPH) or methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), noting their similarities to MDMA and cocaine. The present study employed drug discrimination methodology to assess the discriminative stimulus effects of MEPH and MDPV in male Sprague-Dawley rats trained to discriminate 1.5 mg/kg 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or a mixture of 1.5 mg/kg MDMA and 0.5 mg/kg d-amphetamine (MDMA+AMPH). After establishing dose response functions with each training …

Effects Of Altering Motivation In Pigeons Performing A Titrating-Delayed-Matching-To-Sample Task, Zachary J. Zimmermann

Masters Theses

In order to better understand the role motivating operations (MOs) serve in preceding and evoking behavior, it is useful to examine the effects of whether manipulating motivation can influence performance on tasks with known behavioral outcomes. It is well established that altered stimulus control is responsible for changes in responding on tasks of generalization and discrimination. Therefore, if stimulus control could be influenced by MOs, then perhaps stimulus discriminations could be improved by manipulating the relevant MO. To this end, the effects of altering motivation via food deprivation were examined in pigeons using a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample task. Additional pharmacological variables (i.e., …

Comparing Stress Responses In Generalized Anxiety Disorder Vs. Non-Clinical Populations: A Cortisol And Alpha-Amylase Study, Dominic Joseph Di Loreto

Masters Theses

Debilitating anxiety affects 6.8 million Americans. Cortisol is an established measure of the stress response which reflects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. However, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a relatively new measure of the stress response, and it reflects the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary pathway (SAM pathway) activity. Our aim was to compare these two aspects of the stress response in a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and a non-clinical population under a stressful stimulus (Knee replacement surgery video). To our knowledge this is the first time anyone has looked at both sAA and cortisol together with respect to GAD. We hypothesized that both cortisol …

Do Dogs Increase Learning? The Effect Of Therapy Dogs On Academic Stress And Spanish Second Language Learning, Elaine Maralee Henry

Masters Theses

Numerous physiological changes occur during periods of high stress and learning Spanish as a second language in a classroom setting may induce significant levels of academic stress. A possible solution is the use of therapy dogs in second language classes since therapy dogs are known to lower stress and improve physiological measures such as heart rate and blood pressure. Data were collected from 18 University of Tennessee-Knoxville juniors and seniors. A within subjects design required participants to listen to a short Spanish lesson during three conditions: baseline, therapy dog, and no therapy dog. In all conditions, saliva samples were collected …

Effects Of 5-Ht1a Receptors On The Development Of Stress-Induced Changes In Behavior, Lauren Renee Bader

Masters Theses

Social defeat leads to both increased anxiety-like behavior and the formation of a fear memory for a specific opponent. We have shown that serotonin (5-HT) signaling, particularly in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), alters the acquisition of the conditioned defeat response in Syrian hamsters. While activation of 5-HT1A receptors impairs the acquisition of conditioned defeat, it is unclear whether these receptors alter the development of anxiety-like behavior or formation of fear memories. One method for investigating the formation of defeat-induced fear memories is to measure avoidance of former opponents, and many researchers have reliably used the open field as a measure …

Alarm Calling In The Context Of Flying Predator Stimuli: A Field Study Of Carolina Chickadees (Poecile Carolinensis), Christopher Erik Zachau

Masters Theses

This study describes chick-a-dee calling behavior of Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) in the presence of “flying” predator models. Previous experimental research with black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) as well as Mexican chickadees (Poecile sclateri) suggested a relationship between the presence of predator stimuli and the note composition of chick-a-dee calls.

Carolina chickadees were presented with two types of stimuli in field settings. These models were painted to resemble either a predatory sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) or a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata). Models consisted of pairs of five varying shapes, making ten models in …

Voluntary Control Of Gsr Using Continuous Visual Display And Simultaneous Changes In Other Autonomic Functions, Laurence E. Boyce

Masters Theses

Using 28 male undergraduate university students provided with continuous oscilloscope display of basal skin resistance, this study investigated voluntary control of the GSR and concurrent changes in respiration. It was found, given feedback, subjects could voluntarily raise or lower their GSR. Subjects instructed to increase their GSR (N-14) could do so within the first trial session. However, subjects instructed to decrease their GSR (N-14) required additional practice. With less than 20 minutes of practice all subjects were able to reach a criterion of 2,500 ohms change from their basal level. Subjects increasing their GSR were found to have a significant …