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Student Seminars

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NSC 503 Seminar

Victoria Popov; Yanya Ding - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Pat White and Ross Maddox

Student Moderator:  John Gonzalez Amoretti

 Oct 09, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Evan Newbold; Michael (Mike) Giannetto - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Julian Meeks and Kuan Hong Wang

Student Moderator: Bryan Redmond

 Oct 16, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar: Guest Speaker

Steve Laviolette, PhD - Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, Canada

 Oct 23, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Abigail Sawicki - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Gail Johnson and Lauren Hablitz

Student Moderator:  Bingyu Sun

 Oct 30, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Thomas Delgado; Tom Scudder - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Doug Portman and David MacLean

Student Moderator:  Sean Lydon

 Nov 06, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

Social processing and underlying language deficits in schizophrenia during naturalistic video viewing

Emily Przysinda - PhD Candidate, Advisors: Ed Lalor & David Dodell-Feder

One often overlooked symptom of schizophrenia (SCZ) is marked and persistent difficulties with social information processing. Since social interactions hinge upon understanding our external environment, it’s possible that known language deficits in SCZ could contribute to social difficulties. Here, we aim to understand the neural basis for social deficits and potential underlying language processing deficits in SCZ while participants view naturalistic video stimuli. We examine differences between SCZ patients and neurotypical controls (NTC) using complementary neuroimaging methods, fMRI and EEG, in separate studies with mostly overlapping participants.

For study 1, we chose to focus on a network of brain regions supporting a subset of social processing, theory of mind (ToM), as previous research has shown ToM deficits in SCZ. The fMRI analysis revealed between group differences in the extent to which ToM brain regions were engaged during socially awkward events. Specifically, the SCZ group showed reduced recruitment of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) compared to controls. Using graph theory methods, we also found a prominent decrease in global efficiency in the dorsal and middle mPFC for SCZ compared to NTC. Our findings converge with previous literature showing decreased functional connectivity during explicit ToM tasks in SCZ, and here we show here that these findings can be replicated in a more naturalistic paradigm. Analysis of these same ToM regions using EEG in study 2 allows us to discern fluctuations in connectivity between ToM regions that may be sensitive to different aspects of the neural signal compared to fMRI.

For study 3, we used linear methods to relate the EEG signal to the auditory and language features of the episode, which yields quantitative values that index how well the brain is tracking these features. We found that EEG tracking of acoustic envelope and lexical surprisal was reduced in SCZ versus NTC. This suggests that patients with SCZ may have difficulty in processing basic acoustic and language features of naturalistic video. The overlap of subjects between these studies allows us to make within-subject comparisons of both language and social processing measures, while also capitalizing on the strengths of both neuroimaging methods.

 Nov 09, 2023 @ 12:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | Ryan Case Method Rm (1-9576)

NSC 503 Seminar

Aiesha Anchan; Aishwarya Jayan; Gavin Magill - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Rick Libby and David Dodell-Feder

Student Moderator:  Catalina Guzman

 Nov 20, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Erica Squire; Leah Sheppard; Niki Lam - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Anne Luebke and Margot Mayer-Proschel

Student Moderator:  Mark Osabutey

 Nov 27, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Aaron Huynh; Amelia Hines; Dominick George - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Krishnan Padmanabhan and Marissa Sobolewski

Student Moderator:  Leslie Gonzalez

 Dec 04, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminar

Nicole Popp; Stacey Pedraza; Staci Rocco - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Andrew Wojtovich and Ed Freedman

Student Moderator:  Lia Calcinez Rodruiguez

 Dec 11, 2023 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-207

NSC 503 Seminars

Dominic Bunn; Mariah Marrero - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Liz Romanski and John Olschowka

Student Moderator:  Sarah Yabonski

 Jan 17, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Abigail Alpers; Tanique McDonald - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Angela Hewitt and Hohui Xia

Student Moderator:  Matt Adusei

 Jan 22, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Erin Murray; Margaux Masten - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Juile Fudge and Manoela Fogaça

Student Moderator:  Caitlin Sharp

 Jan 29, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Daulton Myers; Jeeyun Kim - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Nathan Smith and Manuel-Gomes-Ramirez

Student Moderator:  Mike DuHain

 Feb 05, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Amy Bucklaew; Claire Lim - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Adam Synder and Ian Fiebelkorn

Student Moderator:  Jo Fritzinger

 Feb 12, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Dennisha King; Paige Nicklas - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Harris Gelbard and Marc Schieber

Student Moderator:  Julia Granato

 Feb 19, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Anthony Bryan Crum (Bryan); John Gonzalez Amoretti - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Lars Ross and Ania Majewska

Student Moderator:  MaKenna Cealie

 Feb 26, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Aaron Huynh; Stacey Pedraza - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Chris Proschel and Kerry O'Banion

Student Moderator:  Yanya Ding

 Mar 04, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Nicole Popp; Sid Chittaranjan - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Jean Bidlack and Brian Keane

Student Moderator:  Victoria Popov

 Mar 18, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Erica Squire; Staci Rocco - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Debroah Cory-Slechta and Samuel Norman-Haignere

Student Moderator:  Evan Newbold

 Mar 25, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Bingyu Sun; Bryan Redmond - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  J. Chris Holt and Thomas O'Connor

Student Moderator:  Michael (Mike) Giannetto

 Apr 01, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Dominick George; Niki Lam - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Paul Kammermeir and Robert Freeman

Student Moderator:  Abigail Sawicki

 Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Amelia Hines; Tom Scudder - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Dragony Fu and Maris Catalin Iordan

Student Moderator:  Estephanie Balbuena

 Apr 22, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Aishwarya Jayan; Leah Sheppard - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Todd Jusko and Joog-Hoon Nam

Student Moderator:  Thomas Delgado

 Apr 29, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Aiesha Anchan; Gavin Magill - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Jesse Schallek and Kenneth Henry

Student Moderator:  Alexis Feidler

 May 06, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307

NSC 503 Seminar

Andrea Campbell - PhD Candidate

Faculty Evaluators:  Amy Kiernan and Gabriella Sterne

Student Moderator:  Anthony Bryan Crum (Bryan)

 May 13, 2024 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K-307