Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

A Single Administration Of Psilocybin Is Ineffective In Reversing Ptsd-Like Sequelae In A Rat Model Of Stress-Enhanced Fear Learning, Kylie M. King, Marisa J. Savini, Noelle M. Molnar, Evelynn J. Schneider, Savannah E. Straub, Joe Parker, Lillianna P. Puppel, Aleece K. Al-Olimat, Allison M. Bach, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Single treatments with psychedelics produce rapid, long-lasting antidepressant effects. Psychedelics may also exert anxiolytic effects and be useful in treating more complex psychiatric conditions, such as PTSD. However, less is known about the impact of these agents on PTSD-related symptoms. Thus, we aimed to determine whether a single administration of psilocybin could reverse PTSD-like sequelae induced by stress-enhanced fear learning in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were placed in Context A (circular, white conditioning box) and exposed to several uncontrollable footshocks (Stress) or no footshocks (No Stress). The next day, the rats were placed in Context B (square conditioning box with clear …

Psilocybin And The Related Tryptamine, Norbaeocystin, Exert Acute Anxiogenic Effects That Depend On Sex, Marisa J. Savini, Kylie M. King, Noelle M. Molnar, Evelynn J. Schneider, Savannah E. Straub, Joe Parker, Lillianna P. Puppel, Aleece K. Al-Olimat, Allison M. Bach, Andrew Jones, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Single treatments with psychedelics have demonstrated rapid, long-lasting antidepressant effects. However, psychedelics often produce unfavorable psychoactive effects that could worsen existing psychological distress. Thus, we compared the effects of psilocybin and the related tryptamine, norbaeocystin, on anxiety-like behavior in male and female rats. In Experiment 1, rats were treated with 1 mg/kg psilocybin (PSIL), 1 mg/kg norbaeocystin (NOR), or vehicle 30 min before a 5-min trial on an elevated plus maze (EPM) or in an open field test (OFT). On the EPM, PSIL led to decreased open arm time and fewer arm entries in males and females. NOR led to …

Affect Regulation In The Context Of Sexual And Gender Minority Stress: A Scoping Review Protocol, Daphne Y. Liu, Benjamin A. Swerdlow, Shao Yuan Chong, Nadia Kako, Alex Rubin, Nicholas S. Perry

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Objective

To provide a broad, comprehensive picture of affect regulation in the context of sexual and gender minority stress, this scoping review aims to identify and synthesize methods, methodologies, and available evidence pertinent to emotion regulation and coping in the context of minority stress among sexual and gender minority (SGM) people.

Introduction

SGM people face disproportionately high rates of mental health problems due to experiences of minority stress and lack of social safety. Theories and growing evidence suggest that affect regulation plays a critical role in SGM people’s well-being in the face of minority stress. Researchers have largely studied emotion …

Learning And Satisfaction, Ainsley Smith

Scholars Week

Learning and Satisfaction

Motivation, especially in the world of psychology, is quite the broad and overarching term that relates to various aspects of life. Whether it be motivation in the workplace, classroom, sports, or relationships, our intrinsic and extrinsic motivations drive us to do our best on what we set forth to accomplish. Although there is extensive research on methods of learning in correlation to motivation as well as levels of satisfaction impacting these levels, there has yet to be much exploration into the impact an emotional component or personal connection may have on these factors. The purpose of this …

A Multi-Measurement Study Of The Relation Between Deliberation And Volition, Guillaume P. Pech, Emilie A. Caspar, Elisabeth Pacherie, Axel Cleeremans, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Historically, voluntary action and volition more generally have been investigated through the lens of meaningless decisions. Importantly, these findings have been used in the debate about key notions like free will and moral responsibility. However, more recent claims have challenged the possibility of generalizing findings from a meaningless context to a more meaningful one. The current study investigates the markers of volition, specifically comparing meaningful and meaningless decisions. In an effort to maximize their monetary gain, 50 participants repeatedly deliberated between two options, making either rewarded choices—hard-deliberation decisions (where the options differed along two dimensions) or easy-deliberation decisions (where the …

The Endocannabinoid System's Influence And Modulation Of Nociception, Doreen M. Flannery

Honors Thesis

The anatomy and physiology of pain is a well-defined pathway where noxious stimuli is processed by different systems in the brain. The central research question of this review is how can we better understand the neurobiological effects pain has, and assess if there is therapeutic potential in using endocannabinoids to modulate these effects. Endocannabinoids are signaling molecules that play a key role at both the cellular and molecular level in modulating both acute and chronic pain by influencing different processes within each level that affect how the body responds to both internal and external stimuli. The endocannabinoid system is a …

Investigating Prefrontal Cortex Neuronal Signatures Of Opioid-Induced Risk-Taking Behavior, Cana Quave

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Opioid use disorder occurs alongside impaired risk-related decision-making, but the underlying neural correlates are unclear. We developed an approach-avoidance conflict task using a modified conditioned place preference procedure to study neural signals of risky opioid seeking in the prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in executive decision-making. Following morphine conditioned place preference, rats underwent a conflict test in which fear-inducing cat odor was introduced in the previously drug-paired side of the apparatus. While the saline-exposed control group avoided cat odor, the morphine group included two subsets of rats that either maintained a preference for the paired side despite the presence of …

A Psychometric Evaluation Of The Intentionality Bias Task, David Willard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Intentionality Bias Task (IBT) provides quick and easy assessment of the tendency to overattribute intentionality to the behaviors of others. The IBT has been used repeatedly in research that has attempted to connect intentionality bias to a wide range of disorders and socio-emotional abilities, including schizophrenia spectrum disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and cognitive empathy. To date, however, there has been no systematic examination of the IBT’s psychometric properties. The present study attempts to fill this gap by testing whether the IBT possesses a reliable factor structure. Specifically, the 34 items of the IBT were written to reflect two types of …

Impact Of Acute Stress On Circadian Rhythm Regulation Of Locomotor Activity In Syrian Hamsters, Raquel A. Villarreal, Laura E. Garcia, Mario Gil

Research Symposium

Background: Disruptions of circadian rhythms, caused by factors such as environmental changes or stress, are linked to health conditions, including metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and mood disorders. Circadian rhythm disturbances are particularly relevant for understanding the etiology of conditions like insomnia, depression, and anxiety. The circadian rhythm, primarily regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the hypothalamus, coordinates biological processes to align with daily environmental cycles. Acute stress, especially when experienced immediately upon waking, has been shown to disrupt these rhythms, impair sleep regulation, and exacerbate mood dysregulation. Given the significant clinical implications, understanding how stress impacts circadian rhythms is …

Empirically Validating A Computational Model Of Automatic Behavior Shaping, Vincent Berardi, Tian Lan, Ariane Guirguis, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Mobile sensing technology allows automated behavior shaping routines to be incorporated into health behavior interventions and other settings. In previous work, a computational model was built to investigate how to best arrange automatic behavior shaping procedures, but the degree to which this model reflects actual human behavior is not known.

Purpose

To translate a previously developed computational model of automatic behavior shaping into an experimental setting.

Methods

Participants (n = 54) operated a computer mouse and attempted to locate a hidden, randomly-placed target circle on a blank computer screen and clicks within some threshold distance of the target …

Accessible Real-Time Eye-Gaze Tracking For Neurocognitive Health Assessments, A Multimodal Web-Based Approach, Daniel C. Tisdale

Master's Theses

We introduce a novel integration of real-time, predictive eye-gaze tracking models into a multimodal dialogue system tailored for remote health assessments. This system is designed to be highly accessible requiring only a conventional webcam for video input along with minimal cursor interaction and utilizes engaging gaze-based tasks that can be performed directly in a web browser. We have crafted dynamic subsystems that capture high-quality data efficiently and maintain quality through instances of user attrition and incomplete calls. Additionally, these subsystems are designed with the foresight to allow for future re-analysis using improved predictive models, as well as enable the creation …

Feldenkrais And Music Informed Listening: A Neurophenomenological Perspective On Autism, Arona Primalani

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Phenomenologists identify the subjective body and its felt-senses as the basis for human development and consciousness, including mental health. Several mental health disorders, when viewed from a phenomenological perspective, share common symptomology related to varying extents of fractured selves, which in turn hinders dynamic interaction between individuals, their actions, and their relationships with their social and material worlds. Autism is one such condition. Hence, I created an intervention to investigate how listening, which foster subjective and intersubjective experiences, lies at the heart of somatic and arts-based interventions. This thesis, first, begins with a summary of the presenting symptoms observed in …

Examining The Effects Of Menstrual Cycle Phase And Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Women's Sleep, Charles Ethan Coombs

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women overrepresent men for sub-optimal sleep, a consequence of hormone fluctuation in the menstrual cycle affecting sleep regulatory pathways. While research has examined the prevalence of sub-optimal sleep through cycle phases, little research has examined how hormonal contraceptives (HC’s) could similarly affect women’s sleep, while also neglecting to utilize subjective sleep measures. In this study, we examine subjective sleep quality among naturally cycling (NC) women, women using different HC types, and between active and inactive phase pill users by subjecting 463 women to a subjective sleep battery. We hypothesized that HC users would report more sub-optimal sleep than NC women. …

Multiple Timescales Of Temporal Context In Risky Choice: Behavioral Identification And Relationships To Physiological Arousal, Hayley R. Brooks, Peter Sokol-Hessner

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Context-dependence is fundamental to risky monetary decision-making. A growing body of evidence suggests that temporal context, or recent events, alters risk-taking at a minimum of three timescales: immediate (e.g. trial-by-trial), neighborhood (e.g. a group of consecutive trials), and global (e.g. task-level). To examine context effects, we created a novel monetary choice set with intentional temporal structure in which option values shifted between multiple levels of value magnitude ("contexts") several times over the course of the task. This structure allowed us to examine whether effects of each timescale were simultaneously present in risky choice behavior and the potential mechanistic role of …

Opioid System's Potential Involvement In Ketamine's Cognitive And Antidepressant-Like Effects In Rats, Fan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Depression stands as one of the most pervasive mental health challenges worldwide, including the United States. Conventional antidepressants typically display a delayed onset of therapeutic action (4-8 weeks) and lack efficacy in a substantial portion of patients (over 40% of depressed patients are treatment-resistant). The dissociative anesthetic ketamine, which is a glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, has emerged as a promising novel treatment due to its rapid and prolonged antidepressant effects, and it is especially beneficial for treatment-resistant depression. Nevertheless, the precise neurochemical mechanisms underlying ketamine’s antidepressant properties remain elusive, hampering the development of safer and more efficacious treatments. The present …

The Influence Of Flavor On The Abuse Liability Of A Heated Tobacco Product And Its Feasibility As A Menthol Cigarette Substitute, Augustus White

Theses and Dissertations

Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) purport to expose people that use cigarettes to fewer of the harmful or potentially harmful constituents of tobacco while still delivering reinforcing amounts of nicotine (Auer, Concha-Lozano et al., 2017). An exemplar of the HTP class, IQOS, and its three varieties of “HeatSticks” have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “Modified Risk Tobacco Products” (MRTP). However, as the FDA is planning to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes, questions remain regarding whether characterizing flavors should be permitted in HTPs (FDA, 2022e). New evidence regarding HTP abuse liability (i.e., the likelihood …

Attenuated Typicality Effect In Category-Based Inferences: Implications For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Janani Rajagopalan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often encounter challenges in assimilating atypical exemplars into their categorical prototypes, a cognitive hurdle that can impact their interpretative and integrative capacities. Addressing this problem, the present research sought to develop a robust methodological approach to reduce the effect of this disparity. We examined the elements embedded within the category's internal structure, with the intention of experimentally attenuating the pronounced typicality effect, which is often exaggerated in ASD.

Across four experiments, the thesis investigated the cognitive and neural underpinnings that shape the access to the typicality gradient intrinsic to a category's structure. The …

What Cognitive Processes Drive Attentional Bias, And How Does Stress Affect Them?, Colton L. Hunter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Attentional biases toward or away from emotionally evocative stimuli have been well documented and related to clinical outcomes such as social anxiety. Some work has suggested that stress modulates attentional biases, but there are a number of inconsistencies in this literature regarding the direction of that modulation, highlighting a need to examine moderators of that effect. Sex differences in stress effects could potentially explain this inconsistency, as acute stress can affect males and females differently. It is also possible that stress differentially influences multiple component processes underpinning attentional bias, but these processes have not been well character, and to date …

Effects Of Combined Ethanol And Nicotine Administration On Delay Discounting In Male And Female Sprague-Dawley Rats, Rebecca Lillian Chalme

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ethanol (EtOH) and nicotine (NIC) are among the most commonly used and co-used drugs in the world. Co-use occurs in people who use one or both drugs chronically, but also in people who only consume one or both drugs acutely, often in a “bingeing and chipping” pattern. Given that each drug on its own has previously been shown to affect impulsive choice in delay-discounting procedures, with some indication that drug effects could vary by sex, the purpose of the present experiments was to investigate effects of combined EtOH and NIC at a range of dose combinations on delay discounting in …

Effects Of Social Isolation And Adolescent Ethanol Exposure On Adult Drinking And Nicotine Co-Use, Jakob Shaykin

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol use often begins in adolescence and can lead to increased susceptibility to AUD in adulthood. Stress in the form of social isolation during adolescence can also prompt substance use disorders later in adulthood. This thesis determined if exposure to ethanol (EtOH) during adolescence and social isolation alters the trajectory of alcohol and nicotine intake during adulthood. In Experiment 1, adolescent male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were administered intermittent injections of EtOH (2g/kg 20% EtOH, IP) or saline (PND 28-41). EtOH consumption was measured in adulthood (PND 49-55) using a 2-bottle choice procedure where one bottle contained a 0.2% saccharin/15% …

Effects Of Ethanol And Nicotine Co-Administration On Risky Choice In Rats, Erin E. Wylie

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Individuals often engage in the comorbid use of alcohol (ethanol) and nicotine, leading to further-escalated health consequences than the use of either drug in isolation. Given the poor health outcomes resulting from the combined administration of ethanol and nicotine, some of which may be due to increased risky choice, more basic research is needed to better characterize drug/dose interactions on risky choice. Probability-discounting procedures involve a series of discrete choices between a smaller, certain reinforcer (i.e., a safer choice) and a larger, increasingly uncertain reinforcer (i.e., a riskier choice). Probability-discounting procedures allow for the assessment of …

Hiv And Early Life Stress On Neuroimaging And Risky Behavior, Paola Garcia Egan

Dissertations

This study examined the interactive effects of early life stress (ELS) and HIV on brain morphometry, diffusion-basis-spectrum-imaging (DBSI), risky decision-making, and sex-risk behavior. 122 people with HIV (PWH) and 113 people without HIV (PWoH), free of major psychiatric illness and neurological confounds, were stratified into high (≥ 3 events) vs. low (< 3 events) ELS [PWoH/low ELS (n = 57), PWoH/high ELS (n =56), PWH/low ELS (n = 43), PWH/high ELS (n = 79)] and underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging, DBSI, neuropsychological, and risky-behavior assessment; all PWH were virologically controlled. Compared to PWoH, PWH had smaller orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), parietal lobes, insula, caudate and anterior cingulate. No ELS effects were detected in volumetric measures. Significant interactions were found between HIV serostatus and ELS on the OFC and on cellularity of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus after multiple comparisons adjustment. Specifically, PWH/high ELS exhibited significantly smaller OFC and PWoH/high ELS show significantly larger OFC than the other groups. PWoH/high ELS exhibited higher DBSI cellularity (neuroinflammation proxy) of the inferior-occipital-fasciculus compared to PWoH/high ELS. Regardless of HIV status, executive function moderated the relationship between the OFC and sex-risk behavior such that individuals within the sample who performed above average on a measure of executive function and had a larger OFC reported fewer sex partners in past six months than individuals with smaller volumes. No interaction was found between HIV serostatus and ELS on risky behavior measures. Clustering analyses defined ELS subgroups in PWH that were determined by demographic characteristics, duration of infection, recent CD4+ T-cell count, nadir CD4+ T-cell count and high/low ELS.Even in PWH that are virologically controlled, without major current psychiatric comorbidities, there is evidence of a synergistic impact of ELS and HIV on OFC volumes. Higher volumes in the OFC were detrimental when associated with lower executive function scores or advantageous when associated with higher executive function. Findings suggest that ELS is associated with different brain signatures among PWoH and virally suppressed PWH. However, ELS was not directly associated with risky behaviors, and subgroups in PWH were characterized by demographic variables, past substance use and HIV clinical variables.

Simulated Owl Predation During Foraging Differentially Alters Choice And Fear Behavior Between Sex In Rats, Meghan M. Olsen

Research Psychology Theses

Existing research on the predator cue circuit has indicated there are observed differences between sexes of animals either directly or indirectly exposed to a predator stimulus. Exposure increases predator directed attention, and overrides other motivational systems (hunger, pain, reproductive behavior). Little research has explored whether exposure to predation is associated with differential responses to non-predator related decision-making across a variety of tasks. Therefore, understanding the prioritization of motivational states when a predator stressor is present can aid in understanding sex differences in these processes in both adaptative and maladaptive conditions. To determine how repeated exposure to a predator stressor differentially …

Effects Of Chronic Stress On Safety Processing And Physiology In The Medial Prefrontal-Amygdala-Basal Forebrain Circuit, Itamar S. Grunfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chronic stress increases generalization of fear to non-threatening cues, a key symptom in numerous psychiatric mood disorders. However, the mechanisms through which stress impacts safety learning remain poorly understood. To probe the relationship between stress and safety learning, this dissertation employed multiple behaviors, in conjunction with in-vivo multisite physiology during explicit safety and fear discrimination learning. In Chapter 1, I outline the role of chronic stress in driving neurological adaptations that result in generalized fear and highlight how this occurs because of impaired safety cue encoding. In Chapter 2, I show that chronic stress in the form of social defeat …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

The Program To Reduce Implicit Bias In Carroll Hospital Center Using The Implicit Association Test, Katherine E. Traynor

Capstone Showcase

Natural brain processes make all individuals susceptible to unconscious bias; however, stressful, fearful, or anger-evoking situations as well as the negative influence of media and social surroundings increase the risk of holding obstructive bias, and there is a greater risk of being negatively impacted by this phenomenon when belonging to a minority population (Rose & Flores, 2020). As a result, high rates of infant mortality (10.2 deaths per 1,000 live births for the Non-Hispanic Black population compared to 4.1 in the White population) and cardiovascular related diseases (190.0 cases per 1,000 in the Non-Hispanic Black population compared to 161.3 in …

The Relationship Between Social Media Use And Depression And Anxiety Symptoms During Covid-19, Tene'sha L. Crews, Christina Sheerin

Undergraduate Research Posters

The rise of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global surge in exposure to disaster and crisis-related media. Increases in poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression, are associated with increased exposure to such media content (Abbas et al., 2021; Riehm et al., 2020; Zhao & Zhou, 2020). In recent years, social media has become one of the most widely used sources for news; approximately 48% of adult Americans receive their news from social media (Pew Research Center, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in social media use due to social distancing and …

Moderate Prenatal Ethanol Exposure, Sex, And Housing Modify Spatial Navigation Behavior And Hippocampal Cell Firing In Adult Rodents, Christy Magcalas

Psychology ETDs

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with structural and physiological changes that impact the central nervous system and can result in persistent negative consequences in a broad spectrum of cognitive and behavioral domains including deficits in spatial learning and memory and behavioral flexibility. The current study focuses on examining the behavioral and mechanistic consequences of PAE, sex and housing. Rats were tested in the Morris Water Task where they were trained to navigate to a goal location and tested in a pool shift manipulation. There were no significant differences between PAE treatment, sex, or housing groups during training, but there …

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

Distress Tolerance As A Potential Target For Change: The Relationship Between Distress Tolerance, Craving, And Alcohol Consumption In A Lab-Based Experiment, Isabel F. Augur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Distress tolerance (DT) has recently been studied as a potential catalyst for the development ofalcohol use disorder (AUD). Research exploring the relationship between DT and craving is limited and has primarily focused on nicotine craving. Furthermore, there are no current studies examining the relationship between DT and alcohol consumption. This study was designed to fill this gap in the literature, which may shed light on a potentially important target for alcohol use treatment. Additionally, the role of mindfulness was explored in the context of the relationship between DT and alcohol craving and consumption, with the intention of expanding on the …