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Description
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a severe motor speech disorder that is difficult to diagnose as there is currently no gold-standard measurement to differentiate between CAS and other speech disorders. In the present study, we investigate underlying biomarkers associated with CAS in addition to enhanced phenotyping through behavioral testing. Cortical electrophysiological measures were utilized to investigate differences in neural activation in response to native and non-native vowel contrasts between children with CAS and typically developing peers. Genetic analysis included full exome sequencing of a child with CAS and his unaffected parents in order to uncover underlying genetic variation that may be causal to the child’s severely impaired speech and language. Enhanced phenotyping was completed through extensive behavioral testing, including speech, language, reading, spelling, phonological awareness, gross/fine motor, and oral and hand motor tasks. Results from cortical electrophysiological measures are consistent with previous evidence of a heightened neural response to non-native sounds in CAS, potentially indicating over specified phonological representations in this population. Results of exome sequencing suggest multiple genetic variations contributing to the severely affected phenotype in the child and provide further evidence of heterogeneous genomic pathways associated with CAS. Finally, results of behavioral testing demonstrate significant impairments evident across tasks in CAS, suggesting underlying sequential processing deficits in multiple domains. Overall, these results have the potential to delineate functional pathways from genetic variations to the brain to observable behavioral phenotypes and motivate the development of preventative and targeted treatment approaches.
ContributorsVose, Caitlin (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis advisor) / Liu, Li (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) is one of the most frequent chromosomal microdeletion syndromes in humans. This case study focuses on the language and reading profile of a female adult with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome who was undiagnosed until the age of 27 years old. To comprehensively describe the participant's profile, a series of assessment measures was administered in the speech, language, cognition, reading, and motor domains. Understanding how 22q11.2DS has impacted the life of a recently diagnosed adult will provide insight into how to best facilitate long-term language and educational support for this population and inform future research.
ContributorsPhilp, Jennifer Lynn (Author) / Scherer, Nancy (Thesis director) / Peter, Beate (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
With social technology on the rise, it is no surprise that young students are at the forefront of its use and impact, particularly in the realm of education. Due to greater accessibility to technology, media multitasking and task-switching are becoming increasingly prominent in learning environments. While technology can have numerous benefits, current literature, though somewhat limited in this scope, overwhelmingly shows it can also be detrimental for academic performance and learning when used improperly. While much of the existing literature regarding the impact of technology on multitasking and task-switching in learning environments is limited to self-report data, it presents important findings and potential applications for modernizing educational institutions in the wake of technological dependence. This literature review summarizes and analyzes the studies in this area to date in an effort to provide a better understanding of the impact of social technology on student learning. Future areas of research and potential strategies to adapt to rising technological dependency are also discussed, such as using a brief "technology break" between periods of study. As of yet, the majority of findings in this research area suggest the following: multitasking while studying lengthens the time required for completion; multitasking during lectures can affect memory encoding and comprehension; excessive multitasking and academic performance are negatively correlated; metacognitive strategies for studying have potential for reducing the harmful effects of multitasking; and the most likely reason students engage in media-multitasking at the cost of learning is the immediate emotional gratification. Further research is still needed to fill in gaps in literature, as well as develop other potential perspectives relevant to multitasking in academic environments.
ContributorsKhanna, Sanjana (Author) / Roberts, Nicole (Thesis director) / Burleson, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Speech sound disorders (SSDs) are the most prevalent type of communication disorder in children. Clinically, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) rely on behavioral methods for assessing and treating SSDs. Though clients typically experience improved speech outcomes as a result of therapy, there is evidence that underlying deficits may persist even in individuals who have completed treatment for surface-level speech behaviors. Advances in the field of genetics have created the opportunity to investigate the contribution of genes to human communication. Due to the heterogeneity of many communication disorders, the manner in which specific genetic changes influence neural mechanisms, and thereby behavioral phenotypes, remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to identify genotype-phenotype associations, along with perceptual, and motor-related biomarkers within families displaying SSDs. Five parent-child trios participated in genetic testing, and five families participated in a combination of genetic and behavioral testing to help elucidate biomarkers related to SSDs. All of the affected individuals had a history of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) except for one family that displayed a phonological disorder. Genetic investigation yielded several genes of interest relevant for an SSD phenotype: CNTNAP2, CYFIP1, GPR56, HERC1, KIAA0556, LAMA5, LAMB1, MDGA2, MECP2, NBEA, SHANK3, TENM3, and ZNF142. All of these genes showed at least some expression in the developing brain. Gene ontology analysis yielded terms supporting a genetic influence on central nervous system development. Behavioral testing revealed evidence of a sequential processing biomarker for all individuals with CAS, with many showing deficits in sequential motor skills in addition to speech deficits. In some families, participants also showed evidence of a co-occurring perceptual processing biomarker. The family displaying a phonological phenotype showed milder sequential processing deficits compared to CAS families. Overall, this study supports the presence of a sequential processing biomarker for CAS and shows that relevant genes of interest may be influencing a CAS phenotype via sequential processing. Knowledge of these biomarkers can help strengthen precision of clinical assessment and motivate development of novel interventions for individuals with SSDs.
ContributorsBruce, Laurel (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis advisor) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Liu, Li (Committee member) / Scherer, Nancy (Committee member) / Weinhold, Juliet (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
In the study of the human brain’s ability to multitask, there are two perspectives: concurrent multitasking (performing multiple tasks simultaneously) and sequential multitasking (switching between tasks). The goal of this study is to investigate the human brain’s ability to “multitask” with multiple demanding stimuli of approximately equal concentration, from an electrophysiological perspective different than that of stimuli which don’t require full attention or exhibit impulsive multitasking responses. This study investigates the P3 component which has been experimentally proven to be associated with mental workload through information processing and cognitive function in visual and auditory tasks, where in the multitasking domain the greater attention elicited, the larger P3 waves are produced. This experiment compares the amplitude of the P3 component of individual stimulus presentation to that of multitasking trials, taking note of the brain workload. This study questions if the average wave amplitude in a multitasking ERP experiment will be the same as the grand average when performing the two tasks individually with respect to the P3 component. The hypothesis is that the P3 amplitude will be smaller in the multitasking trial than in the individual stimulus presentation, indicating that the brain is not actually concentrating on both tasks at once (sequential multitasking instead of concurrent) and that the brain is not focusing on each stimulus to the same degree when it was presented individually. Twenty undergraduate students at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University (10 males and 10 females, with a mean age of 18.75 years, SD= 1.517) right handed, with normal or corrected visual acuity, English as first language, and no evidence of neurological compromise participated in the study. The experiment results revealed that one- hundred percent of participants undergo sequential multitasking in the presence of two demanding stimuli in the electrophysiological data, behavioral data, and subjective data. In this particular study, these findings indicate that the presence of additional demanding stimuli causes the workload of the brain to decrease as attention deviates in a bottleneck process to the multiple requisitions for focus, indicated by a reduced P3 voltage amplitude with the multitasking stimuli when compared to the independent. This study illustrates the feasible replication of P3 cognitive workload results for demanding stimuli, not only impulsive-response experiments, to suggest the brain’s tendency to undergo sequential multitasking when faced with multiple demanding stimuli. In brief, this study demonstrates that when higher cognitive processing is required to interpret and respond to the stimuli, the human brain results to sequential multitasking (task- switching, not concurrent multitasking) in the face of more challenging problems with each stimulus requiring a higher level of focus, workload, and attention.
ContributorsNeill, Ryan (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Peter, Beate (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05