9.4% of children ages 3-17 have been diagnosed with an Anxiety disorder. An illness so prevalent in our society’s youth should have an effective method for identifying it. Some behaviors have been identified to suggest potential early flags among children developing anxious behavioral patterns. Inhibited temperament is a behavior that in literature has been found […]
A44: The Effects of Psilocybin on Decision Making and Motivation
There has been a resurgence in research regarding the therapeutic potential of hallucinogenic psilocybin. Although this research is promising, much is unknown about how psilocybin impacts behavior from a pharmacological perspective. It is established that psilocybin is a serotonergic agonist with affinities for several different serotonin receptors; binding affinity data indicate that psilocybin has a […]
A45: Evaluation of the Safety of Various E. Coli Derived Tryptamine Compounds
Clinical trials on the use of psilocybin (PSL) to treat depression are promising, but still in preliminary stages. Additionally, they are confounded by the presence of hallucinations, which may not be necessary for its clinical effectiveness but create challenges when designing experiments. Results from our lab have also indicated potential antidepressant efficacy for a number […]
B04: Mental Health in First-Generation Students
We are members of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) scholars that are participating in a first-year research course focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our research project is focused on “Mental Health in First-Generation Students”. Moving to college is the first step towards adulthood and one of the biggest transitions in a person’s life. This […]
B08: What Do First-Year Miami Students Know About Human Trafficking?
Our research question is “What level of knowledge does the average Miami University first-year student have on the subject of human trafficking and how can the University better provide resources to increase awareness?”. The general research area of our project is social sciences with a focus on social justice. We began to research this topic […]
B16:Measuring Attention and Response Dynamics Across Choice Types
Students in the Computational Cognition Laboratory conducted a group project focused on creating a framework to conceptualize and model cognitive processes during typical decision making tasks. Our study explores how decision-making differs depending on whether there is an objective, correct response or whether one is expressing a personal preference. Importantly, this project combined standard choice […]
B21: The Effects of Psilocybin on Maternal Behavior
Certain psychiatric medications, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can be harmful during pregnancy and the postnatal period, having been shown to lead to birth defects and reduce maternal behaviors. These factors may require birthing parents to temporarily stop taking such medications, but ceasing them may pose a risk to the parent. This presents an […]
B29: Examining Sex Chromosome and Gonadal Hormone Influences on Fear Learning in Mice
There are known disparities in susceptibility to psychiatric and stress-related disorders between sexes. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one such case. We used stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL), a validated animal model for PTSD. However, it is unknown if sex differences stem from gonadal (Sry + vs. Sry -) or chromosomal (XX vs. XY) differences. The […]
B31: The Effects of Acute Early Life Stress and Social Buffering on Anxiety Behavior, Corticosterone Secretion, and Receptor Protein Expression in Adulthood
Although the psychopathological impacts of stress are far-reaching, the mechanisms of these consequences remain poorly understood. Recent evidence implicates a social component in the development of stress-induced psychopathologies. The presence of a social partner can ameliorate the consequences of stress exposure, a phenomenon known as social buffering. To better understand this phenomenon, this study sought […]
B35: Power and Privilege: Cultural Ideologies Embedded in Medical Practice that Might Make Intercultural Dialogue More Difficult
Physicians possess a position of power over their patients that can be deepened when factors like race, socioeconomic status, and gender come into play. I’ll be drawing from my immersion experience for global health that I completed this past winter after shadowing surgeons at the Lakewood Regional Medical Center in Long Beach, California. During my […]