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Presented By: Department of Psychology

Developmental Brown Bag

Leigh Gayle Goetschius, M.S. and Dominic Kelly, M.Phil, Doctoral Candidates, Developmental Psychology

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kelly leigh
Leigh Gayle Goetschius

Title: Amygdala-prefrontal cortex white matter tracts are widespread, variable and implicated in amygdala modulation in adolescents.

Abstract: The amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are fundamentally involved in emotion. The PFC is hypothesized to influence amygdala reactivity; however, extant research lacks anatomical specificity. Here, we used probabilistic tractography and functional MRI (fMRI) with 142 adolescents. Results revealed widespread, but variable, white matter connectivity between the amygdala and multiple PFC regions. Specifically, whereas the amygdala was structurally connected to all PFC regions examined, connectivity was greater in subgenual cingulate, orbitofrontal, and dorsomedial regions relative to dorsal cingulate and dorsolateral regions. Machine-learning demonstrated that greater amygdala-PFC connectivity was associated with less amygdala reactivity and that this association was driven by orbitofrontal and dorsomedial regions. By integrating probabilistic tractography with fMRI, this study helps elucidate the nature of this emotion-based circuit.

Dominic Kelly

Title: Capturing fluctuations in gendered cognition with novel intensive longitudinal measures

Abstract: Cognitive abilities are often assumed to be stable and are typically measured cross-sectionally, but compelling evidence shows that they vary with experience, biology, and psychological context. Most evidence, however, concerns executive function with limited investigation of gendered cognition, such as spatial and verbal abilities. This may be a function of measurement, as there are no validated instruments for intensive longitudinal assessment of abilities thought to show sex differences. The goal of this study is to fill that research gap by introducing and validating new 75-occasion measures of two such abilities: three dimensional mental rotations and delayed paired verbal recall. This goal was accomplished by conducting both between-person analyses (e.g., daily mean scores and correlations of daily performance with standard, criterion measures) and within-person analyses (i.e., linear growth curve models with random intercepts and slopes controlling for general intelligence) of 75-day diary data. Results suggest that both measures are valid, capture significant individual differences in levels and variability across days, and show sex differences, but sex differences were larger for mental rotations than verbal recall, and provided evidence of slight improvement across study days. Conclusions are consistent with the notion that gendered cognitive abilities are both stable and show daily fluctuation, encouraging future work with the newly-developed, freely-available measures.
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kelly leigh

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