Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2025, Biomedical Engineering

This dissertation focuses on non-perceptual effects of artificial sensation measured by effects in the motor system. Tactile feedback is used throughout the brain, from the “highest” cortical level to the “lower” spinal or brain stem level. Touch is first used before perception, or pre-perceptually, by the brain stem in simple, automatic modulation of the motor system. For example, carrying an object from place to place or even shifting it in one's hand involves many changing tactile signals. Even a single ridge of a fingertip supplies a unique signal for use in object manipulation. If one had to actively perceive and act upon all this information, merely picking up an object would become overwhelming. Fortunately, the lower levels of our brain automatically make minor adjustments to grip based on tactile information. What is not known is how relevant perceptual qualities are to these automatic corrections to grip. The cortex, not the brainstem, is the location of tactile perception, so it stands to reason that the brainstem does not require “natural” qualities of tactile feedback. Our lab has a group of participants with peripheral nerve cuff electrodes we can stimulation through. We tested how well artificial tactile feedback would integrate with the sensorimotor system in tasks of increasing complexity. We found that peripheral nerve stimulation is processed similarly to naturally generated touch with and without perception and may engage with the motor system as seen by the intent to modulate grip force.

Committee: Dustin Tyler (Advisor); A Bolu Ajiboye (Committee Chair); Hillel Chiel (Committee Member); M. Cenk Çavuşoğlu (Committee Member) Subjects: Biomedical Engineering; Engineering; Neurosciences

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

This study examined the underlying mechanisms of false memories observed in the classic Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Previous work indicates that greater working memory capacity and inhibition are associated with lower susceptibility to such false memories. We hypothesized that this may be, due to the closely related construct of attention control. We examined if individual differences in attention control accounted for variance in susceptibility to false memories, above and beyond inhibition and WMC alone. We used a standard DRM procedure in an individual differences approach to examine how working memory, inhibition, and attention control contribute to false memories as indicated by false word recall on the DRM task. Our results indicate that not only does attention control account for unique variance in susceptibility to the false memories, but it also may mediate the relationship between working memory capacity and DRM performance to a degree to which working memory becomes non-significant.

Committee: Christopher Was (Advisor); Maria Zaragoza (Committee Member); Jeffrey Ciesla (Committee Member); Dana Miller-Cotto (Committee Member); Philip Hamrick (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2022, Exercise Science

Joint injury is the most common cause of pain and disability in young adults, contributing to physical in-activity and disenfranchisement with exercise. One such injury, anterior cruciate ligament injury and surgical reconstruction (ACLR), alters neural afferent activity originating from the periarticular tissue. Since movement is dependent upon sensory input, sensory and processing dysfunctions contribute to changes in movement capability, such as thigh muscle weakness and balance impairments. Although subtle, these cascade into withdrawal from physical activity and contribute to joint degeneration (knee osteoarthritis). Therapies, such as strength training in physical rehabilitation, often do not consider whether augmenting sensory input can improve movement. Fortunately, novel applications of widely available modalities, such as visual biofeedback, electrical stimulation (TENS), and goal-oriented attention show preliminary alignment with modifiable neural impairments following ACL injury. In manuscript 1, we compare brain activity between individuals with ACLR and uninjured controls during single-limb balance and determine the influence of neuromodulatory interventions (External focus of attention [EF] and TENS) on cortical activity and balance performance. Our results demonstrate that (1) individuals with ACLR exhibit lower somatosensory processing and greater motor inhibition compared to controls and (2) visual biofeedback resulted in favorable reductions in motor-planning and increases in somatosensory and motor activity. In manuscript 2, we compare cortical motor planning activity and response selection performance between individuals with ACLR and uninjured controls during a reaction time and response selection task. Here, the ACLR group demonstrated (1) greater motor planning and response inhibition during the task, and (2) more errant performance suggesting poorer decision making in the presence of widespread cortical inhibition. In manuscript 3, we compar (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Grant Norte (Advisor); Matt Stock (Committee Member); Jochen Baumeister (Committee Member); Amanda Murray (Committee Member); David Bazett-Jones (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Medicine; Neurosciences; Physical Therapy; Rehabilitation; Sports Medicine

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Psychology

The relationship between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and creativity is an area of current interest, yet there are very few studies in the literature with adolescents. Those few studies have found mixed results as to whether there is an association between ADHD and creativity. Theoretically, lower levels of inhibitory control, characteristic of individuals with ADHD, may aid creativity by way of looser associations and access to remote ideas (Mendelsohn, 1976; Radel et al., 2015; Abraham et al., 2006). On the other hand, higher levels of inhibitory control may be a necessary component of creativity in order to filter and evaluate ideas and generate something novel (Cassotti et al., 2016). By accounting for the role of inhibitory control in the present study, we sought a clearer understanding of this relationship. The primary aims of the present study were to analyze differences in creative performance between typical adolescents and adolescents with ADHD and to analyze the role of inhibitory control. Forty-four participants completed the study in a remote format and 30 completed the study in person. Of the 44 remote participants, 27 were typically developing and 17 had ADHD. Looking at the remote group, hypotheses were not supported in that there were no differences on the divergent creativity measures or on convergent creativity measures between typical adolescents and adolescents with ADHD. Regarding inhibitory control, there were no meaningful associations between inhibitory control and creativity in the remote group or in the ADHD in-person group. This study was the first to include a measure of inhibitory control in investigating differences in creativity between typical adolescents and adolescents with ADHD. Results suggest that although adolescents with ADHD do not have a creative advantage compared to their typical peers, they do not have a deficit either. Results of the present study support those found in the literature on the relation (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sandra Russ PhD (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Short PhD (Committee Member); Eva Kahana PhD (Committee Member); Anastasia Dimitropoulos PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology

Master of Science in Computer Engineering (MSCE), Wright State University, 2018, Computer Engineering

Mindfulness is the state of retaining awareness of what is happening at the current point in time. It has been used in multiple forms to reduce stress, anxiety, and even depression. Promoting Mindfulness can be done in various ways, but current research shows a trend towards preferential usage of breathing exercises over other methods to reach a mindful state. Studies have showcased that breathing can be used as a tool to promote brain control, specifically in the auditory cortex region. Research pertaining to disorders such as Tinnitus, the phantom awareness of sound, could potentially benefit from using these brain control strategies as the auditory cortex is suspected of being the region in the brain responsible for the production of symptoms associated with Tinnitus. Mobile Applications have become an increasingly popular tool, due to their accessibility, that can be used to promote mindfulness, and as a result help patients cope better with Tinnitus. Using applications to guide patient's breathing patterns could be a more desirable and effective method to attaining a more mindful state. This study explores the effectiveness of such an application, and how the application can modified to be adaptive towards each individual user. Two questionnaires, Attentional Control Scale (ACS) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), are used to measure self-reported attentional control and mindfulness. The results obtained from the questionnaires along with number of times the application was used, were used to determine which features, and whether using the application more times, had an effect on a participant's mindful score. Machine learning regression trees and ANOVA was used as part of the analysis, but due to lack of data, concrete conclusions on whether using the application more times has a better affect on a participant's mindfulness could not be established. That said future work will include a larger more diverse dataset which could allo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Subhashini Ganapathy Ph.D. (Advisor); Mateen Rizki Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Raymer Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering; Computer Science; Design; Industrial Engineering; Mental Health; Neurosciences

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Communication

This study examined how screen media use, attention, and behavioral control processes are related at a variety of timescales. A model framework was proposed suggesting dynamic and reciprocal influences between media uses and attention over repeated uses, inspired primarily by the three-network model of attention, the strength model of self-control, and research on media habits. Findings from a cross-sectional survey (N = 313) suggest that habitual media use, indicative of greater behavioral automaticity, may change executive attention processes over time. These changes are not fixed, though the specific mechanisms to effectively alter attention still require greater elucidation. Participants who engaged in a 28-day period of behavior tracking (N = 38) reduced their habitual media use and showed attention improvements, despite evidence that limiting media use was more difficult than participants recognized. Participants' daily behavior and internal states were recorded throughout the 28-day study period and the dynamic relationships between attention states and media use throughout daily life were modeled as dynamic linear equations. Attention states were less sensitive to participants engaging in controlled behavior than previous theorizing suggested, though participants with greater attentional control experienced attention depletion from habitual media use, whereas those with less control experienced attention restoration. Variation in attention states was, in turn, predictive of the likelihood in engaging with media use in a more or less controlled fashion.

Committee: Zheng Wang (Advisor); Brad Bushman (Committee Member); Michael Slater (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2016, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

When people look through the environment their eyes are guided in part by what they have recently seen. This phenomenon, referred to as visual priming, is studied in the laboratory through manipulations of stimulus repetition. Typically, in search tasks, response times are speeded when the same target is repeated relative to when it is changed (e.g., Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994). Although priming is thought to be based on a memory mechanism in the visual system, there is a debate in the literature as to whether such a mechanism is driven by relatively early (e.g., feature-based accounts) or later (e.g., episodic memory accounts) processing. Across three experiments, this dissertation utilized a computational modeling framework (Systems Factorial Technology; Townsend & Nozawa, 1995) to directly compare early and later accounts of priming and determine when visual priming is processed within the visual system in both feature and conjunctive search tasks. Specifically, priming was assessed in terms of its temporal relation (i.e., parallel or serial) to a relatively early process (the processing of conspicuity) and a relatively later process (the processing of Rewards, Experiment 1a; the processing of Word Cues, Experiments 1b and 2) in the visual system. The results suggest that the priming manipulation is processed in parallel with the conspicuity and word cue manipulations within both singleton (Experiments 1a and 1b) and conjunctive (Experiment 2) search. This supports accounts of priming as an early process and suggest that models of priming as a later process within feature or conjunctive search should be rejected. Further, these results also provide evidence to suggest word cues are processed at early stages of visual processing. This supports models of visual processing that suggest high-level representations can modulate the earliest levels of the visual system. Together, these findings provide some of the strongest evidence about the temporal process (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joseph Houpt Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Assaf Harel Ph.D. (Committee Member); Scott Watamaniuk Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alan Pinkus Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Medicine: Neuroscience/Medical Science Scholars Interdisciplinary

Bipolar disorder is a serious psychiatric illness that is characterized by mania. Many patents with bipolar disorder also exhibit significant deficits in cognitive processing across multiple domains, including executive function. The research included here attempts to better characterize the deficits in youth with and at-risk for bipolar disorder in two executive function subdomains, sustained attention and interference control. Chapter 2A contains the results of an imaging study of sustained attention in bipolar youth, which was conducted concurrently with a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of ziprasidone for the treatment of mania in adolescents. Results showed that compared with placebo, treatment with ziprasidone was associated with greater increases in activation in Brodmann areas (BA) 11 and 47. Patients who subsequently responded to ziprasidone also showed significantly greater deactivation in right BA 47 prior to treatment, and the activation in this region at baseline was negatively correlated with symptom improvement. Similarly, Chapter 2B contains the results of an imaging study using the same sustained attention task, which was conducted concurrently with an open-label study of carbamazepine for the treatment of mania in adolescents. In this study, treatment with carbamazepine was associated with increases in activation in BA 10. Chapter 3 presents the results of a behavioral study using a modified version of the flanker task to assess sustained attention in youth with bipolar disorder. Results showed that youth with bipolar disorder had deficits in interference control that were detected as increased reaction time and decreased accuracy on incongruent trials. An analysis of effects associated with conflict-driven adaptation did not yield significant results. Chapter 4 presents the results of an imaging study which attempted to characterize the neural correlates of the behavioral deficits demonstrated in Chapter 3. Youth with bipolar disorder, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert McNamara Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Caleb Adler Ph.D. (Committee Member); Melissa Delbello M.D. (Committee Member); James Eliassen Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Fleck Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cartography; Cellular Biology; Chemical Engineering; Neurology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Psychology

The present study sought to examine the relationship between horseback riding as a physical activity, general physical activity, motor control, and familial factors and the executive function processes of working memory, attention, and inhibitory control in children and young adults. The study hypothesized that 1) horseback riding, motor control, general physical activity, and familial factors will each be individually positively associated with executive functioning; 2) horseback riding will be associated with improved executive functioning and greater motor control; 3) motor control mediates the relationship between physical activity and executive functioning; 4) the combination of horseback riding, motor control, and familial factors will influence executive function performance more so than each factor individually; and that 5) developmental trends in physical activity, motor control, familial factors, and executive functioning will be evident. 56 children ages 7-13 and 109 young adults ages 17-23 completed verbal and visuospatial span tasks were used to assess working memory, the Attention Network Test (Fan et al., 2009) to assess attention, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment- Revised (Gullone & Robinson, 2005) to assess parent- and peer-child relationships, the reach task and sit- and-reach task to assess balance and flexibility, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Parent and Adult versions (Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000; Roth, Isquith, & Gioia, 2005) for executive functioning, and the Family Environment Scale (FES; Moos & Moos, 1994) to assess home environment. Results suggest mixed influences of horseback riding, general physical activity, and motor control on executive functioning dependent upon type of task, timing of task, and age of participants. Horseback riding is associated with improved motor control for children but not for young adults. Motor control does not mediate the relation between hors (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yvette Harris (Committee Chair); Doris Bergen (Committee Member); Alexa Smith-Osborne (Committee Member); Thelma Horn (Committee Member); Michelle Abraham (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Families and Family Life; Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Air battle management (ABM) operations places high demands on operator attention; operators are required to manage an airspace cluttered with aircraft, identify changes in amity of entities and respond appropriately to these aircraft. Awareness of the severe consequence of errors in detection and the risk of physical harm may contribute to operator stress and anxiety. Anxiety research shows a selective attention bias to threat-related information which, according to attentional control theory, impairs the inhibition and shifting stages of executive functioning related to attention. In the ABM context, task anxiety may increase change blindness by interfering with attentional processes. The current study aimed to observe these effects in dyads performing a simulated ABM task. Participants controlled fighter aircraft to destroy incoming enemy planes and protect their own assets. General aims of the study were to distinguish the impacts of trait and state anxiety on detection of target aircraft differing in threat, and to test the role of anxiety produced by a mood induction. Forty-six individuals were pre-screened for inclusion based on low and high trait anxiety such that teams of low, mixed and high trait anxiety might be compared. All teams performed the task in both neutral and anxious mood conditions. This experiment utilized a 3 × 3 × 2 × 2 mixed-model design. The between-groups factor was team composition (low anxious, mixed anxious, high anxious). Within-groups factors included trial mood state (Neutral-1/Anxious/Neutral-2), time, and target amity (neutral, low-threat, high-threat). The dependent measures collected in this experiment included measures of offensive and defensive performance in the air battle management task, measures of change detection, and three subjective state measures including the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ), State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI) and the NASA Task Load Index (TLX). Team × Time mixed-model analyses of varia (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gerald Matthews PhD (Committee Chair); Chung-Yiu Chiu PhD (Committee Member); Gregory Funke PhD (Committee Member); Benjamin Knott PhD (Committee Member); Michael Riley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Military Studies; Personality Psychology; Psychology