Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Preventing Alzheimer's: Effects Of Second Language Acquisition In Older Populations, Joshua Rhead

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Alzheimer’s disease continues to be a problem that medicine has few answers for. As a result, much research has been focused on finding a cure as well as interventions to help prevent the onset of the disease. One such intervention that has been proposed is to improve the brain’s efficiency and connectivity. A controversial method of achieving these results is through second language acquisition. Many provide evidence for or against the benefits of this intervention, but much remains unclear. Most of these studies focus on cognitive function and functional connectivity in language areas, but the default mode network, which is …

Investigation Of Rack1 Effect On Mor Expression Using Crispr Technology, Zil Modi

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The µ-opioid receptor, MOR, is the primary target for exogenous and endogenous analgesics, such as morphine or oxycodone, used to relieve pain following physical trauma or invasive procedures. When opioid analgesics are utilized extensively, patients can develop tolerance heightening the risk of respiratory depression and subsequently death. MOR gene expression is known to be regulated by several transcription factors including poly-C binding protein 1, PCBP1, which also interacts with receptor for activated C kinase, RACK1. Using overexpression and siRNA RACK1 was shown to be inversely related to MOR expression. To further investigate the relationship of RACK1 and MOR expression, RACK1 …

Mediators Of The Relationship Between Self-Control And Pathological Technology Use: Negative Affect And Cognitive Failures, But Not Self-Efficacy, Robert West, Diana Jiang

Psychology and Neuroscience Faculty Publications

The widespread adoption of technologies such as smartphones, the Internet, and social media has been associated with the emergence of pathological technology use (e.g., Internet addiction). Prevalence rates of pathological technology use vary widely across age groups, cultures, and medium, although it is not uncommon for rates of mild to moderate pathological use to exceed 20%-30%. These relatively high prevalence rates have motivated researchers to identify the predictors of pathological use. The current study focuses on the relationship be- tween self-control and pathological technology use, and demonstrates that negative affect and cognitive failures, but not self-efficacy, partially mediate the association …

Action Video Gaming Experience Related To Altered Resting-State Eeg Temporal And Spatial Complexity, Ruifang Cui, Jinliang Jiang, Lu Zeng, Lijun Jiang, Zeling Xia, Li Dong, Diankun Gong, Guojian Yan, Weiyi Ma, Dezhong Yao

General Human Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Action video gaming (AVG) places sustained cognitive load on various behavioral systems, thus offering new insights into learning-related neural plasticity. This study aims to determine whether AVG experience is associated with resting-state electroencephalogram (rs-EEG) temporal and spatial complexity, and if so, whether this effect is observable across AVG subgenres. Two AVG games – League of Legends (LOL) and Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG) that represent two major AVG subgenres – were examined. We compared rs-EEG microstate and omega complexity between LOL experts and non-experts (Experiment 1) and between PUBG experts and non-experts (Experiment 2). We found that the experts and …

An Inward Focus Of Attention During Information Security Decision Making: Electrophysiological Evidence, Robert West, Kate Cowger '22

Psychology and Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Insider threat represents a significant source of violations of information security. Our previous research using event-related potentials (ERPs) has revealed patterns of neural activity that distinguish ethical decision making from decisions that do not involve an ethical component. In the current study, we sought to gain insight into the locus of the effect of ethical decision making on the posterior N2 component of the ERPs. The ERP data revealed that the N2 was greater in amplitude for control trials relative to ethical violation trials, and time-frequency analyses revealed that this resulted from a reduction in phase-locked activity across trials rather …

The Rise Of Affectivism, Terry A. Maroney, David Dukes, Et Al.

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Research over the past decades has demonstrated the explanatory power of emotions, feelings, motivations, moods, and other affective processes when trying to understand and predict how we think and behave. In this consensus article, we ask: has the increasingly recognized impact of affective phenomena ushered in a new era, the era of affectivism? ...

The behavioural and cognitive sciences have faced perennial challenges of incorporating emotions, feelings, motivations, moods, and other affective processes into models of human behaviour and the human mind. Such processes have long been marginalised or ignored, typically on the basis that they were irrational, un-measurable, or …

Predictors Of Problematic Smartphone Use: The Role Of Reward Processing, Depressive Symptoms, And Self-Control, Robert West, Carl Ash '21, Ashley Dapore '21, Bridget Kirby, Kaitlyn Malley, Shasha Zhu

Psychology and Neuroscience Faculty Publications

The widespread adoption of smartphones has been associated with the emergence of problematic smartphone use. Problematic smartphone use is consistently associated with increased levels of depression and lower self-control, and pathological technology use more generally may be associated with reduced activity in the reward system, an effect that is also observed in depression and with poor self-control. The current study sought to examine the association between problematic smartphone use and event-related potentials (ERPs) related to reward processing, and to determine whether reward processing, depressive symptoms and self-control have shared or unique influences on problematic smartphone use. The sample was drawn …

Using Fnirs To Identify Brain Regions Involved In Emotional Face Processing In Infants At High Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Christian Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Faces provide an abundance of salient information, and within a few hours of being born, infants already show preferential attention to faces and face-like stimuli. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder consisting of social communication and interaction difficulties, and individuals with ASD show differences in the behavioral and neural processing of faces. Prospective studies with infants at high risk for ASD (HRA; by virtue of an older sibling with ASD) have begun to look at whether responses to faces could be an early marker of later ASD. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the current study measured oxygenated hemoglobin …

Examining The Transient Neural Dynamics Underlying Working Memory Maintenance For Complex Visual Stimuli, Chelsea Reichert Plaska

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working memory (WM) is the temporary storage of information to accomplish a future goal. The WM delay period is the time after encoding but before retrieval when information is being maintained, typically in the absence of relevant stimuli. Understanding how the brain supports maintenance during the delay period, and how neural activity and connectivity are related to memory is critical for advancing both basic knowledge as well as informing declines in memory and cognition related to neurodegenerative diseases and healthy aging. An open question in the field of WM research is how information is stored during this delay period. One …

Early Emotion Regulation In The Children Of Superstorm Sandy, Jessica L. Buthmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rising prevalence of childhood psychopathology mandate investigation into the antecedents of symptom onset. Growing evidence shows prenatal maternal stress experienced in utero is a strong contributor to offspring neurodevelopmental deficits, including emotion dysregulation, a core feature of many types of psychopathology. This dissertation summarizes a body of work studying children prenatally exposed to maternal stress related to a natural disaster, Superstorm Sandy (i.e., storm stress). This work includes six experiments conducted in the framework of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis. The DOHaD hypothesis posits that developmental disruptions, like storm stress exposure, during a critical period of …

The Effect Of Anticipatory Anxiety On Fear Extinction Learning, Daniela C. Echeverria

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adaptive regulation of fear is dependent on successful fear extinction learning; therefore, investigating factors that both enhance and diminish fear extinction learning is a critical line of research. In the present study, we induce mild anticipatory anxiety during fear extinction learning in an attempt to modulate how participants extinguish fear memory. In the experiment, we apply a classic three-day fear learning protocol to both control participants (N = 20) and an experimental group (N = 20) with fear acquisition, fear extinction, and fear recovery phases; each phase is separated by a period of 24 hours and we use a skin …

Targeting Ampa Receptor Modulation During Early Life Adversity: A Mediator For Threat Associated Memories, Roseanna M. Zanca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Early life adversity (ELA) is the exposure to a single or to multiple traumatic events before the age of 18 that go beyond the child’s coping. These adverse events are often exacerbated during adolescence particularly when cognitive performance is compromised. Adolescents who experienced ELA may show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while not vividly recalling the early life trauma. These individuals show atypical connectivity between prefrontal-amygdala and hippocampus, all of which is associated with an increased risk of experiencing a traumatic event again later in life. While clinical research has increasingly stressed the importance in addressing the long-lasting consequences …

Neuroplasticity Of The Corticospinal System: Applications Of Neuromodulation-Based Therapies, Alzahraa M. Amer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The motor cortex and corticospinal tract are necessary for producing skilled movements. I use intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a high-frequency stimulation protocol known to promote neural plasticity, as a tool to characterize short- and long-term plasticity of the CS system.

Although it is well known that activity-dependent motor cortex (MCX) plasticity produces long-term potentiation (LTP) of local cortical circuits, leading to enhanced motor evoked potentials (MEPs), the effects produced by the corticospinal (CS) projection on spinal cord neurons have not yet been thoroughly studied. In Chapter 2, I determined if the CS tract (CST) is capable of producing LTP …

Functional Connectivity Changes In The Default Mode Network In Moderate-To-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Emily J. Haight

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients are known to have altered functional connectivity (FC), which has cognitive and behavioral significance and bears clinical implications. Previous literature has discovered a hyperconnectivity response to TBI, most notably in the default mode network (DMN). However, the exact pattern of changes in resting FC during the first year of recovery is unknown. We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate longitudinal connectivity patterns in the DMN of 28 moderate-to-severe TBI patients as compared to 33 demographically matched healthy controls (HC). FC was assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months post-injury for patients using the …

The Role Of Placental Genes On Intellectual Disability And Developmental Delay, Maedot A. Yidenk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The complex interaction between gene expressions and environmental factors plays a key role in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including neurodevelopmental disorders (Lenroot & Giedd, 2008). This study aimed to evaluate first, the magnitude of association between placental gene Methyl-CpG Binding Protein 2 (MeCP2) and intellectual disability (ID) in the offspring and second, the synergy between placental gene Forkhead box protein 1(FOXP1) and developmental delay (DD) in the offspring. We focused on assessing two specific paradigms, i) placental gene expressions of MeCP2 among children that have ID vs. children without ID; and ii) placental gene expression of …

Learning To Feel Safe: A Translational Study Of The Influence Of Safety Learning On Anxiety-Related Overgeneralized Fear, Hyein Cho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health diagnoses, affecting about a third of the population in their lifetime. However, approximately a third of individuals with anxiety do not respond to current treatment approaches, highlighting the need to identify additional potential therapeutic mechanisms. Safety learning is one such mechanism, but methodological challenges and a dearth of research have prevented the field from advancing the understanding of the role of safety learning in the etiology and remediation of anxiety disorders. Animal research, using single-cued safety learning paradigms, has yielded promising early findings, demonstrating that safety learning directly reduces anxiety-related behaviors …

Effects Of Working Memory Load On Ensemble Versus Individual Object Processing, Clark Moore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ensemble perception is the ability of the visual system to summarize object groups by their statistical properties. At a fundamental level, past studies show clearly that ensembles are perceived, and statistical information is sent to working memory such that a subject may report on the averages (Ariely, 2001; Brady and Alvarez, 2011). Studies show that subjects are capable of reporting ensemble statistics for large groups of objects with high accuracy, inferring that this process bypasses the capacity limitations of attention and working memory (Chong and Treisman, 2003; Baijal et al., 2013; Huang, 2015; Epstein and Emmanouil, 2017, 2021). However, few …

Circuits Underlying Serotonin Mediated Sex Differences In Fear Learning, Rebecca Ravenelle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-related disorder characterized by intense fearful memory formation. Women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD, indicating there may be sex differences in the underlying neural circuits. Given that serotonin (5-HT) dysfunction is implicated in PTSD, and 5-HT modulates fear learning, we investigated whether there are sex differences in the modulation of fear learning by 5-HT. We administered the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram (20mg/kg or 10m/kg, i.p.) once to male and female mice prior to auditory fear conditioning and tested the effects on fear memory the next day. We found …

Clinical, Neuroimaging, And Molecular Spectrum Of Tecpr2-Associated Hereditary Sensory And Autonomic Neuropathy With Intellectual Disability, Sonja Neuser, Barbara Brechmann, Gali Heimer, Ines Brösse, Susanna Schubert, Lauren O'Grady, Michael Zech, Siddharth Srivastava, Shahnaz Ibrahim, Fatima Khan

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Bi-allelic TECPR2 variants have been associated with a complex syndrome with features of both a neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder. Here, we provide a comprehensive clinical description and variant interpretation framework for this genetic locus. Through international collaboration, we identified 17 individuals from 15 families with bi-allelic TECPR2-variants. We systemically reviewed clinical and molecular data from this cohort and 11 cases previously reported. Phenotypes were standardized using Human Phenotype Ontology terms. A cross-sectional analysis revealed global developmental delay/intellectual disability, muscular hypotonia, ataxia, hyporeflexia, respiratory infections, and central/nocturnal hypopnea as core manifestations. A review of brain magnetic resonance imaging scans demonstrated a …

Selective Neural Stimulation By Leveraging Electrophysiological Diversity And Using Alternative Stimulus Waveforms, Bemin Ghobreal

Dissertations

Efforts on finding the principle mechanism for selective neural stimulation have concentrated on segregating the neurons based on their size and other geometric factors. However, neuronal subtypes found in different parts of the nervous system also differ in their electrophysiological properties. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of selective activation of neurons by leveraging the diversity seen in passive and active membrane properties.

Using both a local membrane model and an axon model based on the CRRSS, the diversity of electrophysiological properties is simulated by varying four model parameters (membrane leakage-Gleak and capacitance-Cm, temperature coefficient-Ktemp, …