Ethnic/racial minorities often face challenges associated with adjusting to a dominant or new host country. These challenges, known as acculturative stress, include difficulties with behavioral, emotional, and social adaptations, and are linked to adverse outcomes. Understanding the degree to which, for whom, and in what contexts acculturative stress may affect mental health is important in designing culturally-informed interventions. Yet, there are several limitations in the current literature on acculturative stress. First, most studies focus on Latino or Asian ethnic groups or international students/cross-national migrants; it is unclear how acculturative stress is differentially associated with health across populations. Second, most studies have focused on mental health outcomes, whereas other important outcomes (academic, relationship) are neglected. Using records from a large-scale meta-analysis project, we conducted a scoping review of research on acculturative stress to characterize the heterogeneity across studies. We performed literature searches using keywords (e.g., “acculturative stress,” “bicultural stress”) in databases including PsycINFO, and identified 3746 relevant studies. Abstract and full-text screening yielded 681 published and unpublished articles eligible for quantitative analysis. Primary studies were included if they measured acculturation in the context of intercultural adaptation and migration, acculturative stress, and health, academic, and relationship outcomes. We coded and summarized sample characteristics of all articles (e.g., % immigrants, % female/woman, mean age). We will randomly select 50 articles that examine acculturative stress and its associations with mental health, academic, and/or relationship outcomes. We will review and present common outcome measures, instruments assessing acculturative stress, and conclusions. We expect the scoping review to indicate patterns, variability, and gaps in the acculturative stress literature. Results will inform future research on overlooked outcomes and understudied populations, and shed light on necessary basic scientific information (e.g., mediators, modifying conditions) that will support the development of culturally-informed interventions and policies.

In recent years, organizations have debated whether elements of “white supremacy culture”, including a sense of urgency, may create inequitable environments for people of color. We aimed to empirically investigate whether cultures of urgency in professional settings undermine the recruitment of racially minoritized groups. Undergraduate participants (N = 219) read job advertisements for two jobs: one where urgency culture is highly valued (e.g., “swiftly reset priorities at any given time”) and one with less sense of urgency (e.g., “adjust priorities based on capability”; order counterbalanced). Participants then reported how likely they would be to apply to each job. We hypothesized that individuals from racially minoritized groups will be more likely to apply to lower-urgency jobs over high-urgency jobs. The results show that most participants preferred lower-urgency jobs. However, countering our hypothesis, individuals from racially minoritized groups held more positive attitudes towards high-urgency jobs (e.g., how well they think they'd perform in the job) when compared to white participants. This finding casts doubt on the proposed elements of "white supremacy culture". It urges for more empirical research on how different racially minoritized groups may perceive these elements in work settings. Furthermore, our sample consists mainly of Asian Americans, which does not speak for the experiences of other racially minoritized groups. Our future research will focus on diversifying samples collected.

Reward-seeking behavior, crucial for survival, is hijacked by various neuropsychiatric disorders, notably substance use disorder. Prior work implicated reward-seeking with the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), a brain structure expressing the endogenous opioid dynorphin (dyn) in 50% of its neurons. Previous studies also linked dyn, signaling through the kappa opioid receptor (KOR), with escalation and reinstatement in drug-seeking, however, the exact mechanisms of dyn-KOR signaling remain unknown. Recent experiments from the Bruchas lab show that supraphysiological release of dyn in the DMS with excitatory optogenetics elicited reward-seeking behavior, demonstrating that dyn-KOR is sufficient for reward-seeking behavior, but not that it is necessary. To provide evidence of necessity, I plan to inhibit dyn-KOR signaling in the DMS by expressing the novel inhibitory optogenetic tool Platynereis dumerilii (PdCO) that we recently showed to be useful for such studies (Wietek et al., Nat Methods, 2024). PdCO is expressed in a target neuronal population and begins inhibiting under 473 nm light. Hence, in this study, PdCO will be injected into the DMS and expressed selectively in dyn neurons. Following recovery, mice will learn a self-administration procedure to study reward-seeking behavior, where sucrose is delivered when mice poke their nose in the correct 1 of 2 holes, with a 5s light cue before reward delivery. Following learning, I will inhibit dyn release in a counterbalanced fashion by activating PdCO using 20 Hz pulsed 473 nm light. I anticipate that inhibiting dyn release would result in reduced sucrose consumption. Finally, I plan to use an extinction learning procedure, where dyn release is inhibited during perceived reward delivery. Here, I hypothesize that inhibition will accelerate extinction learning. By leveraging the specificity of optogenetics on various procedures, this study begins to isolate the exact mechanisms by which dyn-KOR signaling impacts reward-seeking behavior with potential insights for substance use disorder interventions.

Advances in language models have opened up endless applications in the social and health sciences. A key to fulfilling this promise is the development of rigorous practices for gathering data used for model training. This research project reports the development of standardized protocols for building databases for self-reported psychological questionnaires that can be used to fine-tune language models. These questionnaires cover a spectrum from childhood experience to altered states of consciousness and beyond. We systematically review the literature on appropriate database-building strategies, use combined data collection techniques, and instill specific criteria into our collection process to help facilitate the research’s computational pipelines on evaluating the relationship between semantics and psychological factor membership. Using a 2D semantic map of the PsycTests database as a reference, we can further evaluate the effectiveness of our protocols by developing quantitative measures to assess comprehensiveness and objectivity in our database building. Our initial explorations involve measuring data variance and density of data distribution. This research provides a general toolkit for building text databases for appropriate and effective model training purposes across various disciplines.

The COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted Asian American (AA) mental health and their foreign position, underscored by anti-Chinese rhetoric and policies and the concurrent surge in hate incidents, crimes and xenophobia against AAs. However, framing COVID-19 as the sudden cause of anti-Asian hate facilitates misconceptions about AAs: it undermines a storied history in which AAs have long survived and challenged their treatment as “forever foreigners.” To understand the extent to which anti-Asian hate and mental health challenges among AAs during COVID-19 was a unique event in AA racialization, it is paramount to understand AA marginalization and its implications for mental health prior to COVID-19. To do so, I use the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey (CMPS). The survey gathers data on respondent attitudes across a diverse set of political, psychological and socio-demographic measures and is ideal for Asian ethnic subgroups and intersectional analyses of gender, age and immigration generation. My analysis includes bivariate and multivariate regression analyses using the sample of AAs (N= 3006). Thus far, I have found that a substantial proportion of AAs indicate low feelings of belonging in the U.S., personal experiences of racial discrimination, and depressive symptoms. For the project’s next step, I will examine the extent to which AAs share a common foreign experience prior to COVID-19 and how this contributes to depressive symptoms. I expect that there will be significant subgroup differences at the intersections of ethnicity, gender, and immigration generation in the relationship between experiences of racial discrimination, feelings of belonging, and depressive symptoms when community involvement and local contextual factors are considered. This work helps situate anti-Asian hate during the pandemic as part of a more extensive history of racism in the U.S. and broadly, contributes to more informed mental health services by highlighting the implications of racism for mental health.

 The locus coeruleus (LC), a nucleus in the pons of the brainstem, is the primary source of norepinephrine (NE) in the brain and is responsible for regulating arousal and stress responses. The LC also has roles in pain, avoidance and reinforcement learning, exploration, and feeding. How LC neurons are mediated to generate these distinct responses has yet to be defined. One area of interest is the peri-LC, which sends local GABAergic projections to the LC and is thought to modulate physiological arousal through direct inhibition of the LC. The peri-LC is composed of various populations of GABAergic neurons that may contribute to the inhibition of the LC. We were interested in exploring the role of neurokinin1/substance P, nociception, and enkephalin GABAergic neurons. Using vGAT-cre, Tac1-cre, Noci-cre, and Penk-cre mice strains, we injected an excitatory DREADD into the peri-LC to be able to activate genetically defined neural subpopulations within the peri-LC. I ran the mice through open field and elevated zero maze testing to assess anxiety levels. The activation of all peri-LC^GABA neurons led to a decrease in anxiety-like behavior, which is consistent with an inhibition of the LC and a decrease in LC^NE release. In contrast, the activation of peri-LC^Tac1 neurons increased anxiety-like behavior, while the activation of peri-LC^Noci and peri-LC^Penk neurons had no behavioral effect in these assays. Together, these results suggest that the different peri-LC^GABA subpopulations likely represent distinct nodes that differentially integrate novel stimuli to influence distinct behaviors. Understanding how the peri-LC regulates LC function can give insight into the neurobiological basis of arousal and stress-related disorders, which informs our understanding of neuropsychiatric pathologies.

Neuroscience research relies heavily on cell counting to assess brain injury and evaluate neuroprotective treatments. While manual methods (i.e. hand counting) have been used traditionally, automated programs offer the potential for standardized and error-free data analysis. In the context of studying hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a prevalent brain injury in infants, we aimed to assess the accuracy of an automated cell counting program in an in vitro slice culture brain injury model of injury and treatment. Code templates from ImageJ/Fiji were taken and modified using ChatGPT, and other snippets were used and modified from online forums like GitHub. The program searches through folders/subfolders for images, converts them into a binary image based on fluorescence threshold data (used to stain cell nuclei), applies the ImageJ function “watershed” that breaks larger groups into smaller groups, runs the “analyze particles” function which outputs a total cell count based on the size and circularity of the cells, and then saves the final image. Fluorescence threshold, cellular size, and circularity values were determined before data collection by adjusting the values to best fit the final image of a random slice. The settings were then kept consistent within studies. Preliminary results show the program’s high accuracy and precision, with consistent results across caffeine and Azithromycin treatments in our in vitro injury model. Despite yielding higher counts than manual methods, the program remained consistent across models. Validating this automated method represents a significant advancement in research methodology. These programs offer standardized data collection, error elimination, and faster analysis compared to manual counting, potentially saving time and resources for labs. Current limitations in our research involve differentiating between healthy and dead or dying cells, which would be an important future step for automated cell counting.

Humans have a tendency to display greater empathetic and prosocial responses to in-group, compared to out-group members. Within the context of psychological treatment, learning from others such as a therapist or a support person about what is safe or dangerous is an important skill for therapeutic success, yet studies have not systematically examined how group membership based on gender impacts social fear and safety learning. Our study aims to investigate the impact of having the same gender as the learning model on learning safety from others. We will assess extinction learning by measuring skin conductance responses to safety cues versus vicarious reinforcement cues during a vicarious extinction learning task. This project builds upon previous studies showing enhanced safety learning between individuals belonging to the same social groups and aims to examine the interaction between gender categorization and social anxiety. 100 participants (50 Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), 50 Healthy Control (HC)) will be recruited to undergo an extinction task based on an established fear learning paradigm featuring a male learning model. The effect of gender matching on vicarious extinction will be examined by comparing responses between non-male-identifying (out-group) and male-identifying (in-group) participants. We hypothesize that those with the same in-group gender categorization as the model (Gender-Matched) will benefit more from vicarious extinction, as compared to out-group members (Gender-Mismatched). This is evidenced by lower skin conductance responses to learned safety cues during the Extinction and Reinstatement phases of the task, and we anticipate that this effect will be stronger for those in the SAD group. Findings will highlight a potentially significant moderator of vicarious fear extinction and may provide a mechanistic explanation for enhancing fear extinction recall for patients with SAD.

Alcohol and other substance use are associated with a range of negative physical, mental, and social consequences including blackouts, unintended injuries, involvement in interpersonal violence, and other health problems. Young adults in college are particularly at risk for alcohol and other substance use. While existing research on reduction interventions often emphasized individual responsibilities of those that engage in alcohol and substance use, peer interventions remain an overlooked approach to harm reduction. Bystander interventions have been shown to be effective in preventing and reducing the harm of sexual assaults among college students. However, there is less empirical attention on applying bystander interventions to reduce the negative consequences of substance use. An important first step of understanding how to incorporate bystander interventions to address substance use is to have a reliable and valid measure assessing these behaviors. This study aims to develop and examine the psychometric properties of a new bystander behavior scale specific to substance use. Data came from a large multi-site survey study with 930 college students (Mage = 19.39, 69.6% female, 58.1% White). I will conduct exploratory factor analysis to extract underlying factors that best explain the observed correlations between the items. Next, I will examine convergent and discriminant validity of the scale scores by correlating them with established instruments such as Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and Personal Assessment of Responsible Drinker Identity. Individuals who score higher on the bystander behaviors measure are expected to score higher on self-efficacy in resisting alcohol and be more likely to identify as responsible drinkers. Results will provide initial validation data for the bystander behaviors measure and can be used in future research and intervention implementation that address substance use among college students.

Resilience in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is defined by the difference between a person's expected and actual rate of cognitive decline given the severity of their disease. However, the mechanisms behind resilience are still unclear and I wanted to see if the anatomy of the brain over the course of AD could offer any clues. To accomplish this, cognitive tests and brain scans were obtained from patient data taken at Harborview Medical Center. Brain tissue atrophy in regions of interest were defined and combined into two measures. The first--biological subtypes--is whether the disease primarily affected the limbic regions or the cortical regions, while the second is left-right asymmetry. I found that resilience correlated with biological subtypes but not asymmetry. This suggests a way for us to predict resilience to better personalize treatment and eventually find ways to increase resilience.

The use of space to represent abstract concepts is integral to how humans understand and process the world around them. This study is interested in the Western tendency to organize abstract information on a left-to-right basis. This includes the organization of temporal information (the mental timeline) as well as numerical information (the mental number line). Researchers have examined this phenomenon in conjunction with Western left-to-right writing systems and have hypothesized that the development of the mental timeline and number line is strengthened as writing and reading experiences develop. The present study seeks to examine the effects of early literacy skills on the development of the mental timeline and number line, as well as compare how children organize temporal and numerical information. Preschool-aged children (N=24, aged 3.5-4 years, data collection is ongoing) were presented with three cards that either featured events in a story (temporal activity) or different quantities (numerical activity). Participants were then asked to arrange these cards in order of first to last for the temporal activity and smallest to biggest for the numerical activity. Participants also participated in a Concepts of Print assessment to assess their early literacy skills. The number of LTR lines created was compared to Concepts of Print score. Temporal sequences were most commonly represented through left-to-right lines and numerical sequences were most commonly arranged non-linearly, with neither suggesting an association with early literacy. These findings raise further questions on the origins of the mental timeline and number line, as well as imply that literacy skills are not the sole contributor to this development. In examining how literacy skills may contribute to enhancing spatial cognitive abilities related to spatial representation prominent in STEM subjects, we can reevaluate the traditional dichotomy between the arts and STEM fields.

Poor communication within and between teams of health professionals has been shown to lead to errors and negative patient experiences. Daily interprofessional bedside rounds (IBR) in which care team professionals develop and update plans in collaboration with patients and families, are associated with a reduction in these negative outcomes. However, little is known about how IBR and related care outcomes may be influenced by gender differences in patients. In this study, I ask, “Are there gender differences in patient satisfaction with their heart failure team’s rounding model and care plans?” I screened data from questionnaires completed by patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of advanced heart failure at the time of study enrollment, at 10 days post-discharge, and at 30 days post-discharge as part of an ongoing parent study. I stratified data by an individual’s gender indicated in their medical records and cross-referenced that information with self-reported data from enrollment questionnaires. Participant recruitment is ongoing, of the more than 80 current participants, 66% identified as male (n = 56) and 34% identified as female (n = 29). Preliminary results, based on analysis of 23 quantitative questions on perceptions of rounds, indicate that there are gender differences in satisfaction, as nineteen of the questions had a difference in response by gender of .1 or more (including four that had a difference of .4 or more). For example, male participants rated accuracy of communication with their care team at a 4.3 out of 5.0 whereas female participants rated this at 3.8 out of 5.0. Additional research is needed to understand whether these differences are a result of differential treatment of male or female patients by care teams or other factors (e.g. differences in expectations or communication styles) as well as how to improve experiences and outcomes across genders.

Teachers play an integral part in a child's development as they are responsible for educating youth. Since COVID-19, schools are reporting rising rates of teacher burnout (52%) and students exhibiting problematic behaviors (e.g., disruptions [59%], disrespectful [52%], rowdiness [49%]). Disruptive classroom behaviors hinder the ability of teachers to adequately implement curriculum which results in a variety of disciplinary actions administered. My research analyzes the correlation between elementary school teachers' burnout rate and disciplinary actions taken. My data comes from a larger study that examined the implementation of a preventative social-emotional behavioral program in nine different schools. Teachers completed an online survey distributed in the middle of the academic year, including a measure on burnout, and the district provided systematically obtained disciplinary records (i.e., September to December) upon completion of the study. Preliminary analysis is ongoing to examine the relationship between teacher burnout and disciplinary actions recorded. This can be a first step towards improving teachers' professional well-being and creating a more prosocial classroom environment for student growth.

Mentoring is an effective way to improve diversity and retention in STEM fields. The UW Psychology Undergraduate Mentoring Program (PUMP) matches psychology students from underrepresented groups with mentors, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and alumni. Matches are made based on a combination of career interests and personal identities. In this study, we aim to understand predictors of mentees’ success in the program, defined by feelings of belonging, academic preparedness, and satisfaction with the mentoring relationship. These predictors include meeting characteristics and match characteristics. We hypothesized that in-person meetings, more frequent meetings, and greater similarities between mentors and mentees would be linked with greater success. 32 out of 168 mentees completed our survey on Qualtrics in Spring 2023. We measured meeting frequency (“How often did you meet with your mentor during [quarter]?”), format (“In what modality did you meet with your mentor? In-person, video/phone calls, texting, email”), match characteristics (e.g., whether the mentor and mentee shared similar demographics such as BIPOC, first-generation, or gender; how far apart they were in their class levels), belonging (e.g., “I know other people in the psychology major”), preparedness (e.g., “I feel prepared to pursue the psychology major at UW”), and satisfaction (e.g., “My mentor and I have had a successful mentoring relationship”). We will conduct correlations and multiple regression analyses to test the prediction that in-person meetings, more frequent meetings, and greater similarity between mentors and mentees will be linked with higher feelings of belonging, preparedness for the major, and satisfaction with the mentoring relationship. We hope to demonstrate that controllable variables such as these can improve program outcomes. Identifying the most effective program strategies, like in-person meetings or demographics-based matching, can aid mentees in our program and may also guide the development of new mentoring programs in other departments.

Challenges with social-emotional reciprocity, such as initiation of and response to social interactions, are a core diagnostic criteria of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and many children with ASD experience challenges with expressive language. Prior research demonstrates parents are accurate reporters of language and fine motor skills development, but may under report social emotional reciprocity. The goal of my study is to discern how well parent concerns around child social-emotional reciprocity and language correspond to observed virtual interactions with their child. In a larger study investigating interventions for children with social communication concerns, parent participants of toddlers aged 25-41 months (n=41) completed the Toddler Autism Symptom Interview (TASI), a structured interview about core autism symptoms, over Zoom. Parent-child interactions were recorded in the same session while they completed the TELE-ASD-PEDS (TAP), a telehealth ASD assessment for toddlers. As part of the larger study, I am assisting with coding child expressive language, including use of words and multi-word combinations. For my independent research, I am coding child behavior on two tasks from the TAP, ‘calling the child’s name’ and ‘approaching others to play’. ‘Calling the child’s name’ is coded as the number of times the child stopped what they were doing to look at their caregiver when their name was called, while ‘approaching others to play’ is the number of times the child approached their caregiver during a 2-minute period where their caregiver was instructed to sit back and ignore their child. I will compare coded behaviors with corresponding items on the TASI. I hypothesize that parent reports will be more consistent with coded observations for language concerns than for social-emotional reciprocity behaviors. Understanding whether social-emotional reciprocity is being accurately reported by parents can help clinicians provide accurate diagnoses for ASD, especially given the critical role of parents in the diagnostic process.

The potential cognitive benefits of mindfulness meditation, such as its effects on memory processes, are gaining increasing attention. The growing interest in mindfulness meditation as a technique to improve cognitive functions, particularly long-term memory, motivates this investigation. The purpose of this study is to determine how mindfulness meditation affects the individual’s rate of forgetting in long-term memory as practice days increase. Using a computational model of episodic memory fitted to data obtained from an adaptive memory test, the study is able to monitor and predict the rate of forgetting for each individual and acquire a deeper understanding of how mindfulness meditation influences individual differences in memory retention and retrieval. The study will recruit thirty healthy participants through the Psychology Subject Pool of the University of Washington. The participants will be randomly assigned to either a group that practices mindfulness meditation or a control group that engages in podcast listening. For six days, participants will complete online memory tasks before and after each mindfulness meditation session or podcast listening session, while their performance data will be analyzed to model the rate of forgetting. To assess the principal effects of mindfulness meditation on the rate of forgetting, statistical analyses, such as linear mixed models, will be employed. We hypothesized that participants who participate in mindfulness meditation will have a lower rate of forgetting than those in the control group who engage in podcast listening after six days. Moreover, the study also hypothesizes that participants engaging in mindfulness meditation will demonstrate a decreasing rate of forgetting as the number of practice days increases. The finding of this study may inform interventions using mindfulness to enhance memory retention, benefiting those with age-related cognitive decline or stress-related memory challenges. It contributes to understanding the potential of mindfulness in cognitive function and memory-related disorders.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined as a complex developmental condition involving persistent challenges with social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behavior. The development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with altered brain development in infants with high familial likelihood for developing the disorder. Some of the same subcortical regions associated with altered brain development in ASD are also associated with sleep problems, including the hippocampus. Healthy sleep is an integral contributor to brain development during childhood and there is increasing evidence that chronic sleep loss can lead to neuronal loss and impaired functioning. Additionally, the multi-site, NIH-funded Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) has previously reported sleep problems are associated with hippocampal alterations in infants who developed ASD. However, the relationship between sleep problems and altered brain development in autistic school-age children is not well understood, even though clinically significant sleep problems affect 75-80% of this population. Based on prior findings from the IBIS network, this project will examine the relationship between hippocampal volume and sleep problems in 137 school-age children with high familial likelihood of ASD (HL-ASD), no diagnosis of ASD (HL- noASD) and low familial likelihood of developing ASD (LL). Our prior findings suggest there will be differences across the three school aged groups in hippocampal volume, sleep duration, and sleep quality. We also expect that hippocampal volume in the HL-ASD children is differentially affected by sleep quality and sleep duration compared to the HL-noASD and LL children. Understanding the connections between sleep patterns and autism will help steer future research endeavors examining a largely understudied but significant issue. Additionally, this project will provide new insights into the negative consequences associated with chronic sleep loss in autistic children, affecting both their daily functioning and their quality of life.

Universal social, emotional, and behavioral interventions (SEBIs) have been shown to have positive impacts on prosocial behavior in students. When teachers implement SEBIs, their openness to adopt an intervention is an important factor that affects intended student outcomes. Research has shown that a teacher’s openness to SEBIs improves the effectiveness in positively influencing student behavior, which in turn improves student outcomes. This study will investigate the relation between teacher openness towards SEBIs and positive and negative student behaviors. We will conduct a cross-sectional analysis from a survey taken by teachers two weeks after receiving training on an evidence-based intervention. We anticipate that there will be a positive correlation between teacher openness and positive student behaviors. It is vital to understand the connection between teacher openness towards the adoption and implementation of SEBIs and the behavioral outcomes of students as it helps optimize information about how to best support students.

When recalling an event, remembering when things happened is difficult for both children and adults. Across many cultures, we get around this problem by representing time spatially. One ubiquitous way adults and older children use space to represent time is by using a mental timeline: a linear, mental model of time. However, we do not know to what extent the mental timeline might be a product of our biology versus a cultural invention. This study examines whether 6-month-old infants spontaneously map temporal order to a mental timeline. In this task, infants are first habituated to a triplet of images that are either presented sequentially from left-to-right (linearly) or non-linearly across the screen. During the testing phase, infants see the same set of triplets presented centrally in a congruent (where objects are presented in the same order as shown during habituation) and an incongruent (where objects are not presented in the same order) pattern. If infants spontaneously represent temporal order using a mental timeline, they should learn the sequence more efficiently when presented from left-to-right relative to nonlinearly and, consequently, discriminate between the congruent and incongruent sequences at test. In Experiment 1 (N=41, data collected in France), the sequences involved puppet faces. There was no effect of habituation condition on looking times at the test trials. In Experiment 2, we replicated the study using simplified stimuli. Preliminary data (N=22) suggests that again, the proposed hypothesis is not supported. Data are now being collected for an updated version of the task. These results suggest that infants do not spontaneously map time to a mental timeline, suggesting that the development of a mental timeline may be a product of cultural experiences such as exposure to written language.

Primary care providers are responsible for utilizing well-child-check-ups to screen toddlers for autism spectrum disorder and immediately refer children with increased likelihood to diagnostic and intervention services. Participating in intervention services at young ages is extremely impactful as it often allows children to develop their social, cognitive, and language skills. However, it is estimated that only 40% of children who screen at an increased likelihood for autism are being referred to recommended services by their providers. It is especially important to look at autism referral rates as autism is half as likely to receive a referral from a provider than other developmental concerns. This mixed-methods study used a video vignette and focus groups to investigate factors influencing primary care providers’ decision- making regarding autism referral in a well-child-check-up setting. We examine the role of provider attitudes, autism knowledge, and distribution of attention (information providers attend to during a visit). We anticipate that providers will exhibit low knowledge of autism and intervention, and believe information about autism that has empirically been proven to be false. Additionally, we expect that providers pay less attention to clinically significant behavioral information than physical information during a well-child-check-up. Overall, we aim to understand what influences provider’s referral decisions to provide insight on a development of a future primary care provider intervention that supports the increase of autism referral rates. Ultimately, improving the developmental prognosis of children with autism.

Mind-wandering, characterized by the inward direction of attention towards thoughts, represents a widespread cognitive phenomenon that can disrupt task-related attention. Evidence indicates that the frequency of mind-wandering increases during sustained attention tasks, and previous research has proposed several hypotheses, such as resource-depletion, control-failure, and resource-control hypothesis, to explain the increases as well as the declines in task performance from their perspective. This study first aims to investigate the impact of incorporating a strategy of break on the frequency of mind-wandering during a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). It seeks to determine whether a break strategy can mitigate the frequency of mind-wandering and to identify which of the aforementioned hypotheses best fit the experiment outcome. Specifically, it examines whether a rest break or a task-switching intervention can reduce the frequency of mind-wandering, comparing these effects to a no-break condition. Forty students from the University of Washington will participate in a four-part experiment that includes two 480-trial SART tasks, an intervening break condition (rest break, task-switch, or no break), and a concluding questionnaire. Mind-wandering will be measured through thought-probe methodology, and task performance will be assessed using error rates and response times. Additionally, subjective workload and fatigue level will be assessed using NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire. Based on the three existing hypotheses and behavioral data, the second aim of the study is to construct three cognitive architecture ACT-R models, and by comparing different models to reflect potential mechanisms of the role of breaks in mind-wandering.

Sexual dimorphism describes the distinct characteristics between males and females of the same species. These different traits can be traced back to many external and internal factors. Here, we investigated how temperature and habitat influenced the evolution of sexual dimorphism in the mandible of mustelids. Mustelids are a great clade to study sexual dimorphism because of their mandibular diversity that is associated with their diverse diets, behavior, and ecological niches. We test two hypotheses: first, we examined if mustelids in high temperature environments exhibit higher degrees of dimorphism in their mandibles compared to those in lower temperature environments. Second, we test how the degree in dimorphism varies among mustelids inhabiting different habitats. To test our hypotheses, we quantified sexual dimorphism of mandibular size and shape using 3D geometric morphometrics. We then used phylogenetic ANOVAs to test how habitats influenced the degree of mandibular dimorphism and phylogenetic regressions to test how temperature influences the degree of mandibular dimorphism. We predict that mustelids in high temperature environments will exhibit a higher degree of sexual dimorphism than those in low temperature environments. Higher temperatures could correspond to a limited amount of resources which could lead to interspecies competition for food resources. As males and females use different strategies to survive, sexual dimorphism in mandibles size may occur. In our habitat analyses, we predict that mustelids in deserts will exhibit a higher degree of sexual dimorphism compared to those found in other habitats due to the same factors of resource availability and competition. Deserts tend to have scarce resources compared to forests and we believe that sexual dimorphism will reduce this competition. This research is impactful because as climate change is increasing temperatures all over the world, we should be aware of how that is directly affecting species.

By 2050, it is predicted that over half of the global population will be over the age of 65. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we study the impacts of aging on human health and well-being. One major obstacle researchers face in seeking to understand human health relates to the extensive number of newly discovered biological systems that exist and interact in every individual at various levels and timescales. Furthermore, many well-known age-related neurodegenerative diseases are thought to begin years to decades before any clinically relevant symptoms are present. The current study attempts to address some of these challenges by examining the interaction of cognition with immune function, inflammation, gene expression, and the microbiome. This research will allow us to begin unpacking the complex interactions of these numerous biological factors and their impact on natural aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. To accomplish these goals, our project has created and implemented a novel high-throughput cognitive testing system to assess a range of cognitive abilities including, but not limited to, attention, memory, and object recognition, on two species of well-known non-human primates (NHPs). At numerous time points, we concurrently collected and analyzed blood, fecal, and cerebrospinal fluid to characterize each animal's health profile. With our collection of data sets, we anticipate that older NHPs will display higher levels of neuroinflammation and decreased immune function. We hope to find correlations between these factors and other variables with genes that are known to be related to a host of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementia (ADRD), and Parkinson’s Disease, among others. Results from this ongoing project will unravel mechanisms associated with age-related neurodegenerative diseases, allowing for earlier detection; this early detection is regarded as the most effective approach for preventing and treating such diseases.

Elementary school educators are primary influences on children’s development by helping shape their behavior with peers and in the classroom. Employees in education are deferred to by their newer coworkers regarding student interactions and set precedents for students’ school environment. New and seasoned educators’ disciplinary practices greatly vary when addressing students exhibiting problematic behaviors which may differently affect student-instructor relationships. I use an existing dataset from a larger study testing the impact of a novel implementation strategy on the implementation of a universal social, emotional, and behavioral program in nine elementary schools from one district. Educator participants in this study completed a survey battery when starting and ending the school year and the district provided quarterly discipline records via a universal prevention program. The findings identify trends in student disciplinary actions between new (<5 yrs) and experienced (>5 yrs) instructors. Understanding the relationship between teacher tenure and the treatment of student misbehavior is crucial to demystifying the manifestation of poor student enrichment and hostile student-instructor relationships. These findings could suggest how differential disciplinary practices by educators based on their years of experience influence student learning.

Prior research has shown that parent spatial language use predicts child spatial language use, and as a result, a child’s spatial ability. In our current study, we seek to identify factors that influence differences in both parent and child spatial language use. Using a picture book called “Flashlight”, which contains no words, parents were instructed to read aloud to their children (N=75 dyads, range: 2-4 years). Parents created their own story based on the pictures. After the storybook task, the parent and child were given blocks to play with for 5 minutes. Both these tasks seek to examine what types of language are naturally produced between parents and children, such as spatial words, questions, and number words (e.g., “at”, “What animal is that?”, and “one”). The videos of these sessions were manually transcribed. Parents also completed a series of questionnaires on their beliefs about the utility of play and their child’s language, motor, and communication skills. We hypothesize that the more questions a parent poses, the more spatial language a child will produce. This study is multifaceted in that it examines total language used overall (tokens), different types of language, free play, and spatial abilities. Studying these aspects of communication and underlying factors that impact the type of language parents use can lead to a better understanding of children’s spatial development and the factors influencing it. For example, parents who believe that play offers children unique opportunities to learn spatial concepts might use more spatial language with their children during play, which could scaffold their child’s spatial development. By identifying these factors, we can develop ways to increase spatial language use between parents and children, thus facilitating spatial development.

Infants perceive speech and acquire language amidst noisy and complex auditory environments. Thus, elucidation of the cognitive mechanisms governing speech perception under noisy conditions is crucial. Cortical encoding of the speech envelope has been one approach used to study speech-in-noise perception in adults. For infants, research shows that Infant Directed Speech (IDS) facilitates cortical encoding of the speech envelope in quiet conditions more than adult direct speech. However, it is unclear whether infants are able to track the IDS speech envelope amidst competing speech. To investigate this, we recorded the neural responses from 40 typically-hearing infants (20 seven-month-olds, 20 eleven-month-olds) to continuous IDS using electroencephalography (EEG) in three conditions: Quiet, Co-located Noise, and Separated Noise. The target stimuli consisted of naturally recorded IDS produced by two female English speakers. The noise stimuli consisted of a four-person babble constructed from audiobooks read by 2 male and 2 female English speakers. We presented stimuli at an overall level of 70 dB SPL via speakers placed at 0°, +90°, and -90° azimuth to infants sitting on a caregiver’s lap in a sound-attenuated booth. Our team analyzed EEG signals using the Multivariate Temporal Response Function (mTRF) toolbox in MATLAB. This backward modeling approach assesses whether the stimulus envelope can be reconstructed based on the recorded neural responses. Reconstruction accuracies greater than chance were observed in all three conditions for the majority of infants, suggesting that we were able to decode the speech envelope in both quiet and noise. Participants demonstrated the capacity to process speech, even amidst competing auditory stimuli, emphasizing speech perception competencies from an early developmental stage. These results support using the envelope model and mTRF method as a feasible method for investigating the development of speech-in-noise perception in infants and young children.

Prosocial behavior is important to many species and its disruption is a hallmark symptom of many diseases and disorders such as autism. Previous research has shown that the mesostriatal network, which consists in part of neurons located in the midbrain that make the neurotransmitter dopamine and release it downstream in the nucleus accumbens, plays an important role in prosocial behavior. Dopamine neurons express the potassium ion channel Kv7.3 and mutant variants of Kv7.3 have been identified in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we investigate how the Kv7.3-R2C variant found in ASD patients impacts social behavior and dopamine release in mice. We use viral strategies to express human Kv7.3-R2C in mouse dopamine neurons and a genetically encoded dopamine sensor (dLight1.3) in the nucleus accumbens during a social operant task. We found that while Kv7.3-R2C expression decreased social reward in an operant task rewarded with social behavior, dopamine release was similar between groups. Findings from this study help improve our understanding of how deficits in the mesostriatal pathway may lead to decreased social interaction in patients with ASD.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a psychiatric treatment which has shown promise for experimental treatment of memory loss in Alzheimer’s Disease. rTMS uses a coil and electric current which is able to create a magnetic field that can depolarize neurons noninvasively and induce synchronized activity of large populations of neurons, ultimately inducing, lasting changes through synaptic plasticity. Alzheimer’s disease patients show disruptions in the Default Mode Network (DMN), a network of brain regions which is typically active at rest. The DMN has an important role in memory consolidation and is disrupted in Alzheimer's Disease. We hypothesize that strengthening the default mode network through rTMS applied to area left 8AV of the frontal cortex will create improvements in patient memory. To answer this question, we are performing a single-blind, single-arm, randomized cross-over trial of rTMS on early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients. Region 8AV is located by using MRI scans obtained before patients receive either the sham or experimental procedure. This region was chosen due to its connection to the default mode network and previous promising TMS research. Our primary outcome measure is the speed of forgetting, a new, reliable index of memory function obtained by fitting a computational model of episodic memory to behavioral data from an adaptive memory test. Due to the frequent use of rTMS in mood disorder treatment, we are using depression and anxiety scales to track possible mood improvements as a secondary outcome measure. MRI scans will also be analyzed to see if the experimental treatment caused any structural differences in patient brains. Should our hypothesis be correct, we expect to see improvements in memory or cessation of memory decline in patients. Successful treatment would provide a novel target for Alzheimer’s Disease treatment using rTMS, and additional evidence for the continued investigation of rTMS for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Anxiety and depression are becoming more prevalent and are an increasing public health concern. People with certain personalities are particularly vulnerable to developing anxiety and depression. Personality is commonly measured using the Big Five Personality test, which groups personality traits into five scales that a person can score high or low on. One of these traits is Neuroticism (N), which measures people’s propensity towards anxiety, depression, and self-consciousness, as well as the degree to which people find the world distressing and threatening. Emotion reactivity (ER) is a facet of N and falls under the former half of this definition. Past research has shown that those with high N and ER are at risk for developing anxiety and depression. One possible way to reduce this risk is through studying how people regulate their emotions. While past research has already shown that certain regulating strategies reduce the risk of anxiety and depression, my project is examining their efficacy for people with high ER. Specifically, my research is predicting anxiety and depression symptoms from participants’ levels of neuroticism with emotion regulation use as a moderator. I am measuring ER with the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), emotion regulation with the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), depression with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) depression scale, and anxiety with the PROMIS anxiety scale. Data was collected from a baseline study on students at the University of Washington (n=268). Due to past research on different emotion regulation strategies, I predict that participants with high emotion reactivity who use maladaptive strategies will score higher on the anxiety and depression scales. In contrast, people who score high on the emotion reactivity scale and use adaptive strategies will score lower on the anxiety and depression scales. Broadly, this study hopes to further our understanding of potential risk and protective factors related to internalizing disorders in at risk populations. If results are consistent with my predictions, the analysis could suggest possible means of providing relief for people with anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Seriously ill hospitalized patients and their families experience elevated stress, anxiety, and depression, resulting from factors like the complexity of serious illness, fragmented medical care, and transitions across settings. They struggle to navigate treatment options, make difficult decisions, and express their values and goals to their clinicians. In addition to communication challenges between patients and clinicians, poor communication among healthcare team members exacerbates the stress associated with serious illness. The aim of this study was to continue work from previous Facilitating Communication Studies to gain knowledge from bedside nurses' experiences with collaborative communication (CC) between patients and families and their healthcare team, and to elicit ideas from nurses about what might improve CC within the hospital system. We defined CC as patients and families being active participants with their healthcare team working towards shared goals of care. We recruited and interviewed 15 bedside nurses from ICU and acute care units at Harborview Medical Center. Following each interview, we input each participant's audio-recorded content into a matrix table, created summaries of each transcript, and synthesized content across transcripts to distill major themes. Nurses reported that breakdowns in CC most often occur when multiple clinicians are involved, during transitions of care, and during the discharge process, resulting in confusion and distress for the patient, family, and bedside nurse. Suggested solutions to overcome these barriers include (1) promoting in-person interactions by rounding as an interprofessional team, (2) inviting bedside nurses to goals of care meetings, (3) implementing a CC training program for clinicians to standardize the CC approach among team members, and (4) empowering patients and families to initiate CC by educating them about their role in their healthcare. These suggestions should be implemented in a future Facilitating Communication Study to reduce distress for seriously ill patients, their families, and their healthcare team. 

Spatial skills are crucial for understanding and navigating the physical world around us. Previous research indicates spatial development begins in infancy, with sex differences present early on. These skills are predictors of later STEM achievement, highlighting the importance of nurturing them from a young age. Our study explores the impact of spatial language and play style on infants’ spatial development. We replicated a change detection mental rotation task for infants using an eye-tracker (N = 115, 47 girls, M age = 11.21 months). As infants preferentially look at novel stimuli, we recorded looking time as a measure of recognition of a change in stimulus. Additionally, we observed parent-infant dyads during play, and parents completed a survey on their infant's play, language, and motor skills. We hypothesized that parents would use more spatial language during spatial play than non-spatial play. We were also interested in whether play and language use varied by child sex. Infants showed no preference for the novel stimulus in the mental rotation task, suggesting it might not effectively measure mental rotation in infancy. Parent-infant dyads varied in engagement with the spatial toy, and no significant sex differences emerged from these measures. Due to the null findings in our change detection task, we will be designing and testing a new task for measuring mental rotation ability in infancy. Furthermore, we will also conduct analyses on the relationship between individual differences in spatial language and play to explore how these factors impact the development of spatial abilities. These findings provide insights to better support spatial development in early life.

The latest developments in health applications for large language models (LLMs) have shown promising prospects in providing preliminary diagnoses based on user symptoms, especially appealing to patients with mild conditions who prefer online consultation over in-person clinic visits. However, the accuracy of these symptom-based decisions remains uncertain. This gap is more pronounced in mental health applications, where there is a noticeable lack of research on the efficacy of LLMs in offering effective treatment advice. Our study addresses this issue by evaluating systems through a combined analysis of LDA topic modeling, word frequency analysis, and cosine similarity analysis, examining how chatbots based on LLMs utilize data from the American Psychological Association to provide diagnostic information and the accuracy of their treatment advice. We found that while these chatbots can provide highly accurate diagnoses and corresponding treatment recommendations for virtual patients, they typically offer less information about the prescribed treatment needed compared to human psychologists; moreover, chatbots based on LLMs tend to mention common relevant words across all topics, whereas responses from psychology experts are more likely to cover most relevant words within a topic. This raises discussions about the significance and limitations of LLMs in mental health diagnosis and treatment advice, calling for a highly academic approach.

The intersection of data visualization and qualitative research has seen a lack of importance within the scientific field. Its potential to advance the field is diminished due to the challenges researchers face when working with qualitative data and the lack of appropriate visualization methods. WordStream is a qualitative data visualization type that aids researchers in visualizing nuanced perspectives of qualitative data. Within the user study, we purposefully recruited participants who have a background in STEM education research along with qualitative methods. We present a user study of two WordStream-based platforms, Journal Data Dashboard and WordStream Maker, that surveyed participants in STEM education research who use qualitative methods to garner insights. A mixed-method study allows us to examine visualizations and a questionnaire to explore our topic. Our initial study consists of 4 respondents, with a plan to increase to 10 respondents. We apply a Likert scale to our questionnaire to investigate and measure the ease of use and usefulness. Additionally, our method analyzes open-ended questions regarding trust, envision use, and desired features. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, we report user preferences between the two qualitative visual analytic platforms. Two themes emerged: (1) Users prioritize functions that increased their visual control to explore the data in context; (2) Users’ perspectives reflect a strong context of use in evaluating the WordStream functions related to their areas of expertise. Preliminary findings from four participants show that users prefer the Journal Data Dashboard to the WordStream Maker for ease of use and usefulness. The study is ongoing, and we will present additional data and the implications of the findings for improving Wordstream and designing other qualitative visual analytics.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that is characterized by difficulty in social cognition, communication, and behavior. Social cognition refers to mental processes related to how individuals perceive, process, and respond to social information. Elpers and Coyle (2021) found that there is a correlation between social cognition and general intelligence for adults with ASD. However, there is limited research on this relationship in younger age groups and for individuals without ASD. The goal of this study is to replicate the findings from Elpers and Coyle (2021) examining the relationship between social cognition and the intelligence quotient (IQ) in adolescents and young adults with and without autism. 193 participants (ASD = 96) from the NIH funded study on sex differences in autism were included in the sample. To measure social cognition, participants completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), a 36-item assessment measuring Theory of Mind or the individual's ability to recognize that others may have different mental states. Participants also completed the differential ability scale (DAS-2) as a measure of verbal IQ. We expect positive correlations for RMET scores and verbal score, in that as RMET scores increase, verbal IQ scores will also increase for adolescents and young adults with and without ASD. We will also explore how age impacts the scores, as we expect older children and young adults to have more verbal skills, hence performing better on the RMET measure. The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between social cognition and intelligence from adolescents and young adults to the existing data that has been previously gathered. 

Periodontal disease is a prevalent oral disease most frequently found in older adults, and left untreated can lead to inflammation, bone loss, and patients may lose their teeth. Treatment of periodontitis includes repeated maintenance by a dentist and surgical procedures. These treatments can be invasive and time-consuming and do not target the underlying molecular changes that occur during the aging process. Previously, the mTOR pathway was shown to decrease inflammation and bone loss during periodontal disease in aged mice. Here, we investigate if targeting a marker upstream of mTOR, called colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R), can recapitulate the effects of targeting mTOR. CSF1-R plays a role in inflammatory diseases by regulating myeloid cell lineages such as macrophages and osteoclasts. We hypothesize that inhibiting CSF-1R will decrease the expression of inflammation markers associated with periodontal disease in aged mice. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to identify relative expression levels of various inflammatory markers involved during aging and periodontal disease, including IL1-a and IL1a. Quantitation and analysis were completed by first standardizing target genes relative to ß-actin and GAPDH expression. Data was analyzed where appropriate using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc Tukey test for multiple comparisons, where p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Statistical analysis was completed on GraphPad Prism 10.0. Our analysis demonstrates that CSF-1R inhibition decreases multiple cytokines involved during periodontal disease and major isoforms of the PI3K pathway. These findings indicate the importance of the CSF1R signaling along the mTOR pathway and possible implications for future research. This study was supported by the VitaDAO/Molecule Longevity Fund to Dr. Jonathan An, Oral Health Sciences

During mitosis, the kinetochore plays a central role in ensuring the proper segregation of chromosomes by connecting them to spindle microtubules, which facilitate the equal distribution of chromosomes to daughter cells. In budding yeast, the Dam1 complex is an essential protein complex that binds the kinetochore to spindle microtubules. The Dam1 complex strengthens the kinetochore-microtubule attachment by self-assembling into a sliding ring around microtubules. This self-assembly occurs at nanomolar concentrations of the complex in the presence of microtubules, but in their absence, appreciable oligomerization occurs at concentrations in the micromolar range. Dimers of the complex predominate in high salt concentrations (500 mM NaCl). This is thought to be due to hydrophobic interactions between the monomers. Yeast strains relying on human histones in place of their yeast histones grow slowly. This slow-growth phenotype is rescued by several different mutations in the Dam1 complex. Preliminary characterization of the mutant Dam1 complexes led to the hypothesis that the mutations that allow the yeast cells to adapt to the humanized histones changed the monomer-dimer equilibrium for the Dam1 complex. To measure the affinity of Dam1 complex monomers for each other, I purified the wild-type and mutant protein complexes and used size-exclusion chromatography and mass photometry to determine the different quaternary structures that arise at different concentrations of the complex. I found that each mutation that enhances growth of yeast strains with humanized histones decreased the affinity of the Dam1 complex monomers for each other. The results of this investigation yielded a greater understanding of the requirements for accurate chromosome segregation.

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), often experience co-occurring language impairments, including grammatical and lexical difficulties. Word segmentation, or the ability to identify word boundaries in continuous speech, is done through statistical learning and identification of speech cues. Recent studies in typically developing infants have shown a linear relationship between the ability to recognize words from continuous speech and the size of an individual's lexicon. The neural activity of the cerebral cortex, specifically the delta frequency band (1-4 Hz), contains the time scale of words and phrases. The delta band was found to track speech rhythm, along with semantic dissimilarity between successive words. Extracting acoustic features from sound signals and their linguistic representations (syllables, words, and phrases) is essential for speech comprehension. This study aims to look at the relationship between delta power recorded via scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) and communication skills in children with and without ASD. 193 participants (ASD = 96) from the NIH study on sex differences in autism were included in the sample. EEG recordings were collected while participants listened to phonemes that were statistically presented to result in 4 learned nonsense words. Parents completed a semi-structured interview on their child’s communication skills. EEG delta power was calculated over frontal, central and posterior regions of interest (ROIs). We expect children with ASD (compared to typically developing children) to have decreased delta power during nonsense word perception and lower delta power will be related to lower communication ability. This study will provide insight into the relation between neural perception of language and verbal communication in children with ASD.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects around 1 in 6 children and 1 in 65 adults in the United States. Autistic individuals experience difficulties in social communication, interaction amongst peers, and language skills; any of the symptoms of ASD cause an influx of other problems that continue into adulthood; these differences may impact self-esteem and feelings of acceptance. Previous research has shown that a history of mental health concerns is related to worse Quality of Life (QoL) in individuals with autism as they transition into adulthood. This project aims to examine mental health comorbidities and self-reported QoL in adults with autism. 44 autistic adults from the NIH funded study on sex differences in autism were included. Participants completed a self history of current mental health diagnosis (anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD etc.) and self reported QoL. Participants were grouped into 3 groups based on diagnosis: 1 (no diagnosis), 2 (1 diagnosis), and 3 (2+ diagnosis). QoL scores for each group will be calculated from the World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). I predict that individuals with more comorbid mental health diagnoses will have lower QoL scores. These data will inform us of how additional mental health struggles may impact quality of life in individuals with autism.

Latino people constitute the largest minority in the U.S., and diabetes is an urgent health issue that impacts the Latino community at twice the rate as white Americans. Existing literature on Latino populations suggests that culturally competent care is critical for important health outcomes like satisfaction, and interventions to improve cultural competency in diabetes care for Latino patients significantly impact clinical outcomes. However, there is limited research on how Latino patients define culturally competent diabetes care. Previous research in South Asian communities demonstrates that the pathologization of culturally relevant foods may cause diabetic patients to face poor metabolic control and increased risk of complications, leading to higher healthcare costs and lower quality of life. Despite research indicating that food pathologization is a barrier to high-quality diabetes care for some minoritized groups, previous research on diabetes care in the Latino community does not focus on food pathologization in diabetes care.Through an ethnographic study in clinics in the Greater Seattle area, we seek to understand the experiences of Latino people managing type 2 diabetes related to discussing culturally relevant foods with providers. We will recruit Latino patients to participate in structured interviews exploring how providers discuss culturally relevant dietary choices in diabetes care appointments. We will conduct content analysis to uncover themes related to food pathologization and the downstream impacts of how providers discuss food choices with Latino patients. By studying the relationship between possible food pathologization and diabetes care, we hope to contribute to a holistic understanding of the benefits of culturally competent care. Ideally, our findings may help to reduce food-related stigma and prejudice experienced by Latino diabetes patients.

Sensory processing is a process in which the nervous system receives, processes, and integrates incoming sensory input from the environment to allow individuals to perceive and respond to their surroundings. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social and behavioral skills. Many individuals with ASD experience hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli, thus individuals with ASD may experience more difficulty when navigating the world around us. These sensory challenges may result in increased anxiety symptoms. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between sensory processing and anxiety in autistic and typically developing (TD) adults. 256 participants (ASD = 149) ages 18-35 from a NIH funded study on sex differences in autism were included. Participants completed two self-report questionnaires: “Sensory Processing 3-Dimensions Scale” (SP3D) measuring sensory processing difficulties in auditory, visual, and tactile domains, and the “Screen for Adult Anxiety Related Disorders'' (SCAARED), measuring the intensity or frequency of anxiety symptoms and assessing four factors of anxiety (panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and social phobis disorder). Correlations will be used to compare SP3D scores and SCAARED scores. Given the hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli in ASD, we hypothesize the effects of anxiety symptoms will be increased in the ASD group who experience more domains of hypersensitivity. The results of this study will contribute to a greater understanding of the effect sensory sensitivity has on anxiety in adults with ASD.

In this pilot project, we conducted think-aloud interviews with undergraduate students who had recently completed CHEM 142 as they worked through a set of multiple-choice, general-chemistry questions in order to investigate the levels of cognition they exhibited during problem solving. In collaboration with members of my research group, I designed recruitment materials and selected eight undergraduate interviewees from a pool of around 50 volunteers, with attention to diverse identities— including race, gender, sexuality, disability, prior courses in science/math, and parent’s educational background—as such identities and experiences may influence what problem-solving skills one has acquired. I co-developed the interview format, and conducted two of eight interviews. Participants were asked to narrate their approach while solving four multiple-choice CHEM 142 questions, then to critique the questions in terms of relative difficulty. The questions we used were previously characterized according to Marzano and Kendall’s New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by a group of chemistry educators from our research group. I developed and refined a modified version of Marzano’s Taxonomy inspired by Teodorescu’s work in introductory physics (Teodorescu et. al., 2013), and am using it to code the interviews according to cognitive level exhibited by the interviewees. My preliminary results suggest that students approach a particular question in a variety of ways, engaging different levels of cognition. Students who display mastery of a concept tend to utilize lower cognitive levels, apparently due to familiarity with the concepts. Students who seem less familiar with or state they are struggling with a topic tend to employ more cognitively demanding strategies, whether or not they arrive at the correct answer. I will also discuss a comparison of the cognitive level exhibited by students to the level predicted by previous group members for each question, and any observations unique to different student identities.
 

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior or interests. ASD is associated with features beyond its core characteristics, including alexithymia and anxiety. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty recognizing and describing one’s own emotions, it influences physical and mental health, and it is associated with symptoms of anxiety. Despite current research demonstrating the correlation between alexithymia and anxiety in both ASD and the general population, there remains a significant research gap in how alexithymia and autism traits individually and collectively influence anxiety levels among the participants. This study has two aims: 1) To explore the relationship between alexithymia and anxiety in participants with ASD and TD. 2) To analyze the role of alexithymia as a mediator of the relationship between autism traits and anxiety in adolescents and young adults. This sample includes 149 participants (93 ASD) ages 15-34, from the NIH funded study on sex differences in autism. Measures included alexithymia via the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), anxiety via the Screen for Adult Anxiety Related Disorders (SCAARED), and autism traits via the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). We will first conduct regression analyses to examine the relationships between alexithymia, anxiety, and autism traits. Then, we will employ Preacher and Hayes’ INDIRECT Method to investigate the mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between autism traits and anxiety. We expect to see a significant relationship between alexithymia and anxiety in both groups and the relationship between alexithymia and anxiety in the ASD group to be significantly different than TD group. Understanding the relationship between anxiety and alexithymia could aid in the development or improvement of interventions for anxiety in people with ASD.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impacts many different aspects of the individual’s functioning, especially cognitive and social functioning. Previous research has found that social pragmatic problems were positively associated with problems with inhibition and emotional control. Additionally, research has shown a relationship between greater executive function challenges and more social challenges among 6-12 year old children, however, no significant sex differences were found between executive functioning (EF) and social challenges. This study leveraged a large sample of sex matched adolescents with and without autism to investigate the relationship between executive functioning and social functioning. 318 participants (ASD =163), ages 8-17 from the NIH funded multisite study on sex differences in autism were included. Parents of participants completed the Brief Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), a 86-item questionnaire with eleven sub-scales that measures executive functioning ability. Parents also completed the Social Responsiveness Scale -2 (SRS-2), a 65-item questionnaire with five sub-scales that measures autistic traits. Correlations within ASD and TD groups will be conducted between BRIEF EF subdomains and SRS social communication index. In addition, sex differences will be analyzed for BRIEF and SRS scores within each diagnostic group. We expect that the ASD group will have elevated scores on BRIEF and SRS compared to the TD group, consistent with greater executive functioning challenges and more autistic social traits. Within the ASD group, greater executive functioning difficulties will be related to more autistic social behaviors. This research can help understand more about the variability between EF and social functioning in individuals with autism.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by distinct social-communication differences and restricted and repetitive behaviors. There is heterogeneity in the presentation of social functioning in autistic individuals, which may be attributed to sleep quality, alexithymia, and anxiety. Insomnia, prevalent in autistic children, was linked to higher levels of autistic traits, specifically, difficulties in social skills and relationship formation. Alexithymia, difficulty in describing and identifying emotions, has been reported in 55% of autistic youth. Anxiety severity, specifically social anxiety, is also negatively correlated with social functioning for autistic youth. This study aims to investigate the relation between sleep quality, alexithymia, and anxiety to social functioning in autistic adults. In a sample of 131 adults (ages 18-26, 51% female), we conducted a multiple regression analysis, with social skills as the dependent variable and sleep quality, alexithymia, and anxiety as the independent predictor variables. Sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire, alexithymia with the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), anxiety with the Adult Behavior Checklist - Self Report (ASR), and social functioning with the Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition (SRS-2). We hypothesize that sleep quality, alexithymia, and anxiety will each independently impact social functioning. This study contributes to the understanding of factors that influence heterogeneity in social functioning amongst autistic adults. Findings on predictors of social impairment may inform targeted interventions for and benefit the lives of autistic adults.

Experiencing a stressful situation in the presence of another person can lead to two distinct outcomes: a decrease in fear response (social buffering) or an increase (social contagion). Understanding these phenomena and the factors influencing them is essential for advancing the treatments for anxiety and fear-related disorders. In this study, I am investigating how gender and social context can impact fear response and risky decision-making. To do this, I am using a naturalistic foraging task that allows rats to exhibit a wider range of behaviors and provides data that more accurately reflects real-world scenarios beyond the laboratory. The study involves alternating between paired and single trials where rats (n = 10) venture from a safe nest to retrieve food in an open arena where a realistic aerial predator can emerge. I am measuring fear responses to the predator through various quantitative variables, including the latency to leave the nest, the latency to retrieve the pellet, and the number of attempts made. I have concluded data collection on the male pairs, revealing an unexpected trend: male rats displayed greater fear responses in paired trials, indicating social contagion rather than the anticipated social buffering. This preliminary finding suggests that the presence of a single companion may heighten fear responses. I hypothesize that female rats will show a similar (intensified) trend because they tend to be more cautious foragers.

Multitasking, such as walking and talking, is common for humans and other animals, yet animals are limited in how many behaviors they can perform simultaneously. The neural circuit mechanisms that limit multitasking are not well understood. Uncovering these mechanisms will help us understand how brains seamlessly combine behaviors. In turn, this will improve our understanding of some disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease, wherein certain symptoms, like difficulties with walking and talking, are exacerbated during multitasking. I am investigating how neural circuits for known behaviors interact to limit multitasking in a genetic model system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. During the first year of my project, I developed a rig to record complex behaviors and I added optogenetic activation to the rig in order to activate neurons that drive one motor program during single and multitasking contexts. I am now preparing to conduct experiments with this rig, comparing the probability that a fly extends a wing (driven via optogenetic stimulation) while resting (single-tasking) vs. walking (multitasking). I expect that a fly will have a higher wing extension probability while single-tasking than while multitasking. The results of my project will help uncover how neural circuit interactions shape an animal’s ability to multitask.

What is personal space? It describes the “invisible bubble” immediately around an individual, where intrusion by others may feel uncomfortable or even threatening. Despite personal space being important for determining the size and dynamics of large groups and how animals behave, it is unknown how animals generate and maintain their sense of personal space. I explore this question using Drosophila flies, a powerful model system for studying behavior. Individual flies communicate via a large set of behaviors (e.g. kicking, flicking the wings, flying, and running) that can shape group interactions. Between pairs of flies, there is a rich repertoire of interactions that cause them to either move away (e.g. appendage touching) or move closer (e.g.courtship behaviors). To capture these behaviors, I use high resolution cameras running at 150 fps to collect videos of flies interacting in a circular arena and deep-learning software for annotating body parts (SLEAP). I use this data to track the poses of multiple flies throughout time and quantify appendage touching behaviors in addition to an estimate of each fly’s personal space. Using optogenetics, I model a situation in which a wild-type fly responds and adapts to being surrounded by other flies that crowd tightly. One expected outcome is that the wild-type fly will increase appendage touching in response to the space around itself shrinking. My goal is to determine exactly how the dynamics of such inter-fly interactions form a sense of personal space for each fly. My work will uncover the patterns of interactions that develop personal space and how these patterns scale out to larger social networks.

Gun violence is a prevalent and rising issue in the United States. However, limited research assesses the connection between gun prevalence and public health outcomes. Previous research indicates healthcare professionals are hesitant to have a role in addressing the rising gun violence statistics. Another previously drawn implication is that gun violence is associated with worse behavioral and physical health. These findings led us to pursue our research. This project aims to acquire quantitative insights into the relationship between neighborhood-level gun prevalence and violence and neighborhood-level utilization of primary healthcare. Within the context of this study, neighborhood gun prevalence and violence are defined as instances of violence encompassing firearm-related fatalities or the mean quantity of firearms within households. We define utilization of primary healthcare as a composite of a variety of healthcare variables, including, but not limited to, the percentage of dental check-ups, the percentage of the population with established primary care providers, health indicator screenings, and vaccination rates. We are using data from the Seattle & King County Public Health Database to examine the association between our variables of interest at the neighborhood level. We will conduct a linear regression model to statistically examine the correlation between the utilization of primary health care and neighborhood gun violence statistics. We anticipate that the findings of this study will elucidate a discernible correlation between indicators of primary care access and firearm-related violence at the neighborhood level in the Puget Sound region. We intend to employ this data to aid local public health officials in understanding and addressing the correlation between healthcare disparities and gun violence. Subsequently, this information can serve as a foundation for their efforts in formulating population-level legislation aimed at mitigating healthcare disparities to alleviate firearm violence at the neighborhood level.

Plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus) are seasonally reproducing teleost fish found along the Pacific Coast of North America. During the non-reproductive months (December-February), midshipman live offshore in deep waters. Between March and July, they migrate to the intertidal zone to reproduce. During the reproductive period, dominant (type I) males build and defend nests and hum to attract female mates. Unlike most vertebrates, courtship (humming to attract mates) and parental care (egg cleaning, nest defense) are both conducted only by type I males. These males therefore face energetic and temporal trade-offs between courtship to parental care within a single reproductive season. Our research investigates the neural mechanisms underlying the transition from courtship to paternal care in type I males during the reproductive period. We propose that this behavioral shift is regulated by steroid hormones (i.e. testosterone and estrogen) and neuropeptides (i.e. galanin). We are measuring hormone levels in blood and brain of midshipman fish across various conditions of courtship and parental care. We show the relationship between changes in steroid and neuropeptide levels in both blood and brain and changes in courtship and parental care behavior in type I males. Understanding these mechanisms in midshipman fish is crucial, as the steroid and neuropeptide pathways that regulate social behaviors share similar pathways across vertebrates. Therefore, studying this in teleost fish can provide valuable insights into the broader regulatory mechanisms of reproductive life-stage transitions in vertebrates.

Smartphone use among adolescents has dramatically increased in the past decade, with adolescents allocating more time inside on their screens and less time outside in nature. Given these shifts in behaviors, there has been a rise in concerns about the impact of smartphones on adolescents’ mental health. Studies on nature exposure have found that spending time in nature promotes human well-being; however, a limited body of research exists exploring how smartphone use impacts our ability to experience these physical and psychological benefits of nature exposure. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a between-subjects experiment with college students at the University of Washington (N ~ 40) randomly allocated to one of two conditions to spend 20 minutes in nature: a smartphone condition and a no-smartphone condition. Participants self-reported on positive and negative affect and rumination before and after their experience in nature. After completing these scales, participants reported on their experience of Presence, a state of being in which the mind is highly aware but without active thought, by self-reporting on a recently validated 14-point scale and writing about it for further analysis using an interaction pattern approach. I anticipated that participants who feel more attached to their smartphones spend more time using them in nature and, in turn, are less likely to experience the emotional benefits of nature. If the findings reflect this, future research should explore how smartphones impact adolescents’ mental health and the extent to which smartphone-free time spent outside in nature can improve their well-being.

In recent years, screen time has become an integral part of daily life for people of all ages, whether that be using social media, entertainment apps, or engaging in various online activities. However, many researchers worry that too much screen time may have negative impacts on one’s well-being, especially when it comes to adolescents and to young adults. This study analyzed the impacts of screen time on college students’ social well-being. The Social Model of Well-Being Scale (Keyes, 1998) was distributed online through Qualtrics. The survey also asked participants to report their average daily screen time and which category their most used application falls into (social media, entertainment, creativity, information and reading, etc.). We hypothesized that higher screen time would negatively impact college students’ social well-being. Participants were aged 18-64 and were students at a public 2-year college in the Pacific Northwest. Participants were recruited through voluntary sampling via recruitment posters around campus and through several psychology professors offering extra credit for participation in the survey. As data collection is still ongoing through the winter, the preliminary results (N = 166) revealed that the average social well-being score was 41.56 (SD = 7.28) with a range of 18-64, with higher scores indicating a greater sense of social well-being including social integration, acceptance, contribution, and cohesion. Cell phone use ranged from 30 minutes to 20 hours a day, with an average of 5.73 hours per day. 63% of the sample also reported social media as their most used application. Our findings will provide insight into the mental health of 2-year college students as it relates to screen time. This information may aid in the development of on-campus resources to decrease screen time and increase social well-being.      

The term “nature”, as a concept, is incredibly vague and abstract. There is no single definition that fits how all people interpret nature. The disagreement over what qualifies as "nature" is evident; for instance, some may regard a small patch of grass in a bustling city as nature, while others would completely disagree. Many researchers have attempted to understand differences in what is and is not included in individuals' definitions of nature. This includes, but is not limited to, whether or not humans, and our human-influenced environments (e.g., parks or farms) may be considered nature. Questions also arise about which natural elements—such as bodies of water, vegetation, weather, and animals—are encompassed in different definitions of nature. Ideas relating to vastness, degrees of wildness, and type of landscape have also been considered. Gaining a better understanding of how people define nature is imperative for interpreting nature-related measurement scales, understanding how peoples’ experiences influence their nature-related thinking, shaping legislation and policy, and guiding environmental management. This poster conducts a review of literature exploring individuals’ definitions of nature. It aims to examine similarities and differences amongst existing frameworks, synthesizing and offering a comprehensive catalog of different definitions. This review provides the basis for planned research exploring how demographics (e.g., ethnicity, culture, political affiliation, urban/rural residency, age, gender, religion/spirituality, etc.) shape individuals’ definitions of nature.

We looked at the effect of age on location discrimination and reversal learning in horses. In location discrimination the animal learns to select a reinforced location and ignore other unreinforced locations. In reversal learning, the reinforced and unreinforced locations are switched. Research with humans and animals has found that while age has no effect on initial learning, older animals show impaired reversal learning since this task requires greater cognitive flexibility. Based on this information, we predicted that older horses would learn the location discrimination as quickly as younger horses, but would show impaired reversal learning due to age-related cognitive decline. We recruited 27 horses aged 5-27 years from Overlake Farm in Bellevue. All horses learned to discriminate between two locations, approaching a location that had a pan with food more quickly than a location with an empty pan. We then examined reversal learning by switching the location of the pan with food and the empty pan. As predicted, compared to younger horses (aged 5-17 years), older horses (aged 18-27 years) learned the location discrimination task as quickly as younger horses, but showed impaired reversal learning, primarily as a result of their inability to inhibit previously reinforced approach responses. Horses showed signs of frustration and aggression during reversal trials, so we conducted a systematic analysis of anticipation and frustration behaviors for 15 horses that participated in 2023. We predicted that they would show positive food anticipation behaviors when approaching reinforced locations, and frustration behaviors when approaching previously but no longer reinforced locations during reversal trials. This research is the first to explore the behavioral indicators related to cognitive processes involved in reversal learning, and these tests of cognitive flexibility serve as a potential use for future diagnoses of cognitive decline in older humans and animals.

This poster describes a qualitative study highlighting the intersection of ethnic identity and Christian faith in shaping South Asian college students’ perceptions of LGBTQ+ individuals. Current sociopolitical climates toward LGBTQ+ individuals in South Asian countries tend to be hostile, and even South Asian communities within the United States can reflect similar beliefs. Zaidi (2014) found that shame in the South Asian community was in conflict with a desire to express one’s queer identity among South Asian youths (Zaidi, 2014). Moreover, environmental factors such as the religious setting might contribute to varying perspectives regarding LGBTQ+ individuals; in the current study, we highlight faith-based higher education institutions (i.e., Christian university) as an institution that can shape views regarding LBTBQ+ folks and their experiences. We conducted 6 semi-structured interviews with South Asian college students enrolled in a Christian university located in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. Our three-member research team transcribed the interviews, coded the transcriptions, and placed the codes in themes according to Braun and Clarke’s (2006) guidelines for Thematic Analysis. The four themes that we identified include support for LGBTQ+ people on campus, Christian messaging around LGBTQ+ identity, South Asian communities, and participant’s own attitudes. These major themes also included subthemes, some of which are campus advocacy and protests influenced participant’s beliefs, feelings of an internal struggle, attitudes of South Asian communities, and individual affirming attitudes. Broadly, we found that the participants viewed their own South Asian communities as generally silent or passive in LGBTQ+ dialogues, and that their Christian campus promoted both helpful and unhelpful conversations about the topic. We will present some implications for practice in higher education around fostering an inclusive space for LGTBQ+ individuals, especially as they pertain to intentional integration of culture-specific (e.g., South Asian) and religious (e.g., Christian) perspectives.

There is a growing emphasis on providing "equitable" mental health care, and yet ‘equity’ is seldom defined clearly. Publicly-funded community mental health clinics’ (CMHCs) clinicians often serve clients from minoritized and underrepresented backgrounds, and thus may regularly observe and address equity issues, making their perspectives invaluable. This qualitative study explores CMHC clinicians’ perspectives of equity in their clinical practice. Our data was obtained from an online cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) training initiative in Washington State targeting CMHC clinicians serving youth. Participating clinicians (N = 245) received nine consultation sessions from CBT experts over a six-month period and completed pre-training and post-consultation surveys. In the pre-training survey, we asked clinicians to define equity and list resources they would want access to that can improve their consideration of equity in their practice. Descriptive statistics summarized clinician demographics. Using thematic analysis, clinicians’ open-ended responses were coded to identify emerging themes. Clinicians were predominantly female (74.7%), White (58.8%), had a master’s level training (90.2%), and a mean age of 34.2 years (SD = 9.3). After coding clinicians’ definitions of equity, ‘accommodation’ (i.e., tailoring services to clients) was the most endorsed theme (38.8%, n = 95), followed by ‘equality’ (i.e., treating clients the same; 19.6%, n = 48) and ‘fairness’ (i.e., treating clients with justness, 17.6%, n = 43). When asked about resources that could improve their considerations of equity, clinicians’ responses most frequently included diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) trainings, expanding reach to more diverse populations, equity-focused supervision, and financial aid (e.g., gas cards, food pantry). While CMHC clinicians’ perceptions of equity included common themes, their understanding may at times conflate equity and equality. These findings highlight the importance of increasing access to DEI-focused trainings and supervision along with other resources to assist CMHC clinicians in delivering equitable care.

People are more likely to stigmatise the mental health of an out-group compared to an in-group member. People are also more likely to distribute resources toward in-group than out-group members. The present study applies these findings to understand how likely a person is to appraise another’s mental health experiences as legitimate and share mental health resources with them based on identified social groups. Participants recruited from the University of Washington Psychology Department subject pool were randomly assigned to one of four different conditions. They read a vignette about a hypothetical individual with or without a specified diagnosis of OCD who attends the University of Washington or Washington State University. The participants reported their legitimacy appraisal of the outlined mental health challenges and their willingness to share mental health resources with the target. I hypothesise that participants who read a description of an individual from Washington State University without a specified diagnosis will rate the individual’s mental health condition as less legitimate. I also hypothesise participants who read about an individual from Washington State University without a specified diagnosis will be less likely to share mental health resources with them. The findings of this study will help shed light on the type of stigma surrounding mental health and resource sharing from the perspective of social groups. In turn, the findings can help the public recognise more acute mental health biases they may hold and thus work towards dismantling them. This can foster the growth of a more empathetic and united community.

While research on burnout has focused specifically on service-oriented roles (e.g., healthcare), recent trends indicate a growing prevalence of burnout in academic settings. Burnout syndrome (BS) is a set of psychological symptoms arising from interplay of chronic occupational stress and individual factors. These symptoms often manifest as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished professional satisfaction. Academic burnout has become a concern due to its association with poor academic performance, dropout rates and mental health symptoms (e.g., depression & anxiety). This study employed a pre-and post-design, assessing burnout before and after a burnout management workshop. An online survey via Qualtrics gathered data from community college students in the Pacific Northwest (N = 28, primarily women (78%), aged 16-20 (63%), including dual enrolled high school students. The survey employed a revised Purdue Burnout Questionnaire and collected demographic information. The burnout management workshop, facilitated by two psychology faculty members, addressed burnout facets and various management techniques. We hypothesized that participating students would show improvement after attending the workshop. Initial analysis revealed a reduction in total burnout scores before and after the workshop. Despite a noteworthy decrease, the change did not reach statistical significance. This nonsignificant trend suggests a positive direction, and further qualitative data, scheduled for collection in Spring 2024. Understanding and addressing academic burnout is crucial as it directly correlates with students' academic performance and mental health. By examining burnout in the college setting, we hope to contribute valuable insights that can inform policies and interventions to create a more supportive academic environment. 

Cellular retinoic acid binding proteins (CRABP) are soluble proteins that play an important role in binding to retinoids, primarily all-trans-retinoic acid (atRA). RA isomers and their metabolites play a vital role in embryonic development and the central nervous system. CRABP binding regulates retinoid signaling. Retinoid binding affinity to CRABP is described by the equilibrium dissociation constant K_d. CRABP1 interacts with atRA metabolizing enzymes, where relative concentrations of atRA and CRABP1 determine the rate of atRA metabolism. Therefore, measurements of the accurate K_d for endogenous retinoids to CRABP1 are an important aspect of understanding retinoid signaling during development. My goal was to determine the binding affinities of various endogenous retinoids to CRABP1, using a modern fluorescence spectrometric assay and lower CRABP1 concentrations compared to historical methods. The Norris equation was fit to the data to determine the K_d from the decrease of peak tryptophan fluorescence as retinoid bound to CRABP1. The calculated K_d was <1 nM for atRA, 3-10 nM for 4-oxo-atRA, 50-100 nM for 9-cis RA, and near 1 uM for 4-oxo-13-cis and 13-cis RA. When the K_d is much lower than CRABP1 concentration, binding of the retinoid to CRABP1 results in depletion of the retinoid in solution and hence an overestimation of the K_d value. As this work uses lower CRABP1 concentrations than previous studies, the predicted K_d estimates for retinoids that tightly bind to CRABP1 would be lower and more accurate. This is supported by the data. While the K_d of atRA is similar to its endogenous concentration in human plasma, the K_d of the other retinoids tested are much higher than their concentrations, suggesting that small fractions of these retinoids are bound to CRABP1 in vivo. Knowing these K_d values may give insight into how altered CRABP1 concentrations impact development through their modulation of RA concentration.

Burnout is high among community mental health providers (CMHPs) and is important to remediate due to its associations with poor provider well-being and worse quality care. CMHPs’ clinical supervisors are well-positioned to address burnout, though little is known about whether supervisors implement burnout strategies that are perceived to be helpful by CMHPs. Thus, the purpose of this project is to investigate at what rates strategies identified as helpful by CMHPs are currently used by supervisors. Given the exploratory nature of this project, there were no a priori hypotheses. This mixed-methods study was conducted as part of an ongoing Washington state-funded evidence-based treatment (EBT) initiative called CBT+ which trains CMHPs serving youths in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression, anxiety, trauma and behavior disorders (Dorsey et al., 2016). Participants (N=197) were CMHPs that participated in the 2022-2023 CBT+ training cohort and were predominantly masters-level, White, and identified as women. CMHPs were asked in a survey “How could your supervisor or agency help reduce your burnout?” and indicated whether or not (yes/no) each strategy was currently used by their supervisor/agency. Burnout solutions were coded inductively using thematic analysis by two independent coders who met weekly to resolve discrepancies. Chi-square goodness of fit tests and confidence intervals were used to examine and compare the rates of use for the solutions endorsed by at least 10% of CMHPs: Time off (endorsed by 26.9%), General self-care (16.2%), Supervision sessions (12.7%), Flexible work arrangement (12.2%), Check-ins (12.2%), Manageable caseload (11.2%), Morale/team building (11.2%), and Engaged supervisor (10.7%). Study findings can help mental health agencies and supervisors focus efforts on ways to implement strategies that are less often used to reduce CMHP burnout, and ultimately increase the quality of mental health care for youths.

Housing First (HF) is low-barrier, permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness without the prerequisites of attaining abstinence. Past research shows that in-person harm reduction treatment for alcohol (HaRT-A) within HF facilities are preferred because they focus on client-centered goals and improving quality of life. Unfortunately, COVID-19 caused significant disruptions to in-person service provision, and although they requested remote alternatives, currently no services or best practices for HF residents exist. This ongoing project is adapting HaRT-A into a digital platform (eHaRT-A), which when completed, will be tested among HF residents with alcohol use disorder. Our project aims to examine barriers to technology use among HF residents through user-centered design (UCD) principles to improve the acceptability of eHaRT-A. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with HF residents (n=31) discussing technology literacy, viewpoints on technology use, and HaRT-A. Findings highlighted that only a few residents are comfortable enough to use technology on their own; thus, eHaRT-A will be better implemented as a “telehealth station” that is set up in a “somewhat common,” “but still private” environment. Some residents (n=10) were recruited as consultants on the Community Advisory Board (CAB) to provide ongoing input on the eHaRT-A platform. Over a one-year period, UCD interviews on low- and high-fidelity prototypes were conducted with the CAB to inform iterative changes made to the eHaRT-A platform. Within our team, I took this feedback and adjusted HTML and JavaScript code to reflect what is preferred. Feedback included a preference for a “whimsical” theme, presenting personalized feedback through line graphs to show change over time, and interpolating reported outcome measures (e.g., substance use frequency/related-consequences). These findings offer insight into best practices for implementing eHaRT-A within HF facilities. This project serves as a foundation for future eHaRT-A phases and provides the necessary tools to integrate digitized healthcare for underserved communities.

In recent years, organizations have increasingly expressed support for efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Some of these efforts are informed by research on how to promote DEI, but much of this research on how to communicate and promote DEI in organizations fails to account for qualities of the communicator, that is, the diversity specialists charged with operationalizing and implementing DEI sentiments to improve organizational equity and inclusion. Critically, communicators bring their own social identities (e.g., gender, race) and experiences (e.g., status, power) to their work. This proposal aims to better understand how DEI personnel in the public sector experience their roles, understand their jobs and their ability to effect change, as well as consider how their personal identities interact with their work. We are conducting semi-structured interviews with DEI management personnel across cities in Pacific Northwest states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska). Participants will be asked about their perceptions of their job responsibilities as well as their backgrounds and identity. We will be coding interview responses to examine the pressures that individuals feel in their jobs, constraints they experience in how they can advocate for DEI as a function of their social identities, how they conceptualize and communicate the importance of DEI. By better understanding the daily experiences of implementing DEI practices in organizations, this proposal aims to improve our understanding of efforts to improve DEI in public organizations.

Social connection is fundamental to human well-being, encompassing mental and physical health, and overall quality of life. The importance of forging deep, meaningful relationships is a key focus within relationship sciences. Evidence from 140 studies highlights the significant impact of loneliness on health, equating its risk to that of severe health behaviors and conditions, such as heavy smoking. This underscores the essential role of close relationships in maintaining health. The process of building these relationships, according to relationship sciences, involves mutual disclosure and perceived responsiveness. While extensively studied in individual interactions and laboratory settings, group dynamics remain less explored. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), a treatment developed at the University of Washington that is practiced by clinicians worldwide, indicates that relationships strengthen when vulnerable disclosures are met with validating and compassionate responses. The principles of FAP, distilled into the concepts of Awareness, Courage, and Love (ACL) are now being disseminated to the general public through the ACL relational model. A randomized-controlled pilot study with 10 participants evaluated the impact of a three-week ACL group intervention on depression in a clinically depressed sample, using the Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale for assessment. The intervention, focusing on exercises in self-disclosure, reflection, and compassionate response, demonstrated promising results. Participants showed significant reductions in depression symptoms and increased self-compassion compared to a control group engaging in self-guided, personally meaningful activities. This study indicates the potential of ACL group interventions in enhancing self-compassion and alleviating depressive symptoms, highlighting the importance of supportive group dynamics in mental health improvement. The findings advocate for the integration of relationship-focused practices in mental health interventions, emphasizing the value of vulnerability and mutual support in fostering psychological well-being.

Chronic motor deficits are one of the most debilitating symptoms experienced by individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Use-dependent physical rehabilitation is the current standard of treatment after chronic injuries, but typically leads to marginal recovery of motor function, creating a need for interventions that target chronic motor damage. Our laboratory developed a neuromodulatory intervention that utilized targeted delivery of quipazine, a broad-spectrum serotonergic agonist, to improve motor function in a rat SCI model. Chronically-injured rats received physical rehabilitation combined with intraspinal delivery of quipazine. Our results show after a severe SCI, delivery of quipazine caudal to the lesion promoted substantial and long-lasting recovery, compared to physical rehabilitation alone, as assessed through changes in forelimb-motor performance. In the present study, we will use electrophysiology to assess changes in corticomuscular connectivity via motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) between motor-cortical areas in the brain and forelimb muscles. MEPs will be recorded in wrist flexors, wrist extensors, and triceps through chronically-implanted wires, and are elicited by electrical stimuli delivered to the motor cortex (via microwires in the rostral and caudal forelimb areas). An increase in MEP amplitude is indicative of strengthening corticomuscular connections. MEPs will be assessed before, during, and after a therapy period consisting of physical rehabilitation and delivery of quipazine. Additionally, MEPs will be recorded before the cervical contusion SCI to acquire pre-injury baselines. Weekly changes in MEP amplitudes, relative to pre-injury levels, will be compiled and compared to changes in motor performance. We hypothesize quipazine will increase motoneuron excitability and firing caudal to the lesion, which will strengthen corticomuscular connections between the motor cortex and forelimb muscles that were weakened by the cervical SCI. We expect increases in MEP amplitude will be correlated to behavioral improvements. Our experiments will establish a high-sensitivity metric for quantifying the electrophysiological mechanisms behind quipazine-driven motor repair.

Heschl’s gyrus (HG) is a region of the brain containing the primary auditory cortex. The extent of folding within the HG shows high morphological variability across individuals. Interestingly, increased HG folding is more likely to be found in expert than amateur musicians, suggesting a possible role of auditory experience in shaping HG gyrification. In my research, I examined HG folding in blind individuals—another population with extensive auditory experience. I hypothesized that, if experience alters HG structure, then individuals with early-onset blindness might have increased HG gyrification compared to those with late-onset blindness or those who are sighted. I analyzed T1-weighted images collected from previous MRI studies at the University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania, and Oxford University. The combined dataset included 6 anophthalmia (individuals born without eyes), 48 early blind, 18 late blind, and 28 sighted control participants. I created hand-drawn HG regions of interest for each participant in both hemispheres and measured HG gyrification in two ways: 1) by visually categorizing the extent of HG folding (single, partial, or complete duplication), and 2) by obtaining continuous metrics (gyrification index and curvedness index) using FreeSurfer. A chi-squared test revealed that the degree of HG folding was not different across the four groups. A linear mixed-effects model (controlling for the effects of age, hemisphere, and scan location), similarly showed no effects of group on the gyrification index or the curvedness index. To conclude, my findings show that blindness does not affect HG gyrification. The results challenge the idea that auditory experience alters HG structure and offer important insights into previous findings in professional musicians. Our results suggest that the prevalence of duplicated HG in musicians may be the result of individuals with larger processing capacity within the auditory cortex being more likely to take up music as a profession.

Burnout presents a significant challenge for mental health clinicians, affecting not only their well-being and turnover rate but also the quality of care provided to clients. Moreover, studies have shown that clinicians working in community settings face more burnout compared to those in private practice. Among the factors that have been implicated in clinicians’ burnout are the level of education, limited experience and training opportunities, individual variables, and demographic factors. In this study, I examined how clinicians’ reported competencies in core cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) skills for treating anxiety, depression, trauma, and behavioral concerns are associated with their experiences of burnout. I further evaluated whether the relationship between competencies in core CBT+ skills and experiences of burnout is moderated by CBT+ training. The study draws on a diverse sample of 200+ community mental health clinicians who took part in Washington State’s CBT+ training initiative. I employed t-test and multiple regression models to analyze the data. Based on these analyses, there are anticipated insights of uncovering clinician experiences in how clinicians’ level of CBT skills and professional training experiences intersect with burnout. Findings are expected to inform targeted interventions aimed at reducing burnout and enhancing clinician retention across the workforce.