Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
In this quantitative research paper, we explored the correlation between the six dimensions of motivation as part of the Self-Determination Theory spectrum and physical activity. In addition, our aim was to also see if Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) paired with exercise as an intervention would affect motivation to exercise over time.
In this quantitative research paper, we explored the correlation between the six dimensions of motivation as part of the Self-Determination Theory spectrum and physical activity. In addition, our aim was to also see if Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) paired with exercise as an intervention would affect motivation to exercise over time.
According to the CDC, obesity has increased from 30.5% to 42.4% over the past 18 years. Western diets (WDs) consist of large portions in high fats, high carbohydrates, excess sugar and high-glycemic foods that can cause metabolic complications and mitochondrial dysfunction. Diet-induced obesity can lead to changes in muscle metabolism and muscle fiber phenotypes, which in turn lead to metabolic complications. Muscle fiber phenotype is determined protein isoform-content of myosin heavy chain (MHC). Regular exercise alters mitochondrial content and fat oxidation and shifts MHC proportions under healthy circumstances. However, diet and exercise-driven fiber type shifts in diet-induced obesity are less understood. We designed our experiment to better understand the impact of diet and/ or exercise on fiber type content of gastrocnemius muscle in diet-induced obese mice. Exercise and genistein may be used as a treatment strategy to restore the MHC proportions in obese subjects to that of the lean subjects. We hypothesized that genistein and exercise would have the greatest MHC I change in muscle fiber phenotype of mouse gastrocnemius muscles. Further, we also hypothesized that a standard diet would reverse the expected increase in fast fiber phenotype (MHC IIb). Lastly, we also hypothesized that exercise would also reduce the abundance of MHC IIb. Gastrocnemius muscles were collected from mice, homogenized, run through gel electrophoresis and stained to give muscle fiber proportions. Paired sample t-tests were conducted for differences between the MHC isoforms compared to the lean (LN) and high-fat diet (HFD) control groups. The results showed that genistein and exercise significantly increased the abundance of MHC I muscle fibers (19%, p<0.05). Additionally, diet and exercise restored the muscle fiber phenotype to that of lean control. As expected, HFD obese mice exhibited elevated fast twitch fibers compared to only 3% slow twitch fibers. These findings show the potential for exercise and supplementation of genistein as a strategy to combat diet induced obesity. Future research should aim to understand the mechanisms that genistein acts on to make these changes, and aim to replicate these data in humans with obesity.
