Abortion and Distress: The Role of State-Level Restrictive Policies Regarding Reproduction

Does state legal context modify the association between abortion and distress among women in the United States? Adjusting for individual characteristics that could be associated with distress based on stress and stigma frameworks, I examine if state legal context modifies the association between abortion and distress using a nationally representative sample of American women ages 25-45. The use of state-level factors as a proxy for social context in this research has not been part of previous studies of the consequences of abortion. In order to appropriately examine the cross-level modifying effects of state level legal context on abortion status with depressive symptoms (measured on a CES-D scale), I used hierarchical linear modeling. I compare women who have had abortions to women who have had an unintended birth or an intended birth. According to the stress process theory, a lack of control should be associated with higher distress; therefore I use pregnancy intention and outcome as a proxy for reproductive control. The results indicate that women who have had an intended birth experience significantly less distress than women who have had an unintended birth or an abortion, regardless of state context. Contrary to what the stigma framework suggests, state legalcontext does not modify the association between abortion history and distress. State legal context does, however, modify the association between unintended pregnancy history and distress. In states with more restrictive laws the association between unintended birth history and distress is lower than in states with fewer restrictive laws. These results suggest that distress associated with pregnancy intention and outcome is only partly influenced by state contexts. The stigma associated with abortion is likely to be more national than state specific. Further research is necessary to more fully explain the association between pregnancy intention and outcome, distress, and social context. Adviser: Julia McQuilla

Abortion and Distress: The Role of State-Level Restrictive Policies Regarding Reproduction

Does state legal context modify the association between abortion and distress among women in the United States? Adjusting for individual characteristics that could be associated with distress based on stress and stigma frameworks, I examine if state legal context modifies the association between abortion and distress using a nationally representative sample of American women ages 25-45. The use of state-level factors as a proxy for social context in this research has not been part of previous studies of the consequences of abortion. In order to appropriately examine the cross-level modifying effects of state level legal context on abortion status with depressive symptoms (measured on a CES-D scale), I used hierarchical linear modeling. I compare women who have had abortions to women who have had an unintended birth or an intended birth. According to the stress process theory, a lack of control should be associated with higher distress; therefore I use pregnancy intention and outcome as a proxy for reproductive control. The results indicate that women who have had an intended birth experience significantly less distress than women who have had an unintended birth or an abortion, regardless of state context. Contrary to what the stigma framework suggests, state legalcontext does not modify the association between abortion history and distress. State legal context does, however, modify the association between unintended pregnancy history and distress. In states with more restrictive laws the association between unintended birth history and distress is lower than in states with fewer restrictive laws. These results suggest that distress associated with pregnancy intention and outcome is only partly influenced by state contexts. The stigma associated with abortion is likely to be more national than state specific. Further research is necessary to more fully explain the association between pregnancy intention and outcome, distress, and social context. Adviser: Julia McQuilla

Escalating risk and the moderating effect of resistance to peer influence on the P200 and feedback-related negativity

Young people frequently socialize together in contexts that encourage risky decision making, pointing to a need for research into how susceptibility to peer influence is related to individual differences in the neural processing of decisions during sequentially escalating risk. We applied a novel analytic approach to analyze EEG activity from college-going students while they completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), a well-established risk-taking propensity assessment. By modeling outcome-processing-related changes in the P200 and feedback-related negativity (FRN) sequentially within each BART trial as a function of pump order as an index of increasing risk, our results suggest that analyzing the BART in a progressive fashion may provide valuable new insights into the temporal neurophysiological dynamics of risk taking. Our results showed that a P200, localized to the left caudate nucleus, and an FRN, localized to the left dACC, were positively correlated with the level of risk taking and reward. Furthermore, consistent with our hypotheses, the rate of change in the FRN was higher among college students with greater self-reported resistance to peer influence

Population Neuroscience Approaches to Minority Discrimination and Health

Alleah Bouley, Alex Johnson, Bethany Stoutamire, Elizabeth Straley UCARE Abstract: Academic Year 2015-2016 Advisor: Dr. Jacob Cheadle Population Neuroscience Approaches to Minority Discrimination and Health STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The primary purpose of our research is to explore the effects of social exclusion and discrimination on the mental and physical health and wellbeing of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals). Addressing this complicated issue is a team effort, so participation in this project will provide a novel set of research experiences for participating undergraduates. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Our UCARE research will address two important questions. The first question we will address is how is discrimination associated with self-reported mental health and health-related behaviors? The second question we plan to answer with our research is to what extent do prior experiences of discrimination predict differences in neural processing of social exclusion and rejection (such as differences in neurophysiological processing components and activation of brain regions in response to exclusionary stimuli), and do measures of the neural processing of social exclusion correlate with mental and physical health outcomes? IMPORTANCE Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals suffer higher mental health disorder prevalences, such as depression, substance use and abuse, and suicidality, compared to heterosexuals (Burgard, Cochran, and Mays 2005; Burton et al. 2013, 2013; Diaz et al. 2001; Hatzenbuehler 2009; King et al. 2008; Marshal et al. 2008; Meyer 2003). With recent estimates indicating that more than 8 million American adults identify as LGB, identifying mechanisms that may ameliorate negative outcomes in this population is imperative (Gates 2011). Researchers have conceptualized the cause for these higher rates as a symptom of stress (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Erickson 2008). In addition to personal experiences of social exclusion and rejection from identity-based discrimination, which can be based on any number of personal characteristics, social stress leads to negative mental and physical health outcomes in individuals (Carter, Mollen, and Smith 2014; Meyer 2003; Pearlin et al. 2005). The additional stigma that members of the LGBTQA community has led to gay men and lesbians to suffer from more mental health issues such as substance abuse and suicide in a hypothesis that can be described as minority stress (Meyer 2003). METHODS We will begin by recruiting lesbian, gay, and bisexual students on UNL’s campus, using a respondent-driven sampling method (Heckathorn 2007). We will work as a team to manage “office hours” for data collection of both survey and experimental behavioral data. During these office hours, research assistants will guide participating students through a survey that will be used to measure the consequences of discrimination for LGB individuals. Additional sociodemographic background characteristics and a short behavioral task will also be assessed. Running these assessments on multiple participants is a collective, group activity that will provide unique training in respondent driven sampling for participating research undergraduates. A random subsample will then be drawn from the survey respondents for participation in electroencephalography (EEG) experiments at the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior. During these tasks participants will engage in validated social exclusion tasks to measure neurophysiological responses to social exclusion. EEG measures and records electrical signals given off by the brain through the scalp which are then translated as waves onto a computer for future analysis. EEG is conducted using a mesh cap of electrodes soaked in saline solution that a participant will be wearing. We will be using the program OpenSesame to present stimuli. The first exclusion task is called Cyberball. The participant will virtually pass a ball with two other avatars but after a set time, the avatars will no longer pass the ball to the participant’s avatar, thus excluding him/her. Participants will be asked about social pain and attribution of exclusion after each round of simulations. Two undergraduate research assistants will participate in each data collection, providing further novel research experiences as part of a collaborative, team effort to addressing the central research aims. ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES While we have not yet learned to analyze EEG data, we have been collecting data and administering surveys and behavioral tasks with Dr. Cheadle and his graduate assistants, Beth Straley and John Kiat, for the past year. We will be working together to train newly recruited undergraduate research assistants in EEG data collection methods based on the best practices we have learned, continuing to refine our technique, while working in pairs to ensure collection of good data. We are IRB-approved to collect and handle data, and hope to learn analysis techniques as part of the UCARE project in the coming year. These techniques will include segmentation, artifact detection and correction, and preliminary statistical analyses to answer our research questions. For instance, we plan to learn the basics of Principal Component Analysis to find brain activation patterns that reflect processing of exclusion, and to see if there are differences in these patterns for respondents depending on the levels of discrimination that they have experienced in everyday life. We hope to accomplish the following benchmarks, as well as any other additional aspects of the research that will aid us in understanding neural processing. BENCHMARKS: Review IRB protocols Facilitate training in EEG data collection for new UGRAs Learn about recruiting a research sample Recruit and manage a research sample Collect EEG and behavioral data Help with preliminary data analysis Organize findings into a written format Create a poster and present the research REFERENCES Burgard, S. A., Cochran, S. D., & Mays, V. M. (2005). Alcohol and tobacco use patterns among heterosexually and homosexually experienced California women. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 77(1), 61–70. Burton, C. M., Marshal, M. P., Chisolm, D. J., Sucato, G. S., & Friedman, M. S. (2013). Sexual Minority-Related Victimization as a Mediator of Mental Health Disparities in Sexual Minority Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(3), 394–402. Carter, L. W., Mollen, D., & Smith, N. G. (2014). Locus of control, minority stress, and psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61(1), 169–175. Diaz, R. M., Ayala, G., Bein, E., Henne, J., & Marin, B. V. (2001). The impact of homophobia, poverty, and racism on the mental health of gay and bisexual Latino men: findings from 3 US cities. American Journal of Public Health, 91(6), 927–32. Gates, G. J. (2011). How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender?. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h684x2.pdf Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2009). How does sexual minority stigma “get under the skin”? A psychological mediation framework. Psychological Bulletin, 135(5), 707–730. Hatzenbuehler, M. L., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Erickson, S. J. (2008). Minority stress predictors of HIV risk behavior, substance use, and depressive symptoms: Results from a prospective study of bereaved gay men. Health Psychology, 27(4), 455–462. Heckathorn, Douglas D. 2007. “Extensions Of Respondent-Driven Sampling: Analyzing Continuous Variables And Controlling For Differential Recruitment.” Sociological Methodology 37(1):151–207. King, M., Semlyen, J., Tai, S., Killaspy, H., Osborn, D., Popelyuk, D., & Nazareth, I. (2008). A systematic review of mental disorder, suicide, and deliberate self harm in lesbian, gay and bisexual people. BMC Psychiatry, 8(1), 70. Marshal, M. P., Friedman, M. S., Stall, R., King, K. M., Miles, J., Gold, M. A., … Morse, J. Q. (2008). Sexual orientation and adolescent substance use: a meta-analysis and methodological review. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 103(4), 546–556. Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1, 3–26. Pearlin, L. I., Schieman, S., Fazio, E. M., & Meersman, S. C. (2005). Stress, Health, and the Life Course: Some Conceptual Perspectives. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(2), 205–219

Population Neuroscience Approaches to Minority Discrimination and Health

Alleah Bouley, Alex Johnson, Bethany Stoutamire, Elizabeth Straley UCARE Abstract: Academic Year 2015-2016 Advisor: Dr. Jacob Cheadle Population Neuroscience Approaches to Minority Discrimination and Health STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The primary purpose of our research is to explore the effects of social exclusion and discrimination on the mental and physical health and wellbeing of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals). Addressing this complicated issue is a team effort, so participation in this project will provide a novel set of research experiences for participating undergraduates. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Our UCARE research will address two important questions. The first question we will address is how is discrimination associated with self-reported mental health and health-related behaviors? The second question we plan to answer with our research is to what extent do prior experiences of discrimination predict differences in neural processing of social exclusion and rejection (such as differences in neurophysiological processing components and activation of brain regions in response to exclusionary stimuli), and do measures of the neural processing of social exclusion correlate with mental and physical health outcomes? IMPORTANCE Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals suffer higher mental health disorder prevalences, such as depression, substance use and abuse, and suicidality, compared to heterosexuals (Burgard, Cochran, and Mays 2005; Burton et al. 2013, 2013; Diaz et al. 2001; Hatzenbuehler 2009; King et al. 2008; Marshal et al. 2008; Meyer 2003). With recent estimates indicating that more than 8 million American adults identify as LGB, identifying mechanisms that may ameliorate negative outcomes in this population is imperative (Gates 2011). Researchers have conceptualized the cause for these higher rates as a symptom of stress (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Erickson 2008). In addition to personal experiences of social exclusion and rejection from identity-based discrimination, which can be based on any number of personal characteristics, social stress leads to negative mental and physical health outcomes in individuals (Carter, Mollen, and Smith 2014; Meyer 2003; Pearlin et al. 2005). The additional stigma that members of the LGBTQA community has led to gay men and lesbians to suffer from more mental health issues such as substance abuse and suicide in a hypothesis that can be described as minority stress (Meyer 2003). METHODS We will begin by recruiting lesbian, gay, and bisexual students on UNL’s campus, using a respondent-driven sampling method (Heckathorn 2007). We will work as a team to manage “office hours” for data collection of both survey and experimental behavioral data. During these office hours, research assistants will guide participating students through a survey that will be used to measure the consequences of discrimination for LGB individuals. Additional sociodemographic background characteristics and a short behavioral task will also be assessed. Running these assessments on multiple participants is a collective, group activity that will provide unique training in respondent driven sampling for participating research undergraduates. A random subsample will then be drawn from the survey respondents for participation in electroencephalography (EEG) experiments at the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior. During these tasks participants will engage in validated social exclusion tasks to measure neurophysiological responses to social exclusion. EEG measures and records electrical signals given off by the brain through the scalp which are then translated as waves onto a computer for future analysis. EEG is conducted using a mesh cap of electrodes soaked in saline solution that a participant will be wearing. We will be using the program OpenSesame to present stimuli. The first exclusion task is called Cyberball. The participant will virtually pass a ball with two other avatars but after a set time, the avatars will no longer pass the ball to the participant’s avatar, thus excluding him/her. Participants will be asked about social pain and attribution of exclusion after each round of simulations. Two undergraduate research assistants will participate in each data collection, providing further novel research experiences as part of a collaborative, team effort to addressing the central research aims. ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES While we have not yet learned to analyze EEG data, we have been collecting data and administering surveys and behavioral tasks with Dr. Cheadle and his graduate assistants, Beth Straley and John Kiat, for the past year. We will be working together to train newly recruited undergraduate research assistants in EEG data collection methods based on the best practices we have learned, continuing to refine our technique, while working in pairs to ensure collection of good data. We are IRB-approved to collect and handle data, and hope to learn analysis techniques as part of the UCARE project in the coming year. These techniques will include segmentation, artifact detection and correction, and preliminary statistical analyses to answer our research questions. For instance, we plan to learn the basics of Principal Component Analysis to find brain activation patterns that reflect processing of exclusion, and to see if there are differences in these patterns for respondents depending on the levels of discrimination that they have experienced in everyday life. We hope to accomplish the following benchmarks, as well as any other additional aspects of the research that will aid us in understanding neural processing. BENCHMARKS: Review IRB protocols Facilitate training in EEG data collection for new UGRAs Learn about recruiting a research sample Recruit and manage a research sample Collect EEG and behavioral data Help with preliminary data analysis Organize findings into a written format Create a poster and present the research REFERENCES Burgard, S. A., Cochran, S. D., & Mays, V. M. (2005). Alcohol and tobacco use patterns among heterosexually and homosexually experienced California women. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 77(1), 61–70. Burton, C. M., Marshal, M. P., Chisolm, D. J., Sucato, G. S., & Friedman, M. S. (2013). Sexual Minority-Related Victimization as a Mediator of Mental Health Disparities in Sexual Minority Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(3), 394–402. Carter, L. W., Mollen, D., & Smith, N. G. (2014). Locus of control, minority stress, and psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61(1), 169–175. Diaz, R. M., Ayala, G., Bein, E., Henne, J., & Marin, B. V. (2001). The impact of homophobia, poverty, and racism on the mental health of gay and bisexual Latino men: findings from 3 US cities. American Journal of Public Health, 91(6), 927–32. Gates, G. J. (2011). How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender?. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h684x2.pdf Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2009). How does sexual minority stigma “get under the skin”? A psychological mediation framework. Psychological Bulletin, 135(5), 707–730. Hatzenbuehler, M. L., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Erickson, S. J. (2008). Minority stress predictors of HIV risk behavior, substance use, and depressive symptoms: Results from a prospective study of bereaved gay men. Health Psychology, 27(4), 455–462. Heckathorn, Douglas D. 2007. “Extensions Of Respondent-Driven Sampling: Analyzing Continuous Variables And Controlling For Differential Recruitment.” Sociological Methodology 37(1):151–207. King, M., Semlyen, J., Tai, S., Killaspy, H., Osborn, D., Popelyuk, D., & Nazareth, I. (2008). A systematic review of mental disorder, suicide, and deliberate self harm in lesbian, gay and bisexual people. BMC Psychiatry, 8(1), 70. Marshal, M. P., Friedman, M. S., Stall, R., King, K. M., Miles, J., Gold, M. A., … Morse, J. Q. (2008). Sexual orientation and adolescent substance use: a meta-analysis and methodological review. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 103(4), 546–556. Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1, 3–26. Pearlin, L. I., Schieman, S., Fazio, E. M., & Meersman, S. C. (2005). Stress, Health, and the Life Course: Some Conceptual Perspectives. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(2), 205–219

Neuromatch Academy: Teaching Computational Neuroscience with global accessibility

Neuromatch Academy designed and ran a fully online 3-week Computational Neuroscience summer school for 1757 students with 191 teaching assistants working in virtual inverted (or flipped) classrooms and on small group projects. Fourteen languages, active community management, and low cost allowed for an unprecedented level of inclusivity and universal accessibility.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Equal contribution by the executive committee members of Neuromatch Academy: Tara van Viegen, Athena Akrami, Kate Bonnen, Eric DeWitt, Alexandre Hyafil, Helena Ledmyr, Grace W. Lindsay, Patrick Mineault, John D. Murray, Xaq Pitkow, Aina Puce, Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani, Carsen Stringer. and equal contribution by the board of directors of Neuromatch Academy: Gunnar Blohm, Konrad Kording, Paul Schrater, Brad Wyble, Sean Escola, Megan A. K. Peter

Identification of Chromosomal Genes in Yersinia pestis that Influence Type III Secretion and Delivery of Yops into Target Cells

Pathogenic Yersinia species possess a type III secretion system, which is required for the delivery of effector Yop proteins into target cells during infection. Genes encoding the type III secretion machinery, its substrates, and several regulatory proteins all reside on a 70-Kb virulence plasmid. Genes encoded in the chromosome of yersiniae are thought to play important roles in bacterial perception of host environments and in the coordinated activation of the type III secretion pathway. Here, we investigate the contribution of chromosomal genes to the complex regulatory process controlling type III secretion in Yersinia pestis. Using transposon mutagenesis, we identified five chromosomal genes required for expression or secretion of Yops in laboratory media. Four out of the five chromosomal mutants were defective to various extents at injecting Yops into tissue culture cells. Interestingly, we found one mutant that was not able to secrete in vitro but was fully competent for injecting Yops into host cells, suggesting independent mechanisms for activation of the secretion apparatus. When tested in a mouse model of plague disease, three mutants were avirulent, whereas two strains were severely attenuated. Together these results demonstrate the importance of Y. pestis chromosomal genes in the proper function of type III secretion and in the pathogenesis of plague

Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience

Neuromatch Academy (https://academy.neuromatch.io; (van Viegen et al., 2021)) was designed as an online summer school to cover the basics of computational neuroscience in three weeks. The materials cover dominant and emerging computational neuroscience tools, how they complement one another, and specifically focus on how they can help us to better understand how the brain functions. An original component of the materials is its focus on modeling choices, i.e. how do we choose the right approach, how do we build models, and how can we evaluate models to determine if they provide real (meaningful) insight. This meta-modeling component of the instructional materials asks what questions can be answered by different techniques, and how to apply them meaningfully to get insight about brain function