2019 Creative Collaborations

OLIVIA HAYS and Nadav Goldschmied 

We conducted an archival research study and found that despite the predicted home-field-advantage, the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team (USMNT) does not appear to benefit from playing on American soil against Mexico in the 30 games played between the two teams during the "modern era" of U.S. soccer (1991-2018). We also analyzed environmental factors and found that as game attendance increased, the away Mexican team was likely to score more goals relative to the U.S. squad. We thus concluded that it was wise for the USMNT to schedule games at smaller venues such as the Columbus Crew stadium where they can also control ticket sales. The nested nature and limited data availability serve as limitations on the current exploration.

ERIN CAROLLO and Jena Hales

In 2017, suicide was found to be the second leading cause of death for people aged 10 - 34 in the United States. At least 90% of suicides are found to be comorbid with mental illness, most commonly: depression. Research suggests depression develops due to a combination of environmental, psychological, and biological factors. Imbalances in neurotransmitters, specifically serotonin (5-HT), is one of the leading hypotheses for the biochemical basis of depression. On this basis, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed antidepressant and have been shown to be an effective treatment for moderate to severe depression. However, in 2004, the FDA mandated that SSRIs be given a "black-box" label warning indicating the relationship between the medication and increased risk for suicidal ideation and behaviors. This literature review seeks to investigate the available research on the mechanisms of SSRIs in the treatment of depression, and their highly contested relationship with suicide risk. I aim to make sense of this data and determine where the evidence points in regard to the costs and benefits of prescribing SSRIs, as well as the kind of future investigation needed to fully understand these drugs.

SOPHIA WOOLERY, NADEEN WERDI, and Adriana Molitor

Experts agree that parenting practices can promote or undermine the development of coping skills as toddlers learn to manage challenging situations. Researchers also agree that individual differences in parenting stem from factors that include both child and parental characteristics. Nonetheless, predictors of specific parenting strategies remain unclear, particularly for positive parenting practices among non-risk samples. The present study examined whether adaptive versus maladaptive parenting strategies (e.g., problem-focused coping vs. distress or wish-granting) were related to aspects of toddler temperament or to maternal emotional-social skills or cognitive attributions. As part of a broader investigation, mothers of 2-3 year-old children completed self-report measures of: 1) toddler temperament; 2) maternal cognitive attributions for unsuccessful interactions with a hypothetical child; 3) maternal emotional-social intelligence; and lastly 4) maternal likelihood of using various coping strategies in hypothetical scenarios with one's toddler. Overall, maternal responses to toddlers during challenging situations appeared less related to children's dispositions or maternal cognitive attributions than to mothers? emotional-social competence. Specifically, mothers with poorer emotional-social skills reported greater reliance on ineffective or undesirable reactions (e.g., distress, wish-granting, punitive responses) as their toddlers faced hypothetically challenging situations. Those with greater emotional-social competence reported using more problem-focused strategies.

SARAH WEEKS and Adriana Molitor

Evolving conceptualizations of effective parenting styles argue that behaviors reflecting parental structure (vs. ambiguity) should be distinguished from those reflecting parental autonomy support (vs. control) as they are often confused with each other. Yet both appear necessary to facilitate children's motivation and competence. Moreover, while much research has investigated autonomy supportive parenting, far less is known about parental structuring behavior and its benefits to children's social and cognitive skills, especially in achievement settings. For example, some research indicates that clarity of maternal expectations improves a child's self-regulated learning. In addition, maternal consistency of consequences improves child compliance. Nonetheless, we do not yet know whether the timing of structure is also important for toddler cooperation and learning. The present study explores whether maternal structuring is beneficial to child performance during two teaching tasks, board lacing and a multidimensional shape puzzle. Specifically, mothers of 30-month-olds were rated on behaviors previously identified as components of parental structuring and presently adapted for interaction with toddlers during teaching situations: clarity of guidance, informative feedback, rationale, opportunity, resourceful leadership, and consistency. The present study additionally coded for maternal coordination as a subcomponent in order to capture each mother's moment-to-moment ability to cater to the structuring needs of her child. Analyses examine the association between maternal structure and child performance measures such as accuracy and persistence.

ALEXANDRA UNAPANTA and Jena Hales

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a form of dementia that negatively affects cognitive abilities and worsens over time. Two genes that play a role in neurodegeneration in humans are the APP (amyloid precursor protein) and PS1 (presenilin 1) genes, both involved in early-onset familial AD. We examined a transgenic rat model with mutations in these two genes to determine whether they experience cognitive decline with age that might be comparable to humans. The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a spatial task involving the selection of an efficient route between multiple targets, and it has been used to study spatial cognition and memory in both humans and non-human animals. Our goal was to 1) characterize the change in control rats' TSP performance with age and 2) determine if their trajectory differs from that of AD rats. We first familiarized and pre-trained groups of control and transgenic rats to human handling and the TSP task. Then, rats were tested in a series of target configurations which varied in the number and spatial arrangement of baited targets. Their behavior was videorecorded and later coded for measures including latency, revisits per target, and percent above optimal. Our results indicated that the transgenic AD rats were generally impaired on the TSP compared to controls. The study also suggests that there is a significant effect of gender on performance, with the effects of genotype significantly stronger in females than males. Overall, these findings provide further insight on how a naturalistic task such as the TSP can be useful when examining the cognitive deficits seen in Alzheimer's Disease.

NICOLE TIBBITS and Rebekah Wanic 

Previous studies have explored how overweight targets are perceived and the physical and psychological characteristics commonly used to describe them. The current study experimentally investigated the relationship between a target's weight and his or her diet choices, and the characteristics used to describe him or her. The participants were exposed to one of four situations (overweight/unhealthy diet, overweight/healthy diet, average-weight/unhealthy diet, average-weight/ healthy diet) where they were shown a picture and a short description of the target. It is likely that overweight and unhealthy diet targets were rated lower on questions pertaining to physical health. Regardless of weight, healthy diet targets will likely be rated higher than unhealthy diet targets for positive psychological attributes. Overall, overweight/unhealthy diet targets will likely be rated the lowest in all three categories (positive psychological attributes, negative psychological attributes, and physical attributes).

JESSICA GREEN ROSAS, KELSEY KEHOE, MCKENNA SAKAMOTO, Kristen McCabe, and Geri Zerr

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) encourages parents to imitate child behaviors in order to convey approval of their child's actions and to foster the development of crucial social, cognitive, and language skills. However, the Dyadic ParentChild Interaction Coding System (DPICS), used to measure parent and child progress in acquiring skills taught during PCIT, does not include guidelines for coding parent-child imitation, making it impossible to determine if PCIT increases imitation or whether parent and child imitation frequencies are related. The current study addresses this problem by utilizing video recordings of 10 families from a previous PCIT clinical trial to develop guidelines for coding imitation. We are currently using those guidelines to code pre- and post-treatment DPICS segments from 40 families. We hypothesize that imitation will increase from pre- to post- treatment, and that parent and child imitation will be positively correlated. Preliminary analyses of 22 subjects coded to date indicate an interrater agreement of 97%. Parent imitation frequency increased marginally (pre-M = .73) (post-M = 3.45; t[21] = 1.82, p = .089), while child imitation frequency increased significantly from pre (M = .41) to post-treatment (M = 1.23; t[21] = 2.51, p = .020). Parent and child imitation frequencies were significantly positively correlated (r = .31, p = .04). Results suggest that PCIT does increase child imitation, and to a lesser extent, parent imitation, and that parents who imitate their children more have children who imitate them more in return. However, gains were small, suggesting more attention should be paid to coaching imitation in PCIT.

NINA TABRIZI, GREER MARSHALL, ALI MCLAGAN, LINDA LEIJA, and Jena Hales

Space and time are both essential features of episodic memory, for which the hippocampus is critical. The involvement of the hippocampus in spatial processing was first described following the discovery of neurons, known as place cells, which fire with spatial-specificity (O’Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971). More recently, the existence of hippocampal neurons that fire at successive moments in temporally structured experiences has been reported. These cells were dubbed time cells because it was suggested that they represented time (MacDonald et al., 2011). While spatial tasks have been used for the study of place cells, the tasks used for the study of time cells do not use time as an independent variable and therefore the behavioral relevance of this cell firing is unclear. In order to directly study the role of the hippocampus in processing elapsed time, we created a novel time duration discrimination task suited for the study of the function of time cells in memory. Twelve rats were tested on a figure-8-maze and experienced a 10- or 20-second time delay at the end of the center arm. During this delay, a 2000Hz tone played for the 10- or 20-second duration. Rats learned to make a decision to turn left or right out of the delay box depending on the associated tone duration (10 seconds = left turn; 20 seconds = right turn). Once the rats reached criterion performance of 90% correct on two out of three consecutive days, they received either an excitotoxic hippocampal lesion or a sham lesion surgery. After recovery, rats were tested to determine hippocampal involvement in discriminating time duration. Results from the time discrimination task will be discussed in terms of the involvement of the hippocampus in the processing of elapsed time.

ELIZABETH PETTY, Gequasha Collins, Kiran Long-Iyer, Jessica Paul, Rachel Blaser, and Jena Hales

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a spatial navigational task that differs from many other behavioral techniques because it allows the observation of behavior in a more naturalistic setting. The goal of the task is not to verify if an animal can do a certain behavior, but to record how the animal behaves in natural foraging conditions. This task involves a variety of cognitive functions, such as spatial processing, memory, attention, route planning, and decision making. Given the established role of the hippocampus in both spatial processing and spatial memory, we examined how hippocampal damage affects rats' performance in the TSP. The rats were trained on the TSP, which involved learning to retrieve bait from targets in a variety of spatial configurations. Rats were then divided into two groups, matched for performance, with one group receiving a hippocampal lesion and the other a control sham surgery. After recovering from surgery, the rats were tested on eight new configurations. A variety of behavioral measures were recorded, including distance traveled, number of revisits, span, and latency. The results showed that the sham group outperformed the lesion group on most of these measures, with the lesion group demonstrating more pronounced impairment on the more complex configurations. Based on histological tissue analysis of each group, we determined that the hippocampus appears to be involved in finding efficient routes, particularly in complex versions
of the TSP.

SYDNEY PIDGEON and Rebekah Wanic

In the years surrounding young adulthood, individuals are challenged with new perspectives, ideas, and understandings of the world and their place within it. In this time of transition, young adults desire to be in a community to affirm and stand beside them in their questioning. Higher education institutions play a vital role in mentoring these students through their transition and equipping them with the knowledge and support. One component of curiosity during the transitional years is a person's sexuality, and how their sexual being fits within their identity. Higher education institutions have not done nearly enough to provide a space for students to discuss this integral part of their identity, and this is especially true for religious higher education institutions. The Christian tradition has been notably silent on issues of sexuality, and for students pursuing a degree at a religious institution, the topic of sexuality often creates shame and confusion. In order to properly support an individual?s personal development and relationship with God, these institutions must introduce conversations about sexuality, especially in relation to humans being created in the image of God. Human sexuality is intimately linked the image of God, and it is essential to affirm and explore the sexual being of every person. This thesis will explore the link between sexuality and faith and the role of religious higher education institutions in promoting this dialogue on their campuses.

MADISON TUNNEY and Nadav Goldschmied

The California Innocence Project Volunteer Internship offers individuals the opportunity to work with attorney's who are dedicated to getting innocent people out of prison. This non-profit law firm provides a unique experience for interns to work with inmates and their families by responding to letters and phone calls asking for assistance in their case of innocence. Volunteers learn the in-depth intake screening process that is needed to organize the thousands of letters received by the organization every year. Interns carefully go through each document sent to the organization to gain evidence and build a case. This detailed process allows the interns to be the first point of contact for inmates and trains their writing, investigating and legal skills. The purpose of this incredible opportunity is to allow interns to gain legal knowledge, assist the attorneys in building a case and above all to help them free the innocent.

MICHAEL APOSTOL and Nadav Goldschmied

Violence has played an integral role in the NHL since its birth (Bernstein, 2006). We first, in-line with past research (Goldschmied & Espindola, 2013), show based on time analysis that fighting is not the result of frustration but possibly calculated behavior. In addition, the current study examines data from hockey fans who rate NHL fights online (i.e., hockeyfights.com and dropyourgloves.com). We show convergence validity between subjective ratings (e.g., "quality" of fight, who won) and objective measures of violence (e.g., punches thrown, punches landed, blood) such that fans evaluate the fight objectively rather than based on their support preferences. This archival investigation is a first step in an effort to debunk "The Spark Hypothesis" held by many players, which contends that triumphing in a fight, may shift game momentum and propel to victory.

NOOR AL JASSIM, SAMANTHA O'BRIEN, and Nadav Goldshmeid

Past research (Rivera, 2012) indicated that hiring processes may include cultural matching between candidates and evaluators. Thus, employers consider personal characteristics of candidates beyond their experience and education. The current study aims to explore whether when making hiring decisions, a candidate who is a fan of the U.S.. National soccer team is preferred over an identical candidate who is a fan of the Mexican National soccer team, and whether this decision is impacted by the position they are applying to: CIA Analyst (a U.S.. National security position) or a U.S.. Agency for International Development Researcher (a non-National security position). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that when applying for the National security position, participants chose an applicant regardless of his fandom; but are more likely to hire an applicant who is a fan of the U.S. National team for the international AID position over a supporter of the Mexican National team.

SARAH PETROVICH and Stephen Pearlberg

Stereotypical parenting roles in the workplace have been assessed, yet few studies have considered whether such stereotypes exist in higher education. Research has shown that parenting roles can influence whether a person is hired, their level of success at work, and their perceived job commitment. The purpose of current research is to examine whether certain perceptions exist for single parents attending college, and if this is moderated by gender. Based on prior research that shows mothers are perceived as less successful than fathers in the workplace, I hypothesize that female single parents attending college will be perceived as less successful than male single parents attending college. To test this hypothesis, college students read a description of either a single mother or single father attending college, then rate their level of success in college and afterward. I predict male participants will report that female single parents attending college are less successful than male single parents. Female participants will perceive no significant difference in success as a product of gender. The results of this research could have important implications for single parents attending college.

MK CLANCY and Andre Der-Avakian

Obesity and the associated comorbidities such as Type 2 diabetes and cancer are a major public health issue. It is generally accepted that the root cause of obesity is a disproportionate amount of caloric intake to energy expenditure. However, recent discoveries have led to an increase in knowledge surrounding the trillions of bacteria living in and on the human body that make up the human microbiome. This has led researchers to shift their focus to examine the obesity epidemic in light of the bacteria that reside in the gut. The gut-brain axis is a plausible mechanism for explaining how the gut microbiome communicates with the brain to impact our physiology and cognition. When certain bacterial populations are too high or low, signals may be sent through the gut-brain axis that affect our feeding behavior. Specifically, skewed levels of the bacteria and phylums H. pylori, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes may cause weight gain by influencing neurotransmitter signaling and fat storage. Although these studies need further examining through longitudinal studies, they provide valuable insight into how the gut microbiome impacts obesity, thereby providing possible means of therapeutic gut bacteria treatments.

LARISSA OLIVAS, DANIELA ABOUCHEDID, RACHEL DAHLE, HILLARY GUERRERO, STEPHANIE ROESSLER,
THOMAS WALKER and Jena Hales

It has been well established that the hippocampus is involved in the formation and retrieval of episodic memories, which contain critical features of space and time. The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) links the hippocampus to other neocortical regions of the brain and is thought to be involved in the processing and learning of spatial information. It has also been suggested that the MEC is involved in hippocampus-dependent temporal processing, although its role remains unclear. Our research investigates the function of the MEC in temporal processing in memory. We have designed a novel time duration object discrimination task to examine rats' ability to learn an object discrimination based on elapsed time. During the task, rats are exposed to a 10-second or 20-second tone and learn to make a decision to displace an object, A or B, depending on the associated delay. Deciding to displace the correct object would demonstrate that rats have learned a specific response based on a certain amount of elapsed time. After rats reach criterion performance of 90% correct object discrimination, they will receive complete bilateral excitotoxic MEC lesions or sham lesions and will be retested on the discrimination task. Results will be discussed in terms of how MEC involvement in learning affects object discriminations based on elapsed time duration.

CATHERINE SHORB and Divya Sitaraman

Lack of sleep has many negative cognitive and behavioral implications, however, it remains unclear if and how sleep deprivation alters neural circuits involved in these processes. The goal of this study is to characterize the effects of sleep deprivation on neural circuits underlying decision-making using genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster that is amenable to multiple experimental approaches. Specifically, we analyzed decisions critical to species success by evaluating the frequency of courting, number of eggs laid, and the type of nutritional media in which to oviposit (egg-lay). Our experiments show that sleep deprivation in wildtype males leads to reduction in courtship behavior which can be mapped to male-specific neural correlate, P1 neurons, but how decision-making processes are altered in sleep deprived female flies is largely unexplored (Mowrey, W et al.). Further, we have developed and validated a binary decision-making behavior in female flies that involves choice of nutritional substrates for oviposition. In the results presented here, we use genetic, pharmacological, and mechanical sleep deprivation protocols to establish the link between distinct modes of sleep deprivation that produce varying sleep needs and decisions. These studies pave way for a more in depth understanding of how different modes of sleep deprivation perturb circuits involved in decision-making processes at the level of neurons, circuits, and overt behavior.

TIFFANY ZHANG and Jillian A. Tullis

Alzheimer’s disease is the third leading cause of death in San Diego County and by 2030, 38% of the population will be 55 and older and at least 10% of those people will have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. With the Internet being the first source that the public uses for health information, it is imperative to have accessible and inclusive language for addressing brain health. To understand if the current communication strategies are supporting both the patients and caregivers, I conducted a thematic analysis of the quality and quantity of the online brain health materials available on the top five organizations serving San Diego. These include AARP, Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s San Diego, Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and San Diego County Aging and Independent Services. Each site was coded for content of information being presented, types of imagery used, quantity of programming, and overall thematic quality. Barriers like health literacy and cultural competence will also be addressed. Based on the interdisciplinary approach of neuroscience and communication studies, this analysis will identify components of effective health communication and offer practical and equitable strategies for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia communication.

TATIANA ZAMORA and Brandon Carlisle

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between self-concept and self-handicapping among Latino college students. Self-handicapping involves actions or inactions that inhibit performance and provides an individual with an external explanation for potential failure. Two hundred nineteen Latino undergraduate students from a diverse Southern California university completed survey instruments measuring self-handicapping, ethnic identity, imposter feelings, and self-esteem. Academic self-handicapping was positively associated with experiencing imposter feelings and negatively associated with self-esteem and ethnic identity development. These relationships are further examined by exploring gender differences and other participant demographic information such as grade point average. The current research contributes to literature that aims to understand maladaptive cognition and behavior in academic settings as well as how they may relate to the psychological experiences of ethnic minority students. Implications for potential intervention are discussed.

ALEXIS NACHT and Veronica Galvan

At the University of San Diego (USD), we have a large military-connected student population that consists of over 750 students. A military-connected student at USD could fall into one of these categories; veteran, ROTC, or other commissioning program member, an active duty member, or a family member/spouse using the GI Bill benefits. Militaryconnected students differ from typical college students and may face challenges that make it more difficult to graduate. The results from a survey comparing the challenges that military-connected students and non-military connected students face will be discussed in three broad categories that may pose challenges: their transition period, academic experience, and social involvement. In addition, non-military students' perceptions of military students will be collected. I also want to learn which challenges are unique to the USD military population versus which challenges are shared with military-connected students at other universities. After data collection is complete, the survey information will provide crucial information pertaining to the well-being of our military-connected student population which can be used to offer more specific 48 programs to these students and make USD's campus better suited for the military-connected student community.

POMAIKAI MURAKAMI and Divya Sitaraman

Sleep plays an essential role in physical and mental health. Sleep improves memory, increases creativity, and aids in decision making. Physically, sleep is important for maintaining hormonal balance, repairing cells, and ensuring a strong immune system. An insufficient amount of sleep can lead to emotional imbalance, difficulty problem solving, poor decision making, obesity, and increased risk of sickness. Thus, sleep is essential for proper functioning. Sleep researchers have discovered that between species, and even within species, sleep duration is extremely variable. Previous research with Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as fruit flies, has established a genetic component to sleep duration through engineered mutations. Is there an advantage to having a higher or lower sleep need? This study explores whether differences in sleep duration impacts reproductive fitness in Drosophila melanogaster. Reproductive fitness is an individual's ability to successfully produce offspring that will survive and pass on its genes. To examine reproductive fitness, male courtship behaviors and female oviposition behaviors were tested in three populations of fruit flies with varying sleep needs: long, short, and normal sleepers. These experiments have identified a specific set of short sleepers named dGRP-38, where the males court significantly more than long and normal sleepers. We will present these ongoing findings and approaches to identify genes critical for the potential link between sleep and reproductive fitness.

ALI MCLAGAN and Jesse Mills 

Science as an institution has a history of exploitation of communities of color. There has been a lot of valuable literature outlining this history and critiquing the power imbalances that result from western understandings of science. These understandings are eurocentric in nature and have given scientists the power to claim inferiority of some people while being backed by their supposed objectivity. Many community knowledge bases have equally valuable knowledge describing our natural world and providing insight on the wellness of its community members. In this study, I will be exploring how some community advocates navigate being institutionally trained scientists in the fields surrounding community wellness while simultaneously being a part of a community that holds equally valuable ideas on wellness. I will be conducting interviews with community advocates from San Diego's East African Immigrant Community to explore how they navigate the power dynamics involved with the scientific institution in which they were trained and the community and which they are a part of and serve. My hope is that these interviews, along with some observation from actively doing work within the community organizations, will allow for some analysis that will give insight into how to engage with both science and community in a way which both recognizes and respects both knowledge sources as valuable to the health of a community.