The Neural Representation of Value and individual Differences in Human Intertemporal Choice

Intertemporal choices, or decisions that involve tradeoffs between rewards and time, are ubiquitous in our daily lives. The tendency to devalue, or discount, future rewards has been linked to maladaptive long-term health and financial outcomes. Despite their broad clinical relevance, individual differences in discounting preferences are poorly understood. In this thesis, we make progress on the understanding of the neural basis of these decisions and factors that affect individual differences. The first two chapters focus on neurobiology. Chapter 2 investigates the decision-related variables that best explain the observed patterns of BOLD activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and ventral striatum (VS) during intertemporal choice. We find that these regions carry different signals and likely contribute to different stages of the choice process. Across the brain, we find four kinds of value-responsive regions, each carrying different combinations of value-related signals. Next, we examine whether we can predict participants\u27 choices from any or all of these groups of regions, and find that we can predict choice from most value-responsive regions, with interesting exceptions. In Chapter 3, we identify a novel brain predictor of individual differences in discounting. When participants are making judgments about how far away some number of days feels, discount rates, measured a week later, can be predicted from how VMPFC and VS respond as a function of temporal distance. This difference in the basic response to delayed time intervals could be a target for interventions aiming to reduce discount rates. In the final chapter, we find several behavioral manipulations that are able to reduce discount rates persistently and to a significant degree. We find that there is a general lack of knowledge about the normative strategy in the monetary discounting task, and that providing information about this strategy - to accept all delayed offers that provide higher interest rates than one could obtain elsewhere - reduces discounting significantly, for at least one month. Information about peers\u27 strategies for making these decisions also reduces discounting. Taken together, this work advances our understanding of individual differences in discounting and further suggests interventions that could be used to reduce discounting

Technology Mediated Recruitment: An Exploration of How Students Used Social Media to Choose College

This qualitative study explored the use of social media as a tool to recruit prospective college students. Social media was defined as any electronic media that serves as a networking tool with the ability to educate prospective and current college students about an institution of higher education (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc.). The researcher met with two focus groups comprised of current college students to discuss their use of social media during their college search process. Recommendations were developed for student affairs professionals and for future research. General themes and categories from participant responses were evaluated. The findings suggest that social media is present during all stages of the search process and professionals should consider what tools work best for them and how to best utilize social media in their marketing plans

Recovery A Lifelong Journey: What it Means to Get Clean and Stay in Long-term Recovery

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study will be to describe long-term recovery (LTR) from drug addiction for African American (AA) recovering addicts (RAs) who have ten or more years in recovery and are members of Narcotics Anonymous (NA). The theory guiding this study is the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) (Stages of Change) (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1977) as it describes the process of how individuals change their habitual behavior/s by transitioning through five stages of change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance,). TTM indicates that positive behavioral change is an ongoing process which is significant to understanding these factors in relation to LTR as a continuing commitment to change one’s thinking, behaviors, and spiritual purpose to find a new way to approach life with the disease of addiction (DOA) without the use of drugs. Therefore, the purpose of this study will be threefold: (1) to describe and understand the turning point or initial surrender of RA’s active addiction and why they stop using drugs, (2) to delineate and understand the meaning of LTR from the perspective of AA RA’s lived experience/s as members of NA and, (3) to delineate and understand AA RA’s daily maintenance tools of recovery capital (social supports, spiritual practices, and 12-step affiliation) or sustainable practices of LTR. This phenomenological study will seek to understand the lived experience of AA RAs while delineating the factors that influenced them to seek recovery and the daily preservation practices that they apply to their lives to stay in LTR from a Christian worldview

A postmodern Union: institutions and identities in Europe

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31).The European Union has often been depicted as a postmodern political institution, primarily because it both transcends and erases the traditional boundaries of the modern nation-state. The implications of this conceptualization are far-reaching. For example, what effects might the nature of the EU have on public opinion? How might a postmodernist respond differently to the Union than a modernist? Is the familiar nationalist-Europeanist cleavage asserted by many to be the fundamental division of European identities adequate to explain support for the Union? Using Eurobarometer data I explore these questions about European identities and affect toward EU policies. It appears that two additional- postmodern- identities co-exist alongside the nationalist and the europeanist. These are the dual-identifier and the non-identifier who repeatedly display even more radical europeanist and nationalist tendencies, respectively, than their conventional counterparts. By weighting the votes of the European Council I illustrate that understanding all five European identity types is crucial for decision making in the EU as policymakers attempt to build a qualified majority coalition among the fifteen Member States

Mesenteric Vascular Dysregulation and Intestinal Inflammation Accompanies Experimental Spinal Cord Injury

Cervical and high thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) drastically impairs autonomic nervous system function. Individuals with SCI at thoracic spinal-level 5 (T5) or higher often present cardiovascular disorders that include resting systemic arterial hypotension. Gastrointestinal (GI) tissues are critically dependent upon adequate blood flow and even brief periods of visceral hypoxia triggers GI dysmotility. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that T3-SCI induces visceral hypoperfusion, diminished postprandial vascular reflexes and concomitant visceral inflammation. We measured in vivo systemic arterial blood pressure and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and duodenal blood flow in anesthetized T3-SCI rats at 3 days and 3 weeks post-injury either fasted or following enteral feeding of a liquid mixed-nutrient meal (Ensure™). In separate cohorts of fasted T3-SCI rats, markers of intestinal inflammation were assayed by qRT-PCR. Our results show that T3-SCI rats displayed significantly reduced SMA blood flow under all experimental conditions (p\u3c0.05). Specifically, the anticipated elevation of SMA blood flow in response to duodenal nutrient infusion (postprandial hyperemia) was either delayed or absent after T3-SCI. The dysregulated SMA blood flow in acutely-injured T3-SCI rats coincides with abnormal intestinal morphology and elevation of inflammatory markers, all of which resolve after 3 weeks. Specifically, Icam1, Ccl2 (MCP-1) and Ccl3 (MIP-1α) were acutely elevated following T3-SCI. Our data suggest that arterial hypotension diminishes mesenteric blood flow necessary to meet mucosal demands at rest and during digestion. The resulting GI ischemia and low-grade inflammation may be an underlying pathology leading to GI dysfunction seen following acute T3-SCI

Using an Artificial Real-Time Response Audience in Online Sales Education to Improve Self-Efficacy in Sales Presentations: An Online Classroom Innovation

Sales education research recently has turned its attention to using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, but much remains in our understanding of its use in the online and virtual sales education environment. AI can be useful to helping online students improve their sales presentations and vocal delivery skills. Examined through the lens of control value theory, this study is a pilot investigation into the effectiveness of using AI technology in the online classroom to help sales education students improve their vocal delivery skills in sales presentations. Based on a paired samples t-test, our results indicated that student use of AI technology was effective in improving self-efficacy for sales presentations while also significantly improving vocal delivery skills, including pitch, pace, volume, and pausing. Theoretical and practical implications to teaching vocal presentation skills in sales education are discussed

F22RS SGR No. 1 (Allen Hall Murals)

To Urge and Request Louisiana State University paint a new representation of Student Life over the Mural in Allen Hall depicting segregation and people of color picking cotto

Coherent Activity between Brain Regions that Code for Value is Linked to the Malleability of Human Behavior

Brain activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during exposure to persuasive messages can predict health behavior change. This brain-behavior relationship has been linked to areas of MPFC previously associated with self-related processing; however, the mechanism underlying this relationship is unclear. We explore two components of self-related processing – self-reflection and subjective valuation – and examine coherent activity between relevant networks of brain regions during exposure to health messages encouraging exercise and discouraging sedentary behaviors. We find that objectively logged reductions in sedentary behavior in the following month are linked to functional connectivity within brain regions associated with positive valuation, but not within regions associated with self-reflection on personality traits. Furthermore, functional connectivity between valuation regions contributes additional information compared to average brain activation within single brain regions. These data support an account in which MPFC integrates the value of messages to the self during persuasive health messaging and speak to broader questions of how humans make decisions about how to behave