Biological Psychology Commons^™

Normal Behavioral Responses To Light And Darkness And The Pupillary Light Reflex Are Dependent Upon The Olivary Pretectal Nucleus In The Diurnal Nile Grass Rat, Andrew J. Gall, Ohanes S. Khacherian, Brandi Ledbetter, Sean P. Deats, Megan Luck, Laura Smale, Lily Yan, Antonio A. Nunez

Faculty Publications

The olivary pretectal nucleus (OPT) is a midbrain structure that receives reciprocal bilateral retinal projections, is involved in the pupillary light reflex, and connects reciprocally with the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL), a retinorecipient brain region that mediates behavioral responses to light pulses (i.e., masking) in diurnal Nile grass rats. Here, we lesioned the OPT and evaluated behavioral responses in grass rats to various lighting conditions, as well as their anxiety-like responses to light exposure. While control grass rats remained diurnal, grass rats with OPT lesions exhibited a more night-active pattern under 12h:12h light-dark (LD) conditions. However, when placed in constant darkness, …

Microglia Density Decreases In The Rat Rostral Nucleus Of The Solitary Tract Across Development And Increases In An Age-Dependent Manner Following Denervation, Andrew J. Riquier, Suzanne I. Sollars

Psychology Faculty Publications

immune response to injury, and are implicated in facilitating neural plasticity. The rodent gustatory system is highly plastic, particularly during development, and outcomes following nerve injury are more severe in developing animals. The mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity in the taste system are largely unknown, making microglia an attractive candidate. To better elucidate microglia’s role in the taste system, we examined these cells in the rostral nucleus of the solitary tract (rNTS) during normal development and following transection of the chorda tympani taste nerve (CTX). Rats aged 5, 10, 25, or 50 days received unilateral CTX or no surgery and were …

The Relationship Of Early Class Start Times On Sleepiness And Driving Behaviors In An Emerging Adult Population, Jessica L. Fry

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Teenage driver sleepiness is a recent concern for preventing motor vehicle fatalities. Early school start times limit the amount of sleep teenage high school students acquire during the week and have been related to increased crash risk. The current study extends this finding to teenage and emerging adult college students. The author examined the link between sleepiness and teenage driving behaviors, including the relationship between school start times and sleepiness. In all, 536 participants were recruited to participate in an online survey assessing driving and sleep behaviors. Correlations and path analysis found that sleepiness fully mediated the relationship between early …

A New Taxonomy Of Altruism In Terms Of Prosocial Behaviors, Kristin Kaiser

Dialogue & Nexus

The definition of altruism has been studied, explained, and even confused by many scholars in various fields. The term itself has been inappropriately used to describe prosocial behaviors that do not fall within the definition of altruism. An evaluation of Grant Ramsey’s taxonomy of altruism, which includes biological altruism, psychological altruism, and helping altruism, proves that it is not adequate in categorizing organism’s behaviors. A new taxonomy, with the branches of kin selection, reciprocity, and aesthetic altruism, is presented and explained to clarify the definition of altruism and alleviate confusion about how to describe prosocial behaviors. Both naming systems are …

Neuroimaging And Cognitive Outcomes In Adults With Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Early Life Stress, Laurie M. Baker

Dissertations

Brain abnormalities persist in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) despite the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). To date, limited work has focused on the association between early life stress (ELS) and brain integrity in individuals with HIV, although ELS is highly prevalent in this population. The present study was conducted to determine whether ELS corresponds to the expression of persistent HIV–related neuroimaging abnormalities and cognitive dysfunction. A total of 130 HIV+ individuals on HAART and 76 HIV– individuals underwent 3T structural magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and neuropsychological assessment. Individuals were free of major psychiatric illness …

Associations Between The Willingness To Exert Cognitive Effort And Smoking Abstinence, Austin A. Phanouvong

Student Research Symposium

In decision-making tasks, individuals who prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards (delay discounting) are less likely to quit smoking. Indeed, decision-making tasks with delayed reward costs are sensitive to many aspects of substance use disorders. However, other reward costs might also be important. Our study focused on one of these other reward costs, which was cognitive effort (CE). 22 current smokers who were anticipating quitting in the near future were recruited to validate if more CE discounting predicted shorter abstinence times in reinforced smoking lapse period. Each participant had to be over the age of 21, and smoke …

The Impact Of Fertility Cues On Intrasexual Competition And Threat Perception, Grant Ostrander

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Humans are capable of detecting subtle fertility indicators that change across women’s menstrual cycle. One such indicator is the voice, which may change over the course of the menstrual cycle and provide fertility cues to listeners. Such cues provide an obvious advantage to men selecting mates, however research suggests that women can also detect these cues. Women may monitor the fertility of others to more effectively adjust their own mating strategies. By monitoring women’s skin conductance, cortisol, and testosterone responses to hearing high- and low-fertility female voices, the current study further investigated whether vocal cues of fertility may physiologically prime …

Sleep Deprivation And Voluntary Alcohol Consumption In Adult Rats, Charles M. Cowan Ii

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Alcohol is a psychoactive drug with a large userbase among adults across the globe. However, alcohol use also reduces the quality of sleep in the user. Historically, research has focused on the effects of alcohol on sleep architecture, but recent research has started to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on alcohol consumption. This research examines the effects of sleep deprivation on voluntary alcohol consumption in adult rats. Twelve Sprague Dawley rats were given ad libitum access to food, alcohol (7% solution), and water for the duration of this study. Subjects were then placed into non-moving forced exercise wheels to …

Functional Analysis And Treatment Of Self-Injurious Feather Plucking In A Black Vulture (Coragyps Atratus), Kristen L. Morris

Thesis Projects

Feather plucking (FP) is a maladaptive behavior observed in captive avian species. This self-injurious behavior results in damage to and removal of feathers and skin tissue, resulting in animal welfare and financial consequences. The etiology and maintenance of FP have been hypothesized through medical and environmental processes, yet a definitive solution has not been found. The current study investigated the environmental variables maintaining the FP of a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus), as well as evaluated a function-based treatment for this behavior. The behavior was found to be maintained by positive reinforcement in the form of contingent attention. Treatment …

A Behavioral Prerequisite For The Genetic Analysis Of Auditory Feature Detection Mechanisms In Female Crickets, Rebecca L. Blisko

Senior Honors Projects

Sexual dimorphism is exhibited across all cricket species and is a central aspect of the mating processes of these insects. Only male crickets possess wing structures and pattern generators in the central nervous system that allow them to produce a mating call that is unique to their species in order to attract conspecific females. Conspecific females possess an auditory feature detection circuit in the central nervous system that is capable of detecting the species-specific frequency and temporal pattern of sound pulses within a male call. In order for dimorphic differences in mating behavior to result in successful continuation of a …

Humor In Medicine: A Literature Review Of Humor’S Potential Therapeutic Value In Health Care, Weston Michael Grant

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using humor and laughter within the health care field has the potential to be relevant to patients during treatment, to the patient-caregiver relationship, to the subjective well-being of health care providers, and to the environments’ (e.g., work settings) impact on group relationships (e.g., colleagues). A review of the literature examines how the psychological and physiological effects of laughter and humor within the human body impact health and well-being, how humor and laughter improve the patient-practitioner relationship, and if humor and laughter can potentially impact physician burnout. Several possible implications for these findings are discussed, such as professional medical comedians, improvements …

Neurostructural Organization And Neocortical Projecting Neuron Distribution In A Mouse Model Of Timothy Syndrome-Mediated Autism Spectrum Disorder, Aiden L. Ford

Honors Scholar Theses

Aims: This study investigates the nuanced effect of the CACNA1C mutation on neurocognition and neurodevelopment via an extended study of the Timothy Syndrome (TS) mediated Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) mouse model – TS2-neo. It includes: (1) an expanded assessment of the TS2-neo behavioral phenotype, and (2) a comprehensive histological analysis of cortical structural and laminar features.

Methods: 24 age-matched male mice – 12 TS2-neo (B6.Cg-Cacna1c^tm2Itl, knock-in G406R mutation), 12 WT (C57BL/6J) – were tested on paradigms examining motor, socio-communicative and cognitive abilities. Neural tissue was processed for either volumetric analysis through Nissl stain (8 TS2-neo, 8 WT) or …

Sparking A Dolphin's Curiosity: Individual Differences In Dolphins' Reactions To Surprising And Expectation-Violating Events, Malin Katarina Lilley

Master's Theses

Non-scientific literature consistently describes dolphins as “curious animals,” but there has been little systematic research on curiosity in dolphins. Curiosity in humans and certain non-human animal species, including birds and non-human primates, has been studied by examining individual differences in exploration and reactions to novel stimuli. Additionally, research has explored how human infants and non-human animals react when an event violates their expectations. The present study explored dolphins’ reactions to spontaneously surprising and expectation-violating stimuli. The reactions of dolphins, 15 bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and 6 rough-toothed (Steno bredanensis), at Gulf World Marine Park were analyzed in …

Anxiety-Like Behaviors And C-Fos Expression In Adult Zebrafish: Effects Of Housing Conditions, Alcohol And Caffeine, Adam Douglas Collier

Dissertations

Alcohol abuse is the third largest risk factor for disease world, responsible for an estimated 3.3 million deaths each year. The concomitant ingestion of alcohol and caffeine is hypothesized to increase risk factors associated with alcohol use alone by reducing subjective effects of intoxication. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has recently garnered attention from researchers as an effective pre-clinical in-vivo animal model in behavioral pharmacology research, largely due to small size, low-cost and ease of drug delivery. A number of studies have reported the effects of alcohol and caffeine on zebrafish behavior at a variety of doses. However, the …

Do Humans Prefer Faces? Zygomatic Muscle Responses To Neutral Faces Vs. Neutral Objects, Thomas J. Goetze

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

The present study examined the significance of viewing images of neutral faces versus images of neutral objects on zygomatic muscle activity using facial EMG. Participants (60% women) from a pool of introductory psychology courses had their facial EMG recordings measured in response to images of neutral faces and neutral objects. Participants’ valence rating of each image was also recorded using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) in order to rate their emotional response to each image. The primary hypothesis was that participants would have greater activity in the zygomatic muscle region when presented with images of neutral faces as opposed to lessor …

Social Risks As Costly Trait Signals, Ruth E. Sarafin

Psychology ETDs

Costly signaling theory posits that people will sometimes engage in seemingly irrational behavior to show off attractive qualities about themselves. These behaviors may end in or incur a cost to the actor such that only individuals who are highly fit are able to succeed at the behavior, and therefore behavior success is an honest signal of fitness. Previous research has used costly signaling to explain human physical risk taking behaviors such as rock climbing, but the current study seeks to apply them to social risk taking, such as raising one’s hand in class. Should social risk taking prove to be …

Sexuality & Perspective, Emma Tabei, Emily Ellison, Tyrell J. Osborn, Ileana Garnand

Collin College Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference

Panel Chair: Whitney Pisani

Papers Presented:

"Siren's Song of Sapiosexuality" by Emma Tabei

Abstract: Gender and male and female communications is discussed just as much if not more than politics currently. As we get more and more interested in understanding communication between genders, perhaps we need to look at where we came from instead of guessing what will happen next. Homer's, "Odyssey," specifically the "Siren's Song," pits male and female gender roles and perspectives against each other resulting in an untraditional look at modern female and male communications far ahead of Homer’s time; departing from the stereotypical gender looking glass. …

Maternal Stress And Stress Symptomatology In Children, Emily Klipa

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

With stress being referred to as the “health epidemic of the 21^st century” by the World Health Organization, questions arise about not only how this epidemic affects adults, but also how stress may affect today’s children. Research indicates that stress impacting parents trickle down to children, and the effects can be palpable. In this study the author examined maternal stress as well as stress related symptoms and illnesses in their children. Participants are mothers of children age’s five to ten. The protocol included completion of a four part online survey addressing demographic information, perceived stress, and recent stressful life …

Cognitive Functioning During Conflict In Intimate Partner Relationships Between Traumatized And Non-Traumatized Samples, Kylie N. Coleman

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Significant differences have been found in neural connectivity of the brain in frontal, central, temporal, and parietal areas of individuals who experienced childhood trauma compared to those who had not (Cook, Ciorciari, Varker, & Devilly, 2009). This study investigated the relationship between the number of distressing and traumatic life experiences and participants’ neural responses to observing simulated conflict in intimate relationship. Graduate students (n = 11) answered conflict resolution and emotional activation questions while watching a simulated, escalating marital conflict. The participants’ neural responses were recorded via EEG mean power data from frontal and temporal brain regions. Heart rate (bpm) …

Who's Tweeting Whom: The Influence Of Rearing Condition On Social Integration In Zebra Finches, Zachary L. Darwish

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are a gregarious species of finch. Previous work with zebra finches has demonstrated the long-lasting impacts of ear social environment on social behavior in adulthood. Zebra finch chicks were raised by either both parents (biparental) or their mother only (uniparental) and their behavior in an aviary was recorded using passive integrative transponders. Zebra finch ID numbers were recorded every time they entered a feeding station for 31 days. There was a trend for uniparental birds to engage in more visits to a feeding station per event than biparental birds, however, there was no difference …