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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/6
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Publication Open Access Self-Help Plus for refugees and asylum seekers; study protocol for a series of individual participant data meta-analyses(Taylor _ Francis, 2021) Karyotaki, Eirini; Sijbrandij, Marit; Purgato, Marianna; Lakin, Daniel; Bailey, Della; Peckham, Emily; Uygun, Ersin; Tedeschi, Federico; Wancata, Johannes; Augustinavicius, Jura; Carswell, Ken; Valimaki, Maritta; van Ommeren, Mark; Koesters, Markus; Popa, Mariana; Leku, Marx Ronald; Anttila, Minna; Churchill, Rachel; White, Ross; Al-Hashimi, Sarah; Lantta, Tella; Au, Teresa; Klein, Thomas; Tol, Wietse A.; Cuijpers, Pim; Barbui, Corrado; Department of Psychology; Acartürk, Ceren; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 39271Background: refugees and asylum seekers face various stressors due to displacement and are especially vulnerable to common mental disorders. To effectively manage psychological distress in this population, innovative interventions are required. The World Health Organization (WHO) Self-Help Plus (SH+) intervention has shown promising outcomes in reducing symptoms of common mental disorders among refugees and asylum seekers. However, individual participant differences in response to SH+ remain largely unknown. The Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis synthesizes raw datasets of trials to provide cutting-edge evidence of outcomes that cannot be examined by conventional meta-analytic approaches. Objectives: this protocol outlines the methods of a series of IPD meta-analyses aimed at examining the effects and potential moderators of SH+ in (a) reducing depressive symptoms at post-intervention and (b) preventing the six-month cumulative incidence of mental disorders in refugees and asylum seekers. Method: RCTs on SH+ have been identified through WHO and all authors have agreed to share the datasets of the trials. The primary outcomes of the IPD meta-analyses are (a) reduction in depressive symptoms at post-intervention, and (b) prevention of six-month cumulative incidence of mental disorders. Secondary outcomes include post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, well-being, functioning, quality of life, and twelve-month cumulative incidence of mental disorders. One-stage IPD meta-analyses will be performed using mixed-effects linear/logistic regression. Missing data will be handled by multiple imputation. Conclusions: these results will enrich current knowledge about the response to SH+ and will facilitate its targeted dissemination. The results of these IPD meta-analyses will be published in peer-reviewed journals.Publication Open Access High-throughput automated phenotyping of two genetic mouse models of huntington's disease(Public Library of Science, 2013) Oakeshott, Stephen; Shamy, Jul Lea T; El-Khodor, Bassem Fouad; Filippov, Igor V.; Mushlin, Richard A.; Port, Russell G.; Connor, David; Paintdakhi, Ahmad; Menalled, Liliana B.; Ramboz, Sylvie; Howland, David S.; Kwak, Seung; Brunner, Dani; Department of Psychology; Balcı, Fuat; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 51269Phenotyping with traditional behavioral assays constitutes a major bottleneck in the primary screening, characterization, and validation of genetic mouse modelsof disease, leading to downstream delays in drug discovery efforts. We present a novel and comprehensive one-stop approach to phenotyping, the PhenoCube™. This system simultaneously captures the cognitive performance, motor activity, and circadian patterns of group-housed mice by use of home-cage operant conditioning modules (IntelliCage) and custom-built computer vision software. We evaluated two different mouse models of Huntington's Disease (HD), the R6/2 and the BACHD in the PhenoCube™ system. Our results demonstrated that this system can efficiently capture and track alterations in both cognitive performance and locomotor activity patterns associated with these disease models. This work extends our prior demonstration that PhenoCube™ can characterize circadian dysfunction in BACHD mice and shows that this system, with the experimental protocols used, is a sensitive and efficient tool for a first pass high-throughput screening of mouse disease models in general and mouse models of neurodegeneration in particularPublication Open Access The after-hours circadian mutant has reduced phenotypic plasticity in behaviors at multiple timescales and in sleep homeostasis(Nature Publishing Group (NPG), 2017) Maggi, Silvia; Balzani, Edoardo; Lassi, Glenda; Garcia-Garcia, Celina; Plano, Andrea; Espinoza, Stefano; Mus, Liudmila; Tinarelli, Federico; Nolan, Patrick M.; Gainetdinov, Raul R.; Nieus, Thierry; Tucci, Valter; Department of Psychology; Balcı, Fuat; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 51269Circadian clock is known to adapt to environmental changes and can significantly influence cognitive and physiological functions. In this work, we report specific behavioral, cognitive, and sleep homeostatic defects in the after hours (Afh) circadian mouse mutant, which is characterized by lengthened circadian period. We found that the circadian timing irregularities in Afh mice resulted in higher interval timing uncertainty and suboptimal decisions due to incapability of processing probabilities. Our phenotypic observations further suggested that Afh mutants failed to exhibit the necessary phenotypic plasticity for adapting to temporal changes at multiple time scales (seconds-to-minutes to circadian). These behavioral effects of Afh mutation were complemented by the specific disruption of the Per/Cry circadian regulatory complex in brain regions that govern food anticipatory behaviors, sleep, and timing. We derive statistical predictions, which indicate that circadian clock and sleep are complementary processes in controlling behavioral/cognitive performance during 24 hrs. The results of this study have pivotal implications for understanding how the circadian clock modulates sleep and behavior.Publication Open Access The development of social comparisons and sharing behavior across 12 countries(Elsevier, 2020) Samek, Anya; Cowell, Jason M.; Cappelen, Alexander W.; Cheng, Yawei; Contreras-Ibanez, Carlos; Gomez-Sicard, Natalia; Gonzalez-Gadea, Maria L.; Huepe, David; Ibanez, Agustin; Lee, Kang; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Salas, Natalia; Tungodden, Bertil; Wong, Alina; Zhou, Xinyue; Decety, Jean; Department of Psychology; Selçuk, Bilge; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 52913Humans are social beings, and acts of prosocial behavior may be influenced by social comparisons. To study the development of prosociality and the impact of social comparisons on sharing, we conducted experiments with nearly 2500 children aged 3–12 years across 12 countries across five continents. Children participated in a dictator game where they had the opportunity to share up to 10 of their stickers with another anonymous child. Then, children were randomized to one of two treatments. In the “shared a little” treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 1 sticker, whereas in the “shared a lot” treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 6 stickers in the same game. There was a strong increase in baseline sharing with age in all countries and in both treatments. The “shared a lot” treatment had a positive treatment effect in increasing sharing overall, which varied across countries. However, cross-cultural comparisons did not yield expected significant differences between collectivist and individualist countries. Our results provide interesting evidence for the development of sharing behavior by age across the world and show that social information about the sharing of peers is important for children's decision making.Publication Open Access Youth with chronic health problems: how do they fare in main-stream mentoring programs?(BioMed Central, 2018) Lipman, Ellen L.; Dewit, David; DuBois, David L.; Larose, Simon; Department of Psychology; Gürel, Gizem Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 222027Background: Youth with chronic physical health problems often experience social and emotional problems. We investigate the relationship between participation in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada community-based mentoring programs (BBBS) and youth social and mood outcomes by youth health status. Methods: Youth newly enrolled in BBBS were classified by health status (one or more chronic physical health problems without activity limitation, n = 191; one or more chronic physical health problems with activity limitation, n = 94; no chronic health problem or activity limitation, n = 536) and mentoring status (yes/no) at 18 month follow-up. Youth outcomes measured at follow-up were social anxiety, depressed mood, and peer self-esteem. Results: Youth with chronic health problems and activity limitation were more likely to live with two biological parents, use mental health or social services, and have parents who reported difficulties with depressed mood, social anxiety, family functioning and neighbourhood problems. At 18 month follow-up, mentored youth in this health status group experienced fewer symptoms of social anxiety and higher peer self-esteem compared to non-mentored youth. Mentored youth with chronic health problems without activity limitation andmentored youth with no health problems or limitations did not show significant improvements in social anxiety and peer self-esteem. Regardless of their health status, mentored youth reported fewer symptoms of depressed mood than non-mentored youth. Conclusions: Youth with chronic health problems, particularly those with activity limitation as well, demonstrate a capacity to experience social and mood benefits associated with mentoring.Publication Open Access The relationship between co-speech gesture production and macrolinguistic discourse abilities in people with focal brain injury(Elsevier, 2018) Chatterjee, Anjan; Department of Psychology; Akbıyık, Seda; Karaduman, Ayşenur; Göksun, Tilbe; Master Student; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; N/A; N/A; 47278Brain damage is associated with linguistic deficits and might alter co-speech gesture production. Gesture production after focal brain injury has been mainly investigated with respect to intrasentential rather than discourse-level linguistic processing. In this study, we examined 1) spontaneous gesture production patterns of people with left hemisphere damage (LHD) or right hemisphere damage (RHD) in a narrative setting, 2) the neural structures associated with deviations in spontaneous gesture production in these groups, and 3) the relationship between spontaneous gesture production and discourse level linguistic processes (narrative complexity and evaluation competence). Individuals with LHD or RHD (17 people in each group) and neurotypical controls (n = 13) narrated a story from a picture book. Results showed that increase in gesture production for LHD individuals was associated with less complex narratives and lesions of individuals who produced more gestures than neurotypical individuals overlapped in frontal-temporal structures and basal ganglia. Co-speech gesture production of RHD individuals positively correlated with their evaluation competence in narrative. Lesions of RHD individuals who produced more gestures overlapped in the superior temporal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule. Overall, LHD individuals produced more gestures than neurotypical individuals. The groups did not differ in their use of different gesture forms except that LHD individuals produced more deictic gestures per utterance than RHD individuals and controls. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that co-speech gesture production interacts with macro-linguistic levels of discourse and this interaction is affected by the hemispheric lateralization of discourse abilities.Publication Open Access Children's associations between space and pitch are differentially shaped by language(Wiley, 2022) Dolscheid, S.; Çelik, S.; Erkan, H.; Majid A.; Department of Psychology; Küntay, Aylin C.; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 178879Musical properties, such as auditory pitch, are not expressed in the same way across cultures. In some languages, pitch is expressed in terms of spatial height (high vs. low), whereas others rely on thickness vocabulary (thick = low frequency vs. thin = high frequency). We investigated how children represent pitch in the face of this variable linguistic input by examining the developmental trajectory of linguistic and non-linguistic space-pitch associations in children who acquire Dutch (a height-pitch language) or Turkish (a thickness-pitch language). Five-year-olds, 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 11-year-olds were tested for their understanding of pitch terminology and their associations of spatial dimensions with auditory pitch when no language was used. Across tasks, thickness-pitch associations were more robust than height-pitch associations. This was true for Turkish children, and also Dutch children not exposed to thickness-pitch vocabulary. Height-pitch associations, on the other hand, were not reliable-not even in Dutch-speaking children until age 11-the age when they demonstrated full comprehension of height-pitch terminology. Moreover, Turkish-speaking children reversed height-pitch associations. Taken together, these findings suggest thickness-pitch associations are acquired in similar ways by children from different cultures, but the acquisition of height-pitch associations is more susceptible to linguistic input. Overall, then, despite cross-cultural stability in some components, there is variation in how children come to represent musical pitch, one of the building blocks of music. Research Highlights Children from diverse cultures differ in their understanding of music vocabulary and in their nonlinguistic associations between spatial dimensions and auditory pitch. Height-pitch mappings are acquired late and require additional scaffolding from language, whereas thickness-pitch mappings are acquired early and are less susceptible to language input. Space-pitch mappings are not static from birth to adulthood, but change over development, suggesting music cognition is shaped by cross-cultural experience.Publication Open Access Parental sexual abuse and suicidal behaviour among women with major depressive disorder(Sage, 2012) Talbot, Nancy L.; Ward, Erin A.; Duberstein, Paul R.; Department of Psychology; Çankaya, Banu; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and HumanitiesObjective: Women with major depressive disorder (MDD) and childhood sexual abuse histories have an increased risk for suicidal behaviours, but it is unclear whether specific abuse characteristics contribute to risk. We aimed to examine the contributions of abuse characteristics to lifetime history of suicide attempts and multiple suicide attempts, independent of posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. Method: Women with MDD and sexual abuse histories (n = 106) were assessed regarding sexual abuse characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, and suicide attempts. Results: In multivariate logistic regressions, the odds of having multiple suicide attempts increased 12.27-fold when childhood sexual abuse was perpetrated by a parent figure or a parent, compared with a nonparent. Conclusions: Parental perpetration of sexual abuse increases the likelihood of multiple suicide attempts among women outpatients. The relationship of the perpetrator to the abused woman is important in suicide risk evaluation and treatment planning.Publication Open Access The ventral hippocampus CA3 is critical in regulating timing uncertainty in temporal decision-making(Elsevier, 2021) Çavdaroğlu, Bilgehan; Riaz, Sadia; Shi, Yuqing; Ito, Rutsuko; Department of Psychology; Balcı, Fuat; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; KU Arçelik Research Center for Creative Industries (KUAR) / KU Arçelik Yaratıcı Endüstriler Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (KUAR); Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM) / Koç Üniversitesi Translasyonel Tıp Araştırma Merkezi (KUTTAM); College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 51269Timing uncertainty is a critical component of temporal decision-making, as it determines the decision strategies that maximize reward rate. However, little is known about the biological substrates of timing uncertainty. In this study, we report that the CA3 subregion of the ventral hippocampus (vCA3), a relatively unexplored area in timing, is critical in regulating timing uncertainty that informs temporal decision making. Using a variant of the differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) task that incorporates differential levels of approach-avoidance conflict, rats were trained to wait a minimum of 6 s to earn a reward that was paired with varying durations of foot shock. Post-training chemogenetic inhibition of the vCA3 reduced timing uncertainty without affecting mean wait times, irrespective of the level of conflict experienced. Simulations based on the information-processing variant of scalar expectancy theory (SET) revealed that the vCA3 may be important in modulating decision threshold or switch closure latency variability. © 2021 The Author(s)The neural substrate of timing uncertainty, an inherent component of optimal temporal decision making, is not well known. Using a temporal decision-making task combined with chemogenetics, Çavdaroğlu et al. demonstrate that pyramidal cells in the CA3 subregion of the ventral hippocampus are important in modulating timing uncertainty.Publication Open Access A simplified model of communication between time cells: accounting for the linearly increasing timing imprecision(Frontiers, 2019) Department of Psychology; Balcı, Fuat; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 51269Many organisms can time intervals flexibly on average with high accuracy but substantial variability between the trials. One of the core psychophysical features of interval timing functions relates to the signatures of this timing variability; for a given individual, the standard deviation of timed responses/time estimates is nearly proportional to their central tendency (scalar property). Many studies have aimed at elucidating the neural basis of interval timing based on the neurocomputational principles in a fashion that would explain the scalar property. Recent experimental evidence shows that there is indeed a specialized neural system for timekeeping. This system, referred to as the “time cells,” is composed of a group of neurons that fire sequentially as a function of elapsed time. Importantly, the time interval between consecutively firing time cell ensembles has been shown to increase with more elapsed time. However, when the subjective time is calculated by adding the distributions of time intervals between these sequentially firing time cell ensembles, the standard deviation would be compressed by the square root function. In light of this information the question becomes, “How should the signaling between the sequentially firing time cell ensembles be for the resulting variability to increase linearly with time as required by the scalar property?” We developed a simplified model of time cells that offers a mechanism for the synaptic communication of the sequentially firing neurons to address this ubiquitous property of interval timing. The model is composed of a single layer of time cells formulated in the form of integrate-and-fire neurons with feed-forward excitatory connections. The resulting behavior is simple neural wave activity. When this model is simulated with noisy conductances, the standard deviation of the time cell spike times increases proportionally to the mean of the spike-times. We demonstrate that this statistical property of the model outcomes is robustly observed even when the values of the key model parameters are varied.