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Monday, February 29th, 2016

Jonathan Lyons – Lyons, Jonathan. “Brothers.” Palaver: UNCW’s Interdisciplinary Journal, (2015).

Jonathan Lyons, Assistant Professor, College Core Curriculum Three brothers—eldest, middle, youngest—the middle brother bookended by two siblings who are cases of failures of birth control: • The eldest arrives in 1967; • he is 13 months ahead of the middle brother; • he is four years and nine months ahead of the youngest. Three brothers whose first home is located on Bryant Street in Waterloo, Iowa, said home being formerly the childhood home of the brothers’ mother. The eldest will later, as an adult, calculate the timing of his conception and learn that his mother, who was sixteen at the […]

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Monday, February 29th, 2016

Jonathan Lyons – Lyons, Jonathan. “Sore Eel Cheese by the Flakxus Group.” Journal of Experimental Fiction, special edition.

Jonathan Lyons, Assistant Professor, College Core Curriculum This is a special, limited-edition of the Journal of Experimental Fiction, featuring experimental fictions constructed on coasters (the kind for glasses) and delivered in cheese boxes. “Sore Eel Cheese by the Flakxus Group.” Journal of Experimental Fiction, special edition.

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Monday, February 29th, 2016

Chris Boyatzis – Cook, Kaye V.; Kimball, Cynthia N.; Leonard, Kathleen C.; and Boyatzis, Chris. “The Complexity of Quest in Emerging Adults’ Religiosity, Well-Being, and Identity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53, no. 1 (2014) : 73-89.

Chris Boyatzis, Professor of Psychology A growing body of literature indicates a modestly positive association between religiosity and spirituality as predictors of psychological health (anxiety and depression), suggesting they serve as personal resiliency factors. The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of the relationships among these constructs. Using Lazarus’s Transactional Model of Stress as a theoretical framework, we examined: (a) the extent to which spirituality and religiosity mediated and/or moderated the association between perceived stress and psychological health and (b) whether there was a moderated (religiosity) mediation (spirituality) between stress and health. The Perceived Stress Scale, Daily […]

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Thelathia Young – Young, Thelathia and Miller, Shannon J. “Ase and Amen, Sister! Black Feminist Scholars Engage in Interdisciplinary, Dialogical, Transformative Ethical Praxis.” Journal of Religious Ethics 43, no. 2 (2015) : 289-316.

Thelathia Young, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies

At times, the academy seems devoid of justice because it emphasizes the cultivation of knowledge often denied to marginalized individuals and communities. As black queer feminist scholars doing praxis-driven theorizing from separate fields on the subject of black queer families and communities, we employ research methods that resist the dynamics of power and privilege that exist within normative researcher-participant exchanges. In this essay, we explore and highlight the ethical, justice-oriented, and dialogical relationship between researcher-scholars and research participants. Through story and theory, we illustrate and argue that autoethnographies and narrative interviews can act as epistemological excavation tools for both researchers and participants, as they become sites of individual and collective consciousness. Our work resists capitalist models of research and instead promotes a justice-oriented and community-derived building of knowledge.

Young, Thelathia and Miller, Shannon J. “Ase and Amen, Sister! Black Feminist Scholars Engage in Interdisciplinary, Dialogical, Transformative Ethical Praxis.” Journal of Religious Ethics 43, no. 2 (2015) : 289-316.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Peter G. Judge – Zander, Stacey L. and Judge, Peter G. “Brown Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus apella) Plan Their Movements on a Grasping Task.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 129, no. 2 (2015) : 181-188.

Peter G. Judge, Professor of Psychology & Animal Behavior

Motor planning is a relatively complex cognitive skill in which an actor modifies a behavior to anticipate the future consequences of the action. Studying motor planning in nonhuman primates may provide a better understanding of the roots of human planning abilities. In this study we presented capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) with a horizontal dowel baited on either the left or right end. A radial grasp on the dowel with the thumb facing toward the baited end would be the most efficient grip selection when bringing the dowel to one’s mouth and indicate motor planning. Ten of the 12 monkeys tested spontaneously used a radial grasp significantly more often than expected by chance. Results demonstrate a more ubiquitous expression of motor planning abilities than previously seen in capuchin monkeys. Adaptation of this method of testing may be useful in evaluating motor planning capacity in other primates.

Zander, Stacey L. and Judge, Peter G. “Brown Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus apella) Plan Their Movements on a Grasping Task.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 129, no. 2 (2015) : 181-188.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Carl Milofsky – Green, Brandn; Jones, Kristal; Boyd, Neil; Milofsky, Carl; and Martin, Eric C. “Students Implement the Affordable Care Act: A Model for Undergraduate Teaching and Research in Community Health and Sociology.” Journal of Community Health 40, no. 3 (2015) : 605-611.

Carl Milofsky, Professor of Sociology

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to observe and experience first-hand changing social policies and their impacts for individuals and communities. This article overviews an action research and teaching project developed at an undergraduate liberal arts university and focused on providing ACA enrollment assistance as a way to support student engagement with community health. The project was oriented around education, enrollment and evaluation activities in the community, and students and faculty together reflected on and analyzed the experiences that came from the research and outreach project. Student learning centered around applying concepts of diversity and political agency to health policy and community health systems. Students reported and faculty observed an unexpected empowerment for students who were able to use their university-learned critical thinking skills to explain complex systems to a wide range of audiences. In addition, because the project was centered at a university with no health professions programs, the project provided students interested in community and public health with the opportunity to reflect on how health and access to health care is conditioned by social context. The structure and pedagogical approaches and implications of the action research and teaching project is presented here as a case study for how to engage undergraduates in questions of community and public health through the lens of health policy and community engagement.

Green, Brandn; Jones, Kristal; Boyd, Neil; Milofsky, Carl; and Martin, Eric C. “Students Implement the Affordable Care Act: A Model for Undergraduate Teaching and Research in Community Health and Sociology.” Journal of Community Health 40, no. 3 (2015) : 605-611.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Peter G. Judge – Pearson, Brandon L.; Reeder, DeeAnn; and Judge, Peter G. “Crowding Increases Salivary Cortisol But Not Self-Directed Behavior in Captive Baboons.” International Journal of Primatology (2015).

Peter G. Judge, Professor of Psychology & Animal Behavior

Reduced space can lead to crowding in social animals. Crowding increases the risk of agonistic interactions that, in turn, may require additional physiological defensive coping mechanisms affecting health. To determine the stress induced from increased social density in a group of nineteen baboons living in an indoor/outdoor enclosure, saliva cortisol levels and rates of anxiety-related behavior were analyzed across two unique crowding episodes. Initially, mean salivary cortisol levels when animals were restricted to their indoor quarters were compared to those when they also had access to their larger outdoor enclosure. Then, mean cortisol levels were compared before, during, and after two distinct crowding periods of long and short duration. Crowding resulted in significantly elevated cortisol during crowding periods compared to non-crowded periods. Cortisol levels returned to baseline following two crowding episodes contrasting in their length and ambient climate conditions. These cortisol elevations indicate greater metabolic costs of maintaining homeostasis under social stress resulting from reduced space. Self-directed behavior, conversely, was not reliably elevated during crowding. Results suggest that the potential for negative social interactions, and/or the uncertainty associated with social threat can cause physiological stress responses detected by salivary cortisol. Self-directed behavioral measures of stress may constitute inadequate indicators of social stress in colony-housed monkeys or represent subjective emotional arousal unrelated to hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis activation.

Pearson, Brandon L.; Reeder, DeeAnn; and Judge, Peter G. “Crowding Increases Salivary Cortisol But Not Self-Directed Behavior in Captive Baboons.” International Journal of Primatology (2015).

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Carl Milofsky – Marsh, Ben; Milofsky, Carl; Kissam, Edward; and Arcury, Thomas A. “Understanding the Role of Social Factors in Farmworker Housing and Health.” New Solutions : a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 25, no. 3 (2015) : 313-333.

Carl Milofsky, Professor of Sociology

Differences in social advantage significantly influence health conditions and life expectancy within any population. Such factors reproduce historic class, race, and ethnic disparities in community success. Few populations in the United States face more social and economic disadvantage than farmworkers, and farmworker housing has significant potential to ameliorate or amplify the health impact of those disadvantages. Drawing on the limited direct research on farmworkers, and on additional research about poor, isolated, and immigrant societies, we propose four mechanisms through which housing can be expected to affect farmworker health: quality of social capital within farmworker communities, stress effects of poor housing situations, effects of housing on social support for healthy behaviors, and interactions among these factors, especially effects on children that can last for generations. Policy and planning definitions of “adequate” farmworker housing should take a more holistic view of housing needs to support specific social and community benefits in design decisions.

The Author(s) 2015.

Marsh, Ben; Milofsky, Carl; Kissam, Edward; and Arcury, Thomas A. “Understanding the Role of Social Factors in Farmworker Housing and Health.” New Solutions : a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 25, no. 3 (2015) : 313-333.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Jean Lamont – Lamont, Jean. “Trait Body Shame Predicts Health Outcomes in College Women: A Longitudinal Investigation.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 38, no. 6 (2015) : 998-1008.

Jean Lamont, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology

Trait body shame impacts psychological health, but its influence on physical health heretofore has not been examined. While body shame may be expected to impact physical health through many mechanisms, this investigation tested whether trait body shame predicts physical health outcomes by promoting negative attitudes toward bodily processes, thereby diminishing health evaluation and ultimately impacting physical health. Correlational (Study 1, N=177) and longitudinal (Study 2, N=141) studies tested hypotheses that trait body shame would predict infections, self-rated health, and symptoms, and that body responsiveness and health evaluation would mediate these relationships. In Study 1, trait body shame predicted all three poor health outcomes, and body responsiveness and health evaluation mediated these relationships. Study 2 partially replicated these results while controlling for depression, smoking, and BMI, and longitudinal analyses supported the temporal precedence of trait body shame in the proposed model. Limitations and alternative pathways are discussed.

Lamont, Jean. “Trait Body Shame Predicts Health Outcomes in College Women: A Longitudinal Investigation.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 38, no. 6 (2015) : 998-1008.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Alexander Riley – Riley, Alexander. “Ethnography of the Ek-Static Experience: Poesie Auto-Socioanalytique in the Work of Michel Leiris.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 44, no. 3 (2015) : 362-386.

Alexander Riley, Professor of Sociology

Much work has been done in recent decades to emphasize the need in ethnographic writing to grapple with questions of authorship, perspective, aesthetics, emotional resonance, and style. Various forms of reflexive ethnographic writing, and especially autoethnography, have opened up new expressive avenues. In this article, I argue that a figure who is at present poorly known in English-language social scientific circles, the French ethnographer, poet, and writer Michel Leiris (1901-1990), pushes this kind of autobiographical ethnographic writing forward in powerful ways. In brief, Leiris offers a powerfully effective method (which I call poesie auto-socioanalytique) that ties subjective experience into a larger objective structural framework via a method that (1) focuses on cultural meaning in an autobiographical experiential framework, that is, from the inside, (2) is expressly concerned with the role that language itself plays in meaning and memory, and (3) examines extraordinary situations in which one stands, temporarily, outside the normal interactional world in an existential frame of peculiar intensity and effervescence (the ek-static), and uses the Durkheimian conception of the sacred-profane opposition, along with the binary differentiation of the sacred into pure and impure varieties, as a structural theoretical tool for these descriptions. He makes an important contribution to ongoing discussions in the disciplines of cultural anthropology and cultural sociology concerning the interpretation and description of cultural meaning.

Riley, Alexander. “Ethnography of the Ek-Static Experience: Poesie Auto-Socioanalytique in the Work of Michel Leiris.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 44, no. 3 (2015) : 362-386.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Aaron D. Mitchel – Lusk, Laina G. and Mitchel, Aaron D. “Differential Gaze Patterns on Eyes and Mouth During Audiovisual Speech Segmentation.” Frontiers in Psychology 7, (2016) : 52-52.

Aaron D. Mitchel, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Speech is inextricably multisensory: both auditory and visual components provide critical information for all aspects of speech processing, including speech segmentation, the visual components of which have been the target of a growing number of studies. In particular, a recent study (Mitchel and Weiss, 2014) established that adults can utilize facial cues (i.e., visual prosody) to identify word boundaries in fluent speech. The current study expanded upon these results, using an eye tracker to identify highly attended facial features of the audiovisual display used in Mitchel and Weiss (2014). Subjects spent the most time watching the eyes and mouth. A significant trend in gaze durations was found with the longest gaze duration on the mouth, followed by the eyes and then the nose. In addition, eye gaze patterns changed across familiarization as subjects learned the word boundaries, showing decreased attention to the mouth in later blocks while attention on other facial features remained consistent. These findings highlight the importance of the visual component of speech processing and suggest that the mouth may play a critical role in visual speech segmentation.

Lusk, Laina G. and Mitchel, Aaron D. “Differential Gaze Patterns on Eyes and Mouth During Audiovisual Speech Segmentation.” Frontiers in Psychology 7, (2016) : 52-52.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Jennifer Silva – Snellman, Kaisa; Silva, Jennifer; Frederick, Carl B.; and Putnam, Robert D. “The Engagement Gap: Social Mobility and Extracurricular Participation among American Youth.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 657, no. 1 (2015) : 194-207.

Jennifer Silva, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Anthropology

Participation in extracurricular activities is associated with positive youth outcomes such as higher education attainment and greater future earnings. We present new analyses of four national longitudinal surveys of American high school students that reveal a sharp increase in the class gap in extracurricular involvement. Since the 1970s, upper-middle-class students have become increasingly active in school clubs and sport teams, while participation among working-class students has veered in the opposite direction. These growing gaps have emerged in the wake of rising income inequality, the introduction of pay to play programs, and increasing time and money investments by upper-middle-class parents in children’s development. These trends need to be taken into account in any new initiative to monitor mobility. They also present a challenge to the American ideal of equal opportunity insofar as participation in organized activities shapes patterns of social mobility.

Snellman, Kaisa; Silva, Jennifer; Frederick, Carl B.; and Putnam, Robert D. “The Engagement Gap: Social Mobility and Extracurricular Participation among American Youth.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 657, no. 1 (2015) : 194-207.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Aaron D. Mitchel – Evans, David W.; Lazar, Steven M.; Boomer, K B.; Mitchel, Aaron; Michael, Andrew M.; and Moore, Gregory J. “Social Cognition and Brain Morphology: Implications for Developmental Brain Dysfunction.” Brain Imaging and Behavior 9, no. 2 (2015) : 264-274.

Aaron D. Mitchel, Assistant Professor of Psychology

The social-cognitive deficits associated with several neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders have been linked to structural and functional brain anomalies. Given the recent appreciation for quantitative approaches to behavior, in this study we examined the brain-behavior links in social cognition in healthy young adults from a quantitative approach. Twenty-two participants were administered quantitative measures of social cognition, including the social responsiveness scale (SRS), the empathizing questionnaire (EQ) and the systemizing questionnaire (SQ). Participants underwent a structural, 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure that yielded both volumetric (voxel count) and asymmetry indices. Model fitting with backward elimination revealed that a combination of cortical, limbic and striatal regions accounted for significant variance in social behavior and cognitive styles that are typically associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Specifically, as caudate and amygdala volumes deviate from the typical R > L asymmetry, and cortical gray matter becomes more R > L asymmetrical, overall SRS and Emotion Recognition scores increase. Social Avoidance was explained by a combination of cortical gray matter, pallidum (rightward asymmetry) and caudate (deviation from rightward asymmetry). Rightward asymmetry of the pallidum was the sole predictor of Interpersonal Relationships and Repetitive Mannerisms. Increased D-scores on the EQ-SQ, an indication of greater systemizing relative to empathizing, was also explained by deviation from the typical R > L asymmetry of the caudate.

Evans, David W.; Lazar, Steven M.; Boomer, K B.; Mitchel, Aaron; Michael, Andrew M.; and Moore, Gregory J. “Social Cognition and Brain Morphology: Implications for Developmental Brain Dysfunction.” Brain Imaging and Behavior 9, no. 2 (2015) : 264-274.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Allen Tran – Tran, Allen L. “Rich Sentiments and the Cultural Politics of Emotion in Postreform Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.” American Anthropologist 117, no. 3 (2015) : 480-492.

Allen Tran, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Anthropology

Linking socioeconomic and personal transformations, recent scholarship on neoliberalism in East and Southeast Asia has examined the role of various emotional experiences in reconfiguring selfhood toward values of personal responsibility and self-care. However, studies rarely focus on how such experiences come to be understood as specifically emotional themselves. In this article, I examine the growing use of emotion (cam xuc)as a conceptual category to define the self and everyday life in a psychologistic idiom among middle-class residents of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. While more established discourses of sentiment (tinh cam) define selfhood in relation to notions of obligation and care, the emerging model of emotion emphasizes individuated self-knowledge. However, instead of replacing sentiment, newer understandings of emotion have developed alongside and in relation to sentiment. In categorizing various feelings as explicitly “emotional” in nature, people participate in a self-fashioning project that cultivates an emotionally aware and expressive self that is informed by neoliberal sensibilities yet does not supplant socialist or Confucian models of selfhood. I argue that emotions are not only central to the subjective experience of the transition to a market-oriented economy but also that emotion as a category itself is a medium through which economic transformations reorganize selfhood more generally. [emotion, self, neoliberalism, ethnopsychology, Vietnam]

Tran, Allen L. “Rich Sentiments and the Cultural Politics of Emotion in Postreform Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.” American Anthropologist 117, no. 3 (2015) : 480-492.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Kevin P. Myers – Wald, Hallie S. and Myers, Kevin P. “Enhanced Flavor-Nutrient Conditioning in Obese Rats on a High-Fat, High-Carbohydrate Choice Diet.” Physiology & Behavior 151, (2015) : 102-110.

Kevin P. Myers, Associate Professor of Psychology

Through flavor-nutrient conditioning rats learn to prefer and increase their intake of flavors paired with rewarding, postingestive nutritional consequences. Since obesity is linked to altered experience of food reward and to perturbations of nutrient sensing, we investigated flavor-nutrient learning in rats made obese using a high fat/high carbohydrate (HFHC) choice model of diet-induced obesity (ad libitum lard and maltodextrin solution plus standard rodent chow). Forty rats were maintained on HFHC to induce substantial weight gain, and 20 were maintained on chow only (CON). Among HFHC rats, individual differences in propensity to weight gain were studied by comparing those with the highest proportional weight gain (obesity prone, OP) to those with the lowest (obesity resistant, OR). Sensitivity to postingestive food reward was tested in a flavor-nutrient conditioning protocol. To measure initial, within-meal stimulation of flavor acceptance by post-oral nutrient sensing, first, in sessions 1-3, baseline licking was measured while rats consumed grape- or cherry-flavored saccharin accompanied by intragastric (IG) water infusion. Then, in the next three test sessions they received the opposite flavor paired with 5ml of IG 12% glucose. Finally, after additional sessions alternating between the two flavor-infusion contingencies, preference was measured in a two-bottle choice between the flavors without IG infusions. HFHC-OP rats showed stronger initial enhancement of intake in the first glucose infusion sessions than CON or HFHC-OR rats. OP rats also most strongly preferred the glucose-paired flavor in the two-bottle choice. These differences between OP versus OR and CON rats suggest that obesity is linked to responsiveness to postoral nutrient reward, consistent with the view that flavor-nutrient learning perpetuates overeating in obesity.Copyright 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wald, Hallie S. and Myers, Kevin P. “Enhanced Flavor-Nutrient Conditioning in Obese Rats on a High-Fat, High-Carbohydrate Choice Diet.” Physiology & Behavior 151, (2015) : 102-110.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Kevin P. Myers – Brunstrom, Jeffrey M.; Rogers, Peter J.; Myers, Kevin P.; and Holtzman, Jon D. “In Search of Flavour-Nutrient Learning: A Study of the Samburu Pastoralists of North-Central Kenya.” Appetite 91, (2015) : 415-425.

Kevin P. Myers, Associate Professor of Psychology

Much of our dietary behaviour is learned. In particular, one suggestion is that ‘flavour-nutrient learning’ (F-NL) influences both choice and intake of food. F-NL occurs when an association forms between the orosensory properties of a food and its postingestive effects. Unfortunately, this process has been difficult to evaluate because F-NL is rarely observed in controlled studies of adult humans. One possibility is that we are disposed to F-NL. However, learning is compromised by exposure to a complex Western diet that includes a wide range of energy-dense foods. To test this idea we explored evidence for F-NL in a sample of semi-nomadic pastoralists who eat a very limited diet, and who are lean and food stressed. Our Samburu participants (N = 68) consumed a sensory-matched portion (400 g) of either a novel low (0.72 kcal/g) or higher (1.57 kcal/g) energy-dense semi-solid food on two training days, and an intermediate version on day 3. Before and after each meal we measured appetite and assessed expected satiation and liking for the test food. We found no evidence of F-NL. Nevertheless, self-reported measures were very consistent and, as anticipated, expected satiation increased as the test food became familiar (expectedsatiation drift). Surprisingly,we observed insensitivity to the effects of test-meal energy density on measures of post-meal appetite. To explore this further we repeated a single training day using participants (N = 52) from the UK. Unlike in the Samburu, the higher energy-dense meal caused greater suppression of appetite. These observations expose interesting cross-cultural differences in sensitivity to the energy content of food. More generally, our work illustrates how measures can be translated to assess different populations, highlighting the potential for further comparisons of this kind.

Brunstrom, Jeffrey M.; Rogers, Peter J.; Myers, Kevin P.; and Holtzman, Jon D. “In Search of Flavour-Nutrient Learning: A Study of the Samburu Pastoralists of North-Central Kenya.” Appetite 91, (2015) : 415-425.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Jennie Stevenson – Stevenson, Jennie; Francomacaro, Lisa; Bohidar, Amelia; Young, K. A.; Pesarchick, B. F.; Buirkle, J. M.; McMahon, Elyse; and O’Bryan, C. M. “Ghrelin Receptor (GHS-R1A) Antagonism Alters Preference for Ethanol and Sucrose in a Concentration-Dependent Manner in Prairie Voles.” Physiology & Behavior 155, (2016) : 231-236.

Jennie Stevenson, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1A) activity has been implicated in reward for preferred foods and drugs; however, a recent study in our laboratory indicated that GHS-R1A antagonism reduces early (after only four exposures) preference for 20% ethanol, but not 10% sucrose in prairie voles, a genetically diverse high alcohol-consuming species. The purpose of the present study was to determine if these effects of GHS-R1A antagonism depend on the concentration of the rewarding solution being consumed. We first characterized preference for varying concentrations of ethanol and sucrose. Two bottle tests of each ethanol concentration versus water indicated that 10% and 20% ethanol are less preferred than 3% ethanol, and a follow-up direct comparison of 10% vs. 20% showed that 10% was preferred over 20%. Direct two-bottle comparisons of 2% vs. 5%, 2% vs. 10%, and 5% vs. 10% sucrose showed that 10% sucrose was most preferred, and 2% sucrose was least preferred. The effects of JMV 2959, a GHS-R1A antagonist, on preference for each concentration of ethanol and sucrose were then tested. In a between groups design prairie voles were given four two-hour drinking sessions in which animals had access to ethanol (3, 10, or 20%) versus water, or sucrose (2, 5, or 10%) versus water every other day. Saline habituation injections were given 30min before the third drinking session. JMV 2959 (i.p.; 9mg/kg), a GHS-R1A antagonist, or saline was administered 30min before the fourth drinking session. JMV 2959 reduced preference for 20% ethanol and 2% sucrose, but had no significant effect on preference for the other ethanol and sucrose concentrations. These data identify constraints on the role of GHS-R1A in early preference for ethanol and sucrose, and the concentration-dependent effects suggest strong preference for a reward may limit the importance of GHS-R1A activity.Copyright 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stevenson, Jennie; Francomacaro, Lisa; Bohidar, Amelia; Young, K. A.; Pesarchick, B. F.; Buirkle, J. M.; McMahon, Elyse; and O’Bryan, C. M. “Ghrelin Receptor (GHS-R1A) Antagonism Alters Preference for Ethanol and Sucrose in a Concentration-Dependent Manner in Prairie Voles.” Physiology & Behavior 155, (2016) : 231-236.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Jennie Stevenson – Stevenson, Jennie; Buirkle, J M.; Buckley, L E.; Young, Katelyn; Albertini, K M.; and Bohidar, Amelia. “GHS-R1A Antagonism Reduces Alcohol but Not Sucrose Preference in Prairie Voles.” Physiology & Behavior 147, (2015) : 23-29.

Jennie Stevenson, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Rationale: Ghrelin has been shown to mediate food and drug reward in rats and mice, and the rewarding properties of sweet foods and alcohol are known to contribute to overconsumption of these substances. Objective: To investigate the effects of GHS-R1A antagonism in a novel animal model of high alcohol consumption, the prairie vole, and to characterize the role of ghrelin in limited access consumption of a drug (alcohol) and non-drug (sucrose) reward. Methods: Female prairie voles were given four 2-h two-bottle drinking sessions, occurring every other day. During drinking sessions, animals had access to 20% ethanol vs water or 10% sucrose vs water. Pre-treatment with the GHS-R1A antagonist JMV 2959 (i.p.; 0.0, 9.0 mg/kg Experiments 1 and 2;0.0, 9.0, 12.0 mg/kg Experiments 3 and 4.) occurred 30-min before the fourth session. To determine if the amount of exposure to sucrose sessions affected the efficacy of JMV 2959, in Experiment 5 animals were given 16 daily 2-hr drinking sessions with 10% sucrose vs water. JMV 2959 treatment (0.0 or 9.0 mg/kg) occurred 30-min prior to the 16th session. Results: JMV 2959 reduced alcohol but not sucrose preference. Even after extended experience with sucrose sessions, JMV 2959 had no effect on sucrose preference or consumption. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that GHS-R1A antagonism reduces alcohol preference, but suggest limitations on the role of ghrelin in the preference for and consumption of naturally rewarding substances. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stevenson, Jennie; Buirkle, J M.; Buckley, L E.; Young, Katelyn; Albertini, K M.; and Bohidar, Amelia. “GHS-R1A Antagonism Reduces Alcohol but Not Sucrose Preference in Prairie Voles.” Physiology & Behavior 147, (2015) : 23-29.

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Friday, February 26th, 2016

Jennie Stevenson – Fletcher, Kelsey L.; Whitley, Brittany N.; Treidel, Lisa A.; Thompson, David; Williams, Annie; Noguera, Jose C.; Stevenson, Jennie; and Haussmann, Mark F. “Voluntary Locomotor Activity Mitigates Oxidative Damage Associated with Isolation Stress in the Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster).” Biology Letters 11, no. 7 (2015 ).

Jennie Stevenson, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Organismal performance directly depends on an individual’s ability to cope with a wide array of physiological challenges. For social animals, social isolation is a stressor that has been shown to increase oxidative stress. Another physiological challenge, routine locomotor activity, has been found to decrease oxidative stress levels. Because we currently do not have a good understanding of how diverse physiological systems like stress and locomotion interact to affect oxidative balance, we studied this interaction in the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). Voles were either pair housed or isolated and within the isolation group, voles either had access to a moving wheel or a stationary wheel. We found that chronic periodic isolation caused increased levels of oxidative stress. However, within the vole group that was able to run voluntarily, longer durations of locomotor activity were associated with less oxidative stress. Our work suggests that individuals who demonstrate increased locomotor activity may be better able to cope with the social stressor of isolation.

2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Fletcher, Kelsey L.; Whitley, Brittany N.; Treidel, Lisa A.; Thompson, David; Williams, Annie; Noguera, Jose C.; Stevenson, Jennie; and Haussmann, Mark F. “Voluntary Locomotor Activity Mitigates Oxidative Damage Associated with Isolation Stress in the Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster).” Biology Letters 11, no. 7 (2015 ).

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