Evidence suggests that cortical minicolumns are reduced in size and increased in number in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), especially in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). More specifically minicolumns in individuals with...
Recently our lab has shown that with broadband stimuli (either visual noise or natural scenes), performance for detecting oriented content is worst at horizontal, best at the obliques, and intermediate at vertical orientations--an anisotropy...
Previous research has indicated the important role of visual information in the speech perception process. These studies have elucidated the areas of the brain involved in the processing of audiovisual stimuli. The McGurk effect, an audiovisual...
When observers view a naturalistic (l/f) broadband image, the various spatial components present in the image stimulate many detecting-mechanisms that suppress each other. This suppression is anisotropic, being relatively greater for mechanisms...
Anxiety in children; Anxiety--Physiological aspects
Anxiety disorders are prevalent in both adult and child populations, and are associated with significant economic and psychosocial costs. There are clearly familial patterns of transmission within the anxiety disorders, and the inherited risk is...
This dissertation focuses on the mechanisms and implications of perceptual learning of binocular interactions. Perceptual learning is an important means of adapting to the changing environment, demonstrating the possibility of neural plasticity in...
Bcl-2 proteins are major regulators of cellular responses to various apoptotic stimuli. Among them, overexpression of the anti-apoptotic BcI-2 protein BcI-xL modulates organelle-specific apoptotic pathways. To understand the mechanisms by which...
City planning--Psychological aspects; City planning--Citizen participation
This dissertation examines the impact of complexity and familiarity on visual preference for two content domains defined as Neo-Traditional and Modern. This research has five main themes: (1) To determine if there is a method for community design...
Eating disorders in children; Behavior modification
Feeding disorders occur when a child rejects significant amounts of food or drink. Food refusals are maintained by factors which may be behavioral based, due to structural impairments, or a combination of the two. One of the first steps to...
Electroencephalography; Visual evoked response; Drug addicts--Research
In 2006 it was estimated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA, 2007) that 19.9 million Americans used illicit drugs, computing to roughly 8.0 % of the United States population. In 2007, there were 2.1 million...
Speech intelligibility has been found to improve with prior exposure to a reverberant room environment. It is believed that perceptual mechanisms help maintain accurate speech perception under these adverse conditions. Potential factors underlying...
Intimate partner violence--Psychological aspects; Victims of family violence--Rehabilitation; Victims of violent crimes--Mental health; Creative writing--Therapeutic use; Post-traumatic stress disorder--Treatment
Described as important long-term consequences of trauma exposure, disruptions in emotional processes are regarded as central features of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, the nature of these posttraumatic emotional disruptions remains...
Short-term memory; Memory--Effect of sound on; Memory--Effect of noise on; Speech
The Irrelevant Speech Effect (ISE) is a phenomenon in which the presentation of
auditory materials (typically speech) impairs the serial recall of visually presented
materials, either digits or letters. Although this effect has been replicated in a...
Down syndrome--Patients; Williams syndrome--Patients; Social interaction in children; Social perception in children
The present project examined the regulatory function of social referencing in two neurodevelopmental disorders that have been well defined genetically and are characterized by differing patterns of socio-cognitive development: Down syndrome (DS)...
In the retina, the receptive fields (RFs) of most neurons are comprised of an excitatory center and a suppressive surround. Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) RF center excitatory input arises from bipolar cell (BC) inputs, while their surround arises...
Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in our body that provides a structural framework and regulates important biological processes. It is also a primary reservoir of protein. Skeletal muscle maintains its structural and functional integrity...
Neuropsychology; Motor ability; Eye-hand coordination
Two major theoretical models, Direct Mapping and Functional Equivalence, suggest that the observation of action and imagery of action, respectively, involve activation of similar motor related areas. Despite the wealth of evidence that supports...
This work examines our perception of distance within "action space" (about 2m ~ 30m), an ability that is important for various actions. Two general problems are addressed: what information can be used to judge distance accurately and how...
Sensory neurons; Spinal cord--Wounds and injuries--Research; Pain--Research
This study examined the effects of tissue damage and inflammation on the expression in sensory neurons of P2X3, a gene that has a role in nociception and sensing bladder distension, which is regulated by nerve injury. Tissue damage induces...
Introduction: Children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often lack the ability to recognize and properly respond to emotional stimuli. These emotional deficits are also observed in children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity...
