Respiratory tract infections are easily among the most diagnosed illnesses in modern medicine, especially involving infants and the elderly. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are especially dangerous, often capable of producing lasting respiratory problems, increased hospitalization, and life-threatening illness. Our research is targeted towards uncovering a possible mechanism behind the spreading of LRTIs, in hopes of illuminating the connection between the diffusion of a given virus and the speed of mucous transfer within the respiratory tract. This project more specifically focuses on a system of nonlinear ordinary and partial differential equations which simulate the diffusion and advection driven dynamics of an infected respiratory system. With a more realistic spatiotemporal approach, we hope to find possible relationships between given rates of advection and diffusion, and the depth and duration of infection; a potential framework for understanding and preventing an otherwise refractory human affliction.

The current research examined childhood environmental factors driving the development of an unpredictability schema (a mindset about the world and people in it as unpredictable) and how maintaining such a cognitive schema impacts body awareness and eating in the absence of hunger. In Study 1, low childhood SES, parenting inconsistency, and poor childhood neighborhood quality predicted development of an unpredictability schema, which predicted lower body awareness. In Study 2, participants with an unpredictability schema had lower body awareness, less mindful eating, and more self-reported eating in the absence of hunger. In Study 3, this pattern was conceptually replicated in a laboratory eating task demonstrating that participants with an unpredictability schema had lower body awareness, which predicted more eating in the absence of hunger. Together, these results suggest that development of an unpredictability schema may be an important predictor of low body awareness and eating in the absence of hunger. Although these outcomes may have historically promoted survival in unpredictable environments, they may contribute to obesity in contemporary food-rich environments.

Alternative seating is being used in classrooms around the nation, but its efficacy, especially for children that are not typically developing, has not been well-studied. This study looks at the effects of four different types of alternative seating on focus, problem solving, and feelings of calm and attentiveness as compared to a control condition. A chair was designed specifically for this study, in an attempt to better serve the needs of children with postural disorders and learning disabilities, as past research has shown that these children do not perform as well on therapy balls (Bagatell, Mirigliani, Patterson, Reyes, and Test, 2010). Two versions of this new chair were included in the study, as well as a normal chair with a weighted blanket, and a therapy ball. The participants were between five and nine years old and were asked to complete some executive functioning (EF) tasks and answer some questions about how they felt, while being videotaped so that observational data on their on-task behavior could be coded later. Meanwhile, their parents completed a questionnaire about their child, including some questions about any diagnoses the child might have. The data has not been fully analyzed yet, but I hypothesize that children with learning disabilities and postural issues will do much better on the EF tasks in the new chairs or with the weighted blanket than in the therapy ball or control condition. I anticipate that typically developing children will do better in all of the alternative seating options than in the control. Furthermore, I do not anticipate that one alternative seating option will be significantly better for every child. Rather, I hypothesize that results will vary from child to child, suggesting that each classroom should have a variety of alternative seating options, so that children can find the one that works best for them.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease currently affecting 5.5 million Americans. Moreover, the disease prevalence is expected to rise to 16 million by 2050. Characteristic AD pathology includes neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein and amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques, which correspond with a deterioration of memory and cognition in patients afflicted with AD. Aβ is a peptide resulting from cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) primarily present within neuronal cell membranes. The Aβ peptide aggregates into Aβ plaques throughout the AD brain, but a brain structure impacted heavily and early on in the disease progression is the hippocampus. As mice do not naturally form plaques, our lab utilizes the 5xFAD transgenic mouse, a model of familial AD, wherein genetic mutations result in plaques and allow us to study this human AD pathology in mice. Previous research from our lab has shown that 5xFAD mice that are chronically stressed through social isolation, as opposed to typical group housing, have an increased number of hippocampal Aβ plaques. The goal of the current project was to determine whether the stress-induced increase in Aβ plaques could be prevented through exposure to physical exercise alone, or to exercise and an enriched environment throughout the period of isolation. Two-month-old mice were housed in isolation, housed in isolation with an exercise wheel, or housed in isolation with an exercise wheel and an enriched environment. After 3 months, cognition was assessed through contextual fear conditioning, and brains were collected for hippocampal Aβ plaque counts.

Terror management research has shown that, following mortality salience (MS), death-thought accessibility (DTA) and distal worldview defenses appear after a delay. However, to date, delay times for DTA and worldview defense activation have differed, with longer periods being better. While the time course is theoretically understood (Arndt, Greenberg, & Cook, 2002), the optimal time to assess DTA and worldview defense seem to differ between studies. Two experiments varied the time following MS to see when DTA (Study 1) and worldview defense (Study 2) should ideally be assessed. Participants, in both studies, were assigned to either an MS or control prime and then to one of four delay conditions (0 min, 5 min, 10 min, & 15 min). In Study 1, DTA was assessed with a lexical decision task and demonstrated strongest DTA effects at 10 min. In Study 2, worldview defense was assessed using the Moral Transgression Scale, which demonstrated that worldview defense was strongest after at 15 min. The current research is important for better understanding how to appropriately conduct TMT research, as well as clarifying potential errors with other studies.

How do people judge the morality of groups who do negative behaviors for an admirable cause? For example, some participants responded to groups of people who disrupt abortion clinics, in order to save unborn children. In the current study, we tried to answer this question through the lens of Attitude Representation Theory (Lord & Lepper, 1999) and audience tuning (Higgins & Rholes, 1978). Previous research (Lu, 2015) has also shown that using an ART approach, self-radicalization can occur, such that participants can persuade themselves to adopt more extreme moral judgments than before. In this study, participants were presented with a fictitious scenario and then told to either write a letter to their best friend about why their friend should not join that group (embellishment) or about campus architecture (control group). Based on previous research, we hypothesized that those who write to their best friend will later rate the actions of a group as more immoral and want to see the group be punished more. The results provided support for both of our hypotheses since participants writing to their best friend demonstrated self-radicalization. The results suggest that moral judgments can be malleable based on context and circumstance. Broader implications will also be discussed.

Title:
The moderation of terror management effects in Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) individuals

Authors:
Paulina Mozo, Kathryn England, Elidia Avelar, Caroline Pope, Nathania Davis, Arielle Cenin, & Cathy R. Cox

Abstract:
The Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP; Hurley, Losh, Parlier, Reznick, & Piven, 2007) describes individuals who show characteristics similar to those with autism spectrum disorder. For example, BAP individuals show aloof personality (e.g., a lack of interest in social interaction), rigid personality (e.g., little interest in change or difficulty with change) and pragmatic language problems (e.g., inability to engage in fluid, reciprocal conversation). According to terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) people are motivated to mitigate the potential for anxiety inherent in the awareness of death so that these concerns do not bloom into debilitating terror. Individuals may do so through the use of three psychological defense mechanisms that together create an anxiety-buffering system: (a) cultural worldviews, (b) self-esteem, and (c) close relationships. Additionally, individuals show a greater accessibility of death-related thoughts following disruptions to their anxiety-buffering defense system (i.e., the DTA hypothesis; Hayes, Schimel, Arndt, & Faucher, 2010). Prior research has shown that individuals high in BAP rigidity demonstrate heightened death concerns and greater defensiveness following a mortality salience (MS) manipulation (Arrowood, Cox, & Ekas, 2016). Following this line of work, the current research aimed to examine the moderating effects of a sense of control on death-thought accessibility (DTA) in BAP individuals. To test this, participants were first asked to complete the BAPQ (Hurley et al., 2007) to assess the traits of aloofness, rigidity, and pragmatic language problems. Following previous research (e.g., Landau et al., 2011; Maxfield et al., 2007; Schimel, Greenberg, & Martens, 2003), participants completed a word search puzzle as the mortality salience (MS) manipulation. Specifically, in the death condition, seven death-related words (i.e., death, dead, decay, die, funeral, burial, & corpse) were embedded as they searched for neutral target words. Then, participants were randomly assigned to a control-prime writing task (i.e., full control, no control, vs. neutral). Finally, all participants completed the word-fragment completion task to measure DTA (Greenberg et al., 1986). The task presented 25 word fragments, 6 of which could be completed with a neutral or death-related word (e.g., COFF_ _ could be completed as either COFFIN or COFFEE), and DTA score was calculated as the total number of death-related word completions. A hierarchical multiple regression was performed to examine the effects of mortality salience, control, and BAP on death-thought accessibility. The results showed a significant three-way interaction between MS, control, and BAP rigidity on DTA scores. Specifically, this study provided evidence that priming individuals high in BAP rigidity with a sense of control buffered the effects of mortality salience. Given that parents of children with ASD experience greater accessibility of death-related thoughts, as compared to parents of typically developing children (Cox, Eaton, Ekas, & Van Enkevort, 2015), the current work provides a potential solution to buffer the effects of mortality salience in this population.

Human speech production and grammatical organization of language is controlled primarily by the left hemisphere of the brain. Broca’s area is a specialized area in the left frontal cortex that is responsible for our ability to construct grammatically correct sentences. Songbirds are studied as an animal model for understanding human language production. Our research sought to explore whether the neural control of birdsong syntax of the Bengalese finch is also lateralized; if so, the Bengalese finch would provide a good animal model to further study syntax generation in humans. To investigate this question, we recorded the birdsongs of 10 different Bengalese finches; then, the HVC (letters used as proper name) brain region, an area thought to control birdsong syntax, was lesioned in either the right hemisphere or the left hemisphere for each bird. Birdsong was then recorded for five months following the surgery. Song syllables were coded and analyzed to measure the syntactic structure of the song. The birdsongs were grouped into a right lesion group and a left lesion group, and they were compared based on three measures of song syntax; sequence stereotypy, sequence consistency, and sequence linearity were measured at each time point. HVC lesion initially disrupted song syntax, but song syntax recovered. There was no significant difference between the left and right lesion groups. When looking at individual time points, the right lesion group seemed to initially lose more syntactic control four days after surgery, but the group differences were non-significant. Overall, the two groups follow a similar trend of recovery. Our results suggest that the HVC control of Bengalese finch song syntax is not lateralized as it is in human speech. The recovery of song syntax following brain injury suggests that other areas of the brain contribute to the generation of syntactic structure of the Bengalese finch song.

Introduction: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience high levels of stress and face numerous challenges. They also report more mental health problems than parents with typically developing children (Falk, Norris, & Quinn, 2014). In families with children with ASD, differences are found between well-being in mothers as compared to fathers. A recent review found that mothers of children with developmental disabilities, including ASD, reported a higher number of positive experiences than fathers (Kayfitz, Gragg, & Orr, 2010). A possible explanation for this is that fathers may underestimate the influence of outside factors that lead to positive experiences with their child. This could negatively impact the father’s well-being. As research on the fathers in families with children with ASD has expanded within recent years, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence the father’s well-being. The purpose of the current study is to examine child versus parent characteristics as predictors of depressive symptoms in fathers of children with ASD.

Method: Thirty-one fathers of a child with ASD completed an online survey. They completed measures of depressive symptoms (CESD), the broad autism phenotype (BAPQ), adult attachment anxiety and avoidance (ECR-R), child symptom severity (SCQ), child behavior problems (SDQ), work-family conflict, and attitudes about the role of fathers (ROFQ).

Results: To examine the impact of child and parent characteristics on depressive symptoms in fathers of children with ASD a series of correlations were first computed. The results revealed no significant relationship between depressive symptoms and work-family conflict or the child’s symptom severity, ps ≥ .055. However, there was a significant relationship between depressive symptoms in fathers and attachment anxiety, children’s behavior problems, BAP symptoms in the father, and the role of the father, ps ≤ .040. However, when followed up with a multiple regression model, only attachment anxiety, b = 7.89 (SE = 1.87), t = 4.22, p ≤ .001, and the role of the father, b = -.51 (SE = .22), t = 2.35, p = .028, were significant predictors of depressive symptoms.

Discussion: This study helps to identify predictors of well-being in fathers of children with ASD. Specifically, the more attachment anxiety a father reports, the higher his depressive symptoms. It may be necessary to re-frame his attachment representations in order to promote more positive psychological functioning. Fathers who reported that their role is critical to their child’s development reported less depressive symptoms. Fathers are generally less involved in their child with ASD’s treatment (Johnson & Simpson, 2013) and many parent-mediated interventions focus on mothers (Braunstein et al., 2013). Our findings suggest that emphasizing the importance of fathers as an active caregiver may help improve father well-being.

Introduction: Research suggests that when reminded of death, individuals cling to their beliefs to cope with the terror associated their inevitable mortality. According to other studies, intrinsic religiousness buffers against existential terror and reduces the need for other terror management defenses as these persons are able to rely on their internalized religious beliefs as a shield and their overall relationship with their divine figurehead (Vail et al., 2012). Other work suggests that a relationship with God can be described as an attachment bond, specifically that an anxious attachment to God is strongly correlated with an extrinsic religious orientation (Rowatt & Kirkpatrick, 2002). The purpose of this study is to examine the association between intrinsic religiosity and attachment to God. Specifically, we hypothesized that low intrinsic individuals would experience a more avoidant attachment to God following mortality salience. High intrinsic persons, however, would display the opposite trend.

Method: Participants consisted of 158 Christians recruited from a medium, private university. Participants were first given the intrinsic religiosity scale (Allport, 1967). In order to manipulate mortality salience, participants completed a neutral or death-related crossword puzzle (Landau, Kosloff, & Schmeichel, 2011). Finally, participants completed the attachment to God inventory to assess for anxious or avoidant attachments to God (Beck & McDonald, 2004).

Results: A moderated regression analysis found a significant interaction between mortality salience and intrinsic religiosity on avoidant attachment to God. More specifically, in the mortality salience condition, individuals with a low intrinsic orientation displayed a more avoidant attachment to God than high intrinsic persons. Additionally, low intrinsic individuals displayed a more avoidant attachment in the mortality salient condition than the control condition. No significant effects emerged for the anxious attachment variable.

Conclusion: The present results suggest that low intrinsic people are unable to rely on their religious beliefs following mortality salience. Specifically, because these individuals do not internalize their beliefs, they become a source of contention instead of an anxiety buffer following mortality salience. Additionally, these results build upon those by Jonas and Fischer (2006) by suggesting that high intrinsic persons are able to fully shield against mortality salience because they have a strong attachment to God.