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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Dixon, Maria
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
Description
This study examined the relationship that gender in interaction with interpersonal problem type has with outcome in psychotherapy. A sample of 200 individuals, who sought psychotherapy at a counselor training facility, completed the Outcome Questionnaire-45(OQ-45) and the reduced version of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32). This study was aimed at examining whether gender (male and female), was related to treatment outcome, and whether this relationship was moderated by two interpersonal distress dimensions: dominance and affiliation. A hierarchical regression analyses was performed and indicated that gender did not predict psychotherapy treatment outcome, and neither dominance nor affiliation were moderators of the relationship between gender and outcome in psychotherapy.
ContributorsHoffmann, Nicole (Author) / Tracey, Terence (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Fundamental hypotheses about the life history, complex cognition and social dynamics of humans are rooted in feeding ecology - particularly in the experiences of young animals as they grow. However, the few existing primate developmental data are limited to only a handful of species of monkeys and apes. Without comparative data from more basal primates, such as lemurs, we are limited in the scope of our understanding of how feeding has shaped the evolution of these extraordinary aspects of primate biology. I present a developmental view of feeding ecology in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) using a mixed longitudinal sample (infant through adult) collected at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar from May 2009 to March 2010. I document the development of feeding, including weaning, the transition to solid food, and how foods are included in infant diets. Early in juvenility ring-tailed lemurs efficiently process most foods, but that hard ripe fruits and insects require more time to master. Infants and juveniles do not use many of the social learning behaviors that are common in monkeys and apes, and instead likely rely both on their own trial and error and simple local enhancement to learn appropriate foods. Juvenile ring-tailed lemurs are competent and efficient foragers, and that mitigating ecological risks may not best predict the lemur juvenile period, and that increases in social complexity and brain size may be at the root of primate juvenility. Finally, from juvenility through adulthood, females have more diverse diets than males. The early emergence of sex differences in dietary diversity in juvenility that are maintained throughout adulthood indicate that, in addition to reproductive costs incurred by females, niche partitioning is an important aspect of sex differential feeding ecology, and that ontogenetic studies of feeding are particularly valuable to understanding how selection shapes adult, species-typical diets. Overall, lemur juvenility is a time to play, build social relationships, learn about food, and where the kernels of sex-typical feeding develop. This study of the ontogeny of feeding ecology contributes an important phylogenetic perspective on the relationship between juvenility and the emergent foraging behaviors of developing animals
ContributorsO'Mara, Michael Teague (Author) / Nash, Leanne T. (Thesis advisor) / Reed, Kaye E (Committee member) / Schwartz, Gary T (Committee member) / Sauther, Michelle L (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In this pilot study, the purpose was to determine if certain language interventions could help bilingual children reduce maze use and improve their story retell abilities. We used language intervention, Story Champs, and its Spanish version, Puente de Cuentos to help bilingual children improve their story retell abilities. We conducted the intervention over the course of three days in both Spanish and English. The children participated in three stories in each language each day. They also received a narrative measure before and after the intervention to measure gains in story ability and to measure maze use. Results of the study indicated that there were no statistically-significant differences in the children's story retell abilities or maze use before and after the intervention. Nevertheless, we are encouraged by our results for future further study because of some improvements the children made.
ContributorsWhiteley, Aaron Kyle (Author) / Restrepo, Maria (Thesis director) / Dixon, Maria (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This pilot study evaluated whether Story Champs and Puente de Cuentos helped bilingual preschoolers increase their usage of emotional terms and ability to tell stories. Participants in this study included 10 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers. Intervention was conducted in 9 sessions over 3 days using the Test of Narrative Retell to measure results. Results did not find significant gains in either emotional term usage or ability to tell stories, but the results were promising as a pilot study.
ContributorsSato, Leslie Mariko (Author) / Restrepo, Maria (Thesis director) / Dixon, Maria (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Research demonstrates that chronic stress produces a depressive-like profile in rodents, affecting several domains including, cognition, depressive-like behavior, and anxiety-like behavior. However, chronic stress leads to these outcomes in a sex-dependent manner, as young adult female rodents fail to exhibit impaired cognition and increased depressive and anxiety-like behavior following chronic stress. The primary goal of this dissertation was to reveal novel elements contributing to female susceptibility to stress-induced depressive-like presentations and possible factors that may counteract such outcomes. In chapter 2, novel stress paradigms were investigated to determine whether more robust stressors would lead to spatial memory deficits and elevated anxiety in young adult female and male rats. Results demonstrated that chronic stress impaired spatial memory in males, while the robust stressors failed to impair spatial memory in females. Chapter 3 revealed that both females and males in chapter 2 showed BLA dendritic hypertrophy days following the stressor without hippocampal alterations, with the latter likely due to the passage of time allowing for restructuring. Consequently, chapters 4 through 6 were conducted to investigate whether females would show chronic stress effects at middle-age in ovariectomized (OVX) females because menopause is a period of high vulnerability to cognitive and depressive-like effects. Chapter 4 investigated whether the stress hormone, corticosterone, would impair spatial working memory and increase the depressive-like profile of OVX, middle-aged female rats, which was confirmed using the radial arm water maze (RAWM), sucrose preference (SP), forced swim test (FST), and elevated plus maze (EPM). Chapter 5 investigated if estradiol (E2) may prevent the negative valence outcomes induced by OVX in middle-aged female rats. However, E2 showed antidepressant properties during FST, but failed to do so in other behavioral tasks. Chapter 6 further explored E2’s role in mitigating corticosterone-induced effects on cognition and mood in middle-aged female and male rats, with more pronounced antidepressant effects in females. Notably, this chapter unveiled a novel correlation between spatial memory and anxiety-like behavior in corticosterone-treated female rats. Collectively, these studies delineate a corticosterone-based model of depression in female rodents and introduce a novel approach for analyzing variables across multiple behavioral domains.
ContributorsPeay, Dylan (Author) / Conrad, Cheryl D (Thesis advisor) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Committee member) / Verpeut, Jessica (Committee member) / Huynh, Thu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face heightened risk of co-occurring psychiatric conditions, especially depression and anxiety disorders, which contribute to seven-fold higher suicide rates than the general population. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week meditation intervention centered around training continuous redirection of attention toward present moment experience, and has been shown to improve mental health in autistic adults. However, the underlying therapeutic neural mechanisms and whether behavioral and brain changes are mindfulness-specific have yet to be elucidated. In this randomized clinical trial, I utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize fMRI functional activity (Study 1) and connectivity (Study 2) and EEG neurophysiological (Study 3) changes between MBSR and a social support/relaxation education (SE) active control group. Study 1 revealed an MBSR-specific increase in the midcingulate cortex fMRI blood oxygen level dependent signal which was associated with reduced depression. Study 2 identified nonspecific intervention improvements in depression, anxiety, and autistic, and MBSR-specific improvements in the mindfulness trait ‘nonjudgment toward experience’ and in the executive functioning domain of working memory. MBSR-specific decreases in insula-thalamus and frontal pole-posterior cingulate functional connectivity was associated with improvements in anxiety, mindfulness traits, and working memory abilities. Both MBSR and SE groups showed decreased amygdala-sensorimotor and frontal pole-insula connectivity which correlated with reduced depression. Study 3 consisted of an EEG spectral power analysis at high-frequency brainwaves associated with default mode network (DMN) activity. Results showed MBSR-specific and nonspecific decreases in beta- and gamma-band power, with effects being generally more robust in the MBSR group; additionally, MBSR-specific decreases in posterior gamma correlated with anxiolytic effects. Collectively, these studies suggest: 1) social support is sufficient for improvements in depression, anxiety, and autistic traits; 2) MBSR provides additional benefits related to mindfulness traits and working memory; and 3) distinct and shared neural mechanisms of mindfulness training in adults with ASD, implicating the salience and default mode networks and high-frequency neurophysiology. Findings bear relevance to the development of personalized medicine approaches for psychiatric co-morbidity in ASD, provide putative targets for neurostimulation research, and warrant replication and extension using advanced multimodal imaging approaches.
ContributorsPagni, Broc (Author) / Braden, B. Blair (Thesis advisor) / Newbern, Jason (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The present study aimed to compare brain activity changes related to proactive and reactive control strategies in patients with Parkinson’s disease during “On” levodopa and “Off” levodopa conditions. The study consisted of two participants who had received a prior diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. The participants completed AX-CPT task as a measure of attention control in two sessions: a) “On Levodopa” and b) “Off Levodopa” while they were in the fMRI scanner. Prior to the analysis, the T1- weighted anatomical scan images and the BOLD multiband functional images of both the participants were BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) validated and preprocessed using the standard FMRIPrep pipeline. The imaging data was then analyzed using SPM12 (Statistical parametric mapping) software. Individual-level analysis of the imaging data was conducted by creating General Linear models for both the participants on “ON” and “OFF” levodopa conditions. The BOLD responses were compared using AY>BY and BX > BY contrasts. Where BX >, BY contrast, measured BOLD activity related to reactive control strategy and AY> BY contrast measured BOLD activity related to the proactive control strategy. It was observed that participants tended towards reactive control strategy in both “On” and “Off” levodopa conditions.
ContributorsDatta, Kalyani (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis advisor) / Braden, B. Blair (Committee member) / Peterson, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Autism shows a pronounced and replicable sex bias with approximately three-to-four males diagnosed for every one female. Sex-related biology is thought to play a role in the sex bias, such that female biology may be protective and/or male biology may increase vulnerability to autism in the context of similar genetic risk. Beyond etiology, sex-related biology has also been implicated in lifespan risk for health and psychiatric conditions that show common co-morbidity in autism. Thus, understanding how sex-related biology impacts autism etiology and progression has important implications for prognosis and treatment. Neuroimaging offers a powerful tool for in-vivo characterization of brain-based sex differences in autism, especially given emerging efforts to develop large, well-characterized longitudinal samples. To date, however, neuroimaging studies have shown mixed and inconsistent findings, which remain challenging to integrate in the broader literature context. In a recent systematic review of neuroimaging studies of typical sex differences, few to no replicable effects were found beyond brain size, suggesting the brain is not “sexually dimorphic.” Instead, it is argued that the brain is a “mosaic” of features from various sources, including masculine and feminine biological processes as well as individual genetics and environment. Thus, designing neuroimaging studies that are sensitive to brain-based sex differences in autism likely requires careful study design and analytical method selection. Through a series of studies, the overarching dissertation aim was to identify optimal methods for characterizing neuroimaging-based sex differences in autism and to test these methods in preliminary samples. Study 1 comprised a systematic review of studies examining neuroimaging-based sex differences in autism with the aim of identifying optimal study designs, neuroimaging modalities, and analytical methods. Study 2 focused on examining the sensitivity of a connectome-wide approach to identify functional connectivity hubs underlying sex-biased behavior associated with autism (e.g., camouflaging). Study 3 used a connectome-wide functional connectivity approach to characterize sex differences in longitudinal changes associated with autistic traits vs. categorical diagnosis. These studies suggest that optimizing study design and methods improves identification of biologically plausible and clinically meaningful brain sex differences in autism. The relevance of findings to etiology and prognosis are discussed.
ContributorsWalsh, Melissa (Author) / Braden, B. Blair (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Little is known about how cognitive and brain aging patterns differ in older adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, recent evidence suggests that individuals with ASD may be at greater risk of pathological aging conditions than their neurotypical (NT) counterparts. A growing body of research indicates that older adults with ASD may experience accelerated cognitive decline and neurodegeneration as they age, although studies are limited by their cross-sectional design in a population with strong age-cohort effects. Studying aging in ASD and identifying biomarkers to predict atypical aging is important because the population of older individuals with ASD is growing. Understanding the unique challenges faced as autistic adults age is necessary to develop treatments to improve quality of life and preserve independence. In this study, a longitudinal design was used to characterize cognitive and brain aging trajectories in ASD as a function of autistic trait severity. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to derive a cognitive metric that best explains performance variability on tasks measuring memory ability and executive function. The slope of the integrated persistent feature (SIP) was used to quantify functional connectivity; the SIP is a novel, threshold-free graph theory metric which summarizes the speed of information diffusion in the brain. Longitudinal mixed models were using to predict cognitive and brain aging trajectories (measured via the SIP) as a function of autistic trait severity, sex, and their interaction. The sensitivity of the SIP was also compared with traditional graph theory metrics. It was hypothesized that older adults with ASD would experience accelerated cognitive and brain aging and furthermore, age-related changes in brain network topology would predict age-related changes in cognitive performance.
For both cognitive and brain aging, autistic traits and sex interacted to predict trajectories, such that older men with high autistic traits were most at risk for poorer outcomes. In men with autism, variability in SIP scores across time points trended toward predicting cognitive aging trajectories. Findings also suggested that autistic traits are more sensitive to differences in brain aging than diagnostic group and that the SIP is more sensitive to brain aging trajectories than other graph theory metrics. However, further research is required to determine how physiological biomarkers such as the SIP are associated with cognitive outcomes.
ContributorsSullivan, Georgia (Author) / Braden, Blair (Thesis advisor) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis advisor) / Schaefer, Sydney (Committee member) / Wang, Yalin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Serotonin 1B receptors (5-HT1BRs) are involved in cocaine reward via regulating activity of dopamine neurons. The 5-HT1BR agonist CP-94,253 or 5-HT1BR overexpression in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) enhances cocaine intake during maintenance of daily self-administration (SA) but inhibits intake after 21 days of abstinence in male rats. My central hypothesis is that CP-94,253 acts at 5-HT1BRs located on the terminals of NAcSh GABA neurons that undergo regulatory changes in response to cocaine SA and subsequent abstinence resulting in an abstinence-induced switch in the functional effects of CP-94,253 in both male and female rats. In the first series of experiments, I compared the functional effects of CP-94,253 in female rats to male rats: 1) during maintenance of daily cocaine SA, 2) after 21-60 days abstinence, and 3) during the resumption of cocaine SA after abstinence (i.e. model of relapse). I found that CP-94,253 enhanced cocaine intake and breakpoints on a high-effort progressive ratio schedule of cocaine reinforcement during maintenance regardless of sex. By contrast, CP-94,253 attenuated cocaine intake after 21 days of abstinence and during the relapse test, regardless of sex. These findings suggest: 1) an abstinence-induced inhibitory effect of the 5-HT1BR agonist occurs in both sexes, 2) these inhibitory effects are long-lasting, and 3) the agonist may provide a novel therapeutic for cocaine use disorders. I next used RNAscope in situ hybridization to measure regulatory changes in 5-HT1BR mRNA expression and its co-expression with GABAergic and glutamatergic cell markers in the lateral and medial NAcSh subregions after abstinence from cocaine. I found no significant changes in these measures in either subregion of NAcSh after prolonged abstinence in either sex; however, I did observe that 95% of 5-HT1BR mRNA is co-localized in GABAergic neurons, whereas <2% is co-localized in glutamatergic cells. Future research investigating abstinence-induced, functional changes in 5-HT1BRs in subregions of the NAcSh is an alternate approach to further test my hypothesis. This research is important for the development of 5-HT1BR agonists as putative treatments of cocaine use disorders.
ContributorsScott, Samantha N (Author) / Neisewander, Janet L (Thesis advisor) / Newbern, Jason (Committee member) / Olive, Michael F (Committee member) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024