Psychology: Physiological effects of negative international news on

News depicting conflict in foreign countries is often perceived differently by those living in America, and these differences may also have implications for gender-related news. Foreign and national news is often categorized as ours versus theirs when reporting on or perceiving news (Nossek, 2016). This suggests that if a person classifies news as theirs versus as ours , there could be a discrepancy in the emotional response to the news received based on how an individual decides to subconsciously categorize it. A person may have an emotional response upon seeing negative news, resulting in a physiological state change (Soroka, et al, 2019). There are various physiological changes in response to emotional arousal, such as an increased heart rate. (Sassenrath, et al, 2021). Another physiological measure is skin conductance response, which is an indirect measurement of the autonomic nervous system (Hein, et al, 2010). Previous literature has revealed that physiological differences occurred between male and female participants when exposed to news related to gender discrimination (Quasney, 2009). This study thus focuses on news related to gender inequality and the ways it may elicit a change in physiological markers in female participants. Specifically, the study examines the changes in skin conduction and heart rate of American female college students when viewing news clips from various global regions. The participants watched four news clips reporting about women’s rights issues from four different global regions (Europe, Latin America, West Africa, and the Middle East). The heart rate and skin conductance responses of the participants were taken with BIOPAC monitors (EDAs and pulse plethysmograph) while the participants watched the news clips. Two multifactorial ANOVA tests were utilized to analyze the relationship between the news clips and the ethnicity of each participant with the changes in skin conductance and heart rate. Data collection is ongoing, and results will be presented at the conference

Effect of Chemotherapy on Visuospatial N-back Task Performance: an fMRI Study in Breast Cancer Patients

Chemotherapy-related cognitive impairments (CRCIs) are commonly self-reported among cancer patients, including breast cancer (BC) patients, after chemotherapy treatments. Reported deficits include challenges in working memory and visuospatial abilities (Deprez, 2011). While the exact mechanisms are not fully understood, CRCIs may be a consequence of increased neurotoxicity, blood brain barrier disruption, white matter abnormalities, and decreased hippocampal neurogenesis (Mounier, 2020). The current study recruited twenty-three BC female patients through the Ottawa Hospital Regional Cancer Centre, and individually matched each to healthy non-cancer controls on sex, age, education and menopausal status. Participants completed a series of structural and functional MRI assessments, including a high anatomical T1 scan and a T2* scan while completing a visuospatial n-back task. These assessments were completed at baseline (t1) and immediately after completion of chemotherapy treatment (t2; or matched in time for controls). In addition to imaging outcomes, behavioral markers of n-back task performance were also extracted, including error rates and reaction times. We hypothesize that there will be no functional and behavioral differences between groups at t1. However, we expect patients to show higher activity in the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, thalamus, and midbrain during the functional task compared to controls at t2. Meanwhile we expect similar accuracy on the task, but slower reaction times in the post-chemotherapy BC patients compared to controls. Last, we hypothesize that only BC patients (not controls) will show changes in neural activation and behavioral patterns from t1 to t2 on the visuospatial n-back task. While the data is currently being processed, we expect our results to clarify the impact of chemotherapy treatments on visuospatial ability and associated brain activation patterns in breast cancer patients

Distractibility of Subtitles on Visual Attention and Working Memory

While viewing a video, human beings are required to process many components that require attention and memory to work simultaneously. For example, individuals must pay attention to audio and visual information while storing that information in memory to connect with each scene. At times, this overload of information may negatively impact performance due to increases in cognitive load. However, although providing additional context, theoretically increasing cognitive load, it has been thought that the use of subtitles may actually aid in performance. For example, research shows that the presence of subtitles is associated with less frustration (Kruger, Hefer, & Matthew, 2013), and may be superior to video during auditory lessons (Zheng, Ye, & Hsiao, 2022). However, it is less understood whether the presence of subtitles affects visual memory recall. The study will examine whether subtitles impact a subject’s ability to recall visual components of a video. The control group will watch a video with no audio or subtitles, and then be asked to recall visual information. The experimental group will watch the same video with subtitles, and then be asked to recall the same visual information. Based on the accuracy of the visual recall assessment, the study will reveal whether subtitles are a distractor to visual memory recall

The Toxicological Effects of Duloxetine as a Polymeric Nanoparticle Drug Delivery System in Rats

Duloxetine (Cymbalta), a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) is an antidepressant which has previously shown relatively low negative toxicological effects and promising depressive symptom management. However, Duloxetine (DLX) encounters an issue in its drug delivery performance due to its high metabolic dissolution rate which can influence both potency and efficacy. Nanoparticles, in particular, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) can be used as an effective drug carrier system for DLX. If DLX is paired with a SLN (SLN-DLX) for depression treatment, it could provide a relatively low toxicity effect while increasing the concentration of the drug’s potency in particular to the brainstem and 5-HT terminal areas. While using nano-template engineering techniques, SLN-DLX solutions were fabricated to be further analyzed for toxicological analysis in a rodent model. Equal numbers of 3-month-old male and female Long-Evans Rats received daily 10 mL/kg intraperitoneal (IP) injections of either 5 mg/kg DLX, 5 mg/kg SLN-DLX, SLN, or saline vehicle on four consecutive days. General physical appearance and daily weights were recorded during treatment. Rats were euthanized and brains collected and post-fixed in paraformaldehyde on the fifth experimental day for further histological analysis. We hypothesized that rats with SLN injections and SLN-DLX injections will exhibit no toxicological differences when compared to the saline group. There was no significant effect on weight in any treatment group, p \u3e .05. Histological analyses are forthcoming, but we hypothesize that there will be no significant toxicological difference between treatment groups. For future directions, we hope to conduct a study looking into behavioral differences in chronic stress induced rodent models from the same administration of treatments