Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons^™

Individual Differences In Lpp Amplitude And Theta Power Predict Cue-Induced Eating During A Cued Food Delivery Task, Kyla Gibney

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Due to individual differences in the brain’s reward system, some individuals are more vulnerable than others to maladaptive, reward-seeking behaviors, such as substance use or compulsive eating. A body of research has demonstrated that individuals who attribute higher levels of incentive salience to reward-associated cues than to pleasant images (termed “C>P group” throughout) are more vulnerable to compulsive eating than those who attribute higher incentive salience to pleasant images than reward- associated cues (P>C group). Meanwhile, a separate body of research has demonstrated that cognitive control also regulates eating by enabling top-down attentional control. This dissertation aims to …

The Impact Of Video-Taped Social Modeling On Alcohol Outcome Expectancies Of Young Adults And The Role Of Social Anxiety, Kyle Kevin Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) represent people’s ideas about the effects of alcohol (Fromme, 1993). Positive AOEs particularly have been identified as a potential risk factor for hazardous drinking (e.g., Brown et al., 1985). The exact mechanisms that modify AOEs are not fully understood. Further, people higher in social anxiety may be especially receptive to social modeling due to attentional bias shift towards others in social contexts (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). The current study examined how social anxiety and social modeling associate with AOEs. It was hypothesized that 1) those in the social modeling treatment condition would have higher social anxiety-adjacent …

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.

Adaptation And Study Protocol Of The Evidence-Based Make Better Choices (Mbc2) Multiple Diet And Activity Change Intervention For A Rural Appalachian Population, Nancy E. Schoenberg, Deanna Sherman, Angela Fidler Pfammatter, Michelle K. Roberts, Ming-Yuan Chih, Sarah Cornelia Vos, Bonnie Spring

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Background: Rural Appalachian residents experience among the highest prevalence of chronic disease, premature mortality, and decreased life expectancy in the nation. Addressing these growing inequities while avoiding dupli‑ cating existing programming necessitates the development of appropriate adaptations of evidence-based lifestyle interventions. Yet few published articles explicate how to accomplish such contextual and cultural adaptation.

Methods: In this paper, we describe the process of adapting the Make Better Choices 2 (MBC2) mHealth diet and activity randomized trial and the revised protocol for intervention implementation in rural Appalachia. Deploying the NIH’s Cultural Framework on Health and Aaron’s Adaptation framework, the …

Utilization Of A Multimodal De-Escalation Class To Improve Staff Confidence When Caring For Behaviorally Escalating Patients, Tara B. Neuner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Workplace violence is a common challenge seen in the healthcare settings across the world. This problem is steadily increasing in all types of hospitals, including a level one trauma center located in an urban area. There has been a steady rise in the number of assaults and workplace violence reported from bedside staff at this hospital. The leadership of the organization formed a work group to help combat the workplace violence and staff assaults that were occurring. In this process, a behavior response team was created to help nursing staff with escalating behavior in patients, and to help de-escalate the …

Dental Fear, Anxiety, And Phobia; Causes, Diagnostic Criteria And The Medical And Social Impact, Nadya Avramova

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Despite technological advances in modern medical science and practice, many people still associate dental treatment with unpleasant emotional sensations and pain. According to the current literature, dental fear and anxiety are psychological barriers that negatively affect frequency of patient attendance which results in avoidant behavior and poorer oral health-related quality of life.

This paper was therefore aimed at discussing basic theoretical aspects concerning diagnostic criteria, causes, and impacts of dental fear, anxiety, and phobia. Clarifying their differential diagnostic characteristics, clinical features and specific causes may play an important role in proper diagnosing, positive influencing, and management of this group of …

Early Life Exposure To Unpredictable Parental Sensory Signals Shapes Cognitive Development Across Three Species, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Kari Mccormack, Hina Arora, Desiree Sharpe, Annabel K. Short, Jocelyne Bachevalier, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Hal S. Stern, Mar Sanchez, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Exposure to early life adversity has long term consequences on cognitive function. Most research has focused on understanding components of early life adversities that contribute to later risk, including poverty, trauma, maltreatment, and neglect. Whereas these factors, in the aggregate, explain a significant proportion of emotional and cognitive problems, there are serious gaps in our ability to identify potential mechanisms by which early life adversities might promote vulnerability or resilience. Here we discuss early life exposure to unpredictable signals from the caretaker as an understudied type of adversity that is amenable to prevention and intervention. We employ a translational approach …

Media Multitasking And Sustained Attention: An Experimental Investigation, Ryan Nix

Student Theses and Dissertations

Research exploring the cognitive effects of media multitasking show a lack of convergent findings among studies that utilize the Media Multitasking Index (MMI) and behavioral measures of sustained attention. All these studies approached media multitasking as a linear construct with solely cumulative effects. To investigate the possibility that media multitasking may have immediate, direct effects on sustained attention, a laboratory media multitasking simulation was implemented alongside the MMI and the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Eighty-one participants completed all measures; half experienced the media multitasking simulation. It was predicted that experimental participants would exhibit more post-simulation SART NOGO errors …

Bullying Victimization Among Children With Mental, Emotional, Developmental, Or Behavioral Problems - A Us Population-Based Study, Saral Desai

Tower Health Research Day

No abstract provided.

The Clusters Of Health-Risk Behaviours And Mental Wellbeing And Their Sociodemographic Correlates: A Study Of 15,366 Asean University Students, Apichai Wattanapisit, Hanif Abdul Raman, Josip Car, Khadizah H. Abdul-Mumin, Ma. Henrietta Teresa O. De La Cruz, Michael Chia, Michael Rosenberg, Moon-Ho Ringo Ho, Surasak Chaiyasong, Trias Mahmudiono

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

This study investigated, through cluster analysis, the associations between behavioural characteristics, mental wellbeing, demographic characteristics, and health among university students in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) University Network – Health Promotion Network (AUN-HPN) member universities.

Methods

Data were retrieved from a cross-sectional self-administered online survey among undergraduate students in seven ASEAN countries. A two-step cluster analysis was employed, with cluster labels based on the predominant characteristics identified within the clusters. The ‘healthy’ cluster was assigned as the reference group for comparisons using multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results

The analytic sample size comprised 15,366 university students. Five clusters …

A Paraventricular Thalamo-Accumbal Circuit Necessary For Behavioral Inhibition Is Dysfunctional During Opioid Use And Dependence, Kelsey M. Vollmer

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Suppression of dangerous or inappropriate reward-motivated behaviors is critical for survival, whereas therapeutic or recreational opioid use can unleash detrimental behaviors and opioid use disorder (OUD). Nevertheless, the neuronal systems that suppress maladaptive motivated behaviors remain unclear, and whether opioids disengage those systems is unknown. Here, we investigate the posterior paraventricular thalamus (pPVT) as a behavioral mediator due to its strong connectivity with brain structures important for reward processing, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc). We and others have found pPVT-NAc neuronal activity is inhibited during reward seeking, but activated when such behaviors would be inappropriate, such as during stress …

Prevalence And Outcomes Of The Use Of Telemedicine For Psychiatry Patients In The Outpatient Setting, Amberly Ray, Madison Dew, Udema Millsaps, Adeolu Funso Oladunjoye, Anna Fuchs, Danielle Hovington, Alexa Primavera, Aakash Padodara, Maria Yee, Eduardo Espiridion

Transformative Medicine

OBJECTIVE: With the recent surge in telepsychiatry utilization, it is important to study the effectiveness of this virtual modality. METHODS: To determine if telemedicine visits were effective in keeping psychiatric patients stable, a retrospective study was performed in an outpatient behavioral health setting using the OQ®45.2/Y-OQ® 30.2 assessment tool, which assesses patient reported outcomes across areas of functioning. To qualify for this study, patients needed at least two OQ scores with one being prior to the onset of telepsychiatry care and one being after returning to in-person care. RESULTS: 51.1% of adults (n=176) improved or remained the same, whereas 48.8% …

Technology-Enabled Behavioral Health Integration Decreases Emergency Department Utilization, Adam Pardes, Rachelle Rene, Phansy Chun Chun, Mollie Cherson

Jefferson Hospital Staff Papers and Presentations

Background:

Behavioral health integration allows for patient-centered care, leads to higher levels of provider-patient engagement, and is key to improving patient outcomes. However, behavioral health integration is administratively burdensome and therefore is often not adopted. Technology presents opportunities to increase care team efficiency and improve patient outcomes. The goal of this study was to retrospectively compare clinical outcomes and emergency department utilization in patients using a technology platform compared to patients receiving treatment as usual.

Methods:

The technology platform, NeuroFlow, was deployed to deliver technology-enabled behavioral health integration in 30 clinics, and 598 electronic health records were analyzed.

Results:

In …

How Did The Dietary Habits Of Patients With Chronic Medical Conditions Change During Covid-19?, Sahil K. Patel, Adarsh Gupta

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

CONTEXT: Previous studies have examined the changes in the dietary habits of general populations during the COVID-19 pandemic but have not focused on specific populations such as those with chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Prior to major vaccination efforts, 96.1% of deaths were attributed to patients with preexisting CMCs, thus it is important to examine how this population has endured changes.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify differences in dietary habits, lifestyle habits, and food attitudes between those with CMCs compared to the populations without chronic medical conditions (non-CMCs) since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: An …

Suicide Numbers During The First 9-15 Months Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Compared With Pre-Existing Trends: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis In 33 Countries, Jane Pirkis, David Gunnell, Sangsoo Shin, Marcos Del Pozo-Banos, Vikas Arya, Pablo Analuisa Aguilar, Louis Appleby, S. M. Yasir Arafat, Ella Arensman, Murad Khan

Department of Psychiatry

Background: Predicted increases in suicide were not generally observed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the picture may be changing and patterns might vary across demographic groups. We aimed to provide a timely, granular picture of the pandemic's impact on suicides globally.
Methods: We identified suicide data from official public-sector sources for countries/areas-within-countries, searching websites and academic literature and contacting data custodians and authors as necessary. We sent our first data request on 22nd June 2021 and stopped collecting data on 31st October 2021. We used interrupted time series (ITS) analyses to model the association between the …

A Survey Study Of Speech-Language Therapists’ Experiences With Teletherapy At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Jason A. Rosas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study aimed to understand how delivering pediatric treatment services via ‘teletherapy’ affected speech-language therapists (SLTs) during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in 2020. SLTs reported on their experiences with the change from in-person to remote service delivery via two national surveys distributed at the start of the pandemic between April 2020 and July 2020. To explain SLTs’ survey responses, this dissertation introduced the Professional Adaptation Model (PA Model). The PA Model facilitated evaluation of the SLTs’ professional environment and the psychological constructs of their professional identity believed to influence the transition to speech-language teletherapy. Specifically, …

Explicit And Implicit Emotion Processing In The Cerebellum: A Meta‑Analysis And Systematic Review, Jordan E. Pierce, Marine Thomasson, Philippe Voruz, Garance Selosse, Julie Péron

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The cerebellum’s role in affective processing is increasingly recognized in the literature, but remains poorly understood, despite abundant clinical evidence for affective disruptions following cerebellar damage. To improve the characterization of emotion processing and investigate how attention allocation impacts this processing, we conducted a meta-analysis on task activation foci using GingerALE software. Eighty human neuroimaging studies of emotion including 2761 participants identified through Web of Science and ProQuest databases were analyzed collectively and then divided into two categories based on the focus of attention during the task: explicit or implicit emotion processing. The results examining the explicit emotion tasks identified …

Digitized Thought Records: A Practitioner-Focused Review Of Cognitive Restructuring Apps, Drew Erhardt, John Bunyi, Zoë Dodge-Rice, Martha Neary, Stephen M. Schueller

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Mental health (MH) apps can be used as adjunctive tools in traditional face-To-face therapy to help implement components of evidence-based treatments. However, practitioners interested in using MH apps face a variety of challenges, including knowing which apps would be appropriate to use. Although some resources are available to help practitioners identify apps, granular analyses of how faithfully specific clinical skills are represented in apps are lacking. This study aimed to conduct a review and analysis of MH apps containing a core component of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)-cognitive restructuring (CR). A keyword search for apps providing CR functionality on the Apple …

Us Helping Us: The Evolution Of A Peer Support Group For Formerly Incarcerated People, Will Boles, Thad Tatum, Jarrod Wall, Lauren Nguyen, Alexandria Van Dall, Claire Mulhollem, Anna Sacks, Ashley Wennerstrom, Bruce Reilly, Anjali Niyogi

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Introduction: Physical, psychological, and emotional trauma experienced while incarcerated influences subsequent mental health outcomes. Upon release, there is a fragmented landscape of mental health services and many of the existing services do not account for the root causes of challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people (FIP). To address the unmet social, psychological, behavioral, and emotional needs of FIP in Louisiana, the Formerly Incarcerated Peer Support (FIPS) Group developed a twelve-unit curriculum in 2019. Methods: We detail the evolution, development, and evaluation of the FIPS Group program. Additionally, we describe the community-driven process for developing the curriculum. Results: The FIPS Group …

The Effects Of Consumer Loan Application Formats And Advertised Terms On Consumer Borrowing Decisions, Alicia M. Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumers continue to demonstrate a willingness to accrue more debt. They are also more accepting of increased repayment risk via the acceptance of longer loan terms. Extant research on consumer borrowing consists primarily of experiments designed to assess consumer choices and understand how consumers evaluate loan attributes in relation to one another within consumer borrowing contexts (Kamleitner, Hoelzl, and Kirchler 2012; Ranyard et al., 2006). Thus, prior research examines consumer responses to loan information rather than the generation of loan parameters at the time of financing. With important implications for consumers, marketers of financial products, academic researchers, and federal regulators, …