M.A. Child and Youth Studies
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/2252
2024-03-18T17:41:20ZDynamic Configuration of Large-Scale Cortical Networks: A Useful Framework for Clarifying the Heterogeneity Found in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/16406
Dynamic Configuration of Large-Scale Cortical Networks: A Useful Framework for Clarifying the Heterogeneity Found in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Kember, Jonah
The heterogeneity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) traits (inattention vs. hyperactivity/impulsivity) complicates diagnosis and intervention. Identifying how the configuration of large-scale functional brain networks during cognitive processing correlate with this heterogeneity could help us understand the neural mechanisms altered across ADHD presentations. Here, we recorded high-density EEG while 62 non-clinical participants (ages 18-24; 32 male) underwent an inhibitory control task (Go/No-Go). Functional EEG networks were created using sensors as nodes and across-trial phase-lag index values as edges. Using cross-validated LASSO regression, we examined whether graph-theory metrics applied to both static networks (averaged across time-windows: -500–0ms, 0–500ms) and dynamic networks (temporally layered with 2ms intervals), were associated with hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive traits. Network configuration during response execution/inhibition was associated with hyperactive/impulsive (mean R2across test sets = .20, SE = .02), but not inattentive traits. Post-stimulus results at higher frequencies (Beta, 14-29Hz; Gamma, 30-90Hz) showed the strongest association with hyperactive/impulsive traits, and predominantly reflected less burst-like integration between modules in oscillatory beta networks during execution, and increased integration/small-worldness in oscillatory gamma networks during inhibition. We interpret the beta network results as reflecting weaker integration between specialized pre-frontal and motor systems during motor response preparation, and the gamma results as reflecting a compensatory mechanism used to integrate processing between less functionally specialized networks. This research demonstrates that the neural network mechanisms underlying response execution/inhibition might be associated with hyperactive/impulsive traits, and that dynamic, task-related changes in EEG functional networks may be useful in disentangling ADHD heterogeneity.
Measuring the Reading-Attention Relationship: Functional Differences in Working Memory Activity During Single Word Decoding in Children With and Without Reading Disorder
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15615
Measuring the Reading-Attention Relationship: Functional Differences in Working Memory Activity During Single Word Decoding in Children With and Without Reading Disorder
Sinha, Niki
Working memory (WM) is linked to the development of reading skills and has been evidenced to
contribute to reading comprehension difficulties in children with reading disorder (RD). Several
converging models suggest WM to contribute to the development of foundational reading skills,
but few studies have assessed this contribution in either typically developing readers (TD) or
children with RD. In effort to bridge this gap, the current study identified whether a functional
neuroimaging task could be used to identify changes in WM activity during single word reading
in children with and without RD. Two groups of children (77 RD, 22 TD) aged 7-9 completed a
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task which paired reading and n-back trials to
identify activation of a priori chosen regions of interest in the WM network during single word
decoding. Trials consisted of words, pseudowords, and false font stimuli to assess WM activity
between groups in relation to familiar words, unfamiliar words, and non-words. Exploratory
analysis of behavioural WM correlates were assessed using measures of performance on the
fMRI task as well as measures of verbal learning from the California Verbal Learning Test –
Children’s version. Results show the fMRI task was able to identify WM network activity in
both groups. In the RD group WM activity was indiscriminate to stimulus type and did not show
any patterns of lateralization. In the TD group, WM activity was strongly left lateralized, and
only detected during pseudoword reading, suggesting increases in WM activity during phonetic
decoding only. Findings suggest the WM network may contribute differently to single word
reading in children with and without RD and highlights the potential functional imaging may
have in defining this relationship over the course of reading development.
Beyond the Headlines: Exploring Media Portrayal of Youth Climate Change Activists
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15377
Beyond the Headlines: Exploring Media Portrayal of Youth Climate Change Activists
Hayes, Grayson
Climate change is the biggest global threat to our planet today and youth will bear the brunt of this threat (Currie & Deschênes, 2016). Recently, we have seen youth stand up and become activists for climate. This qualitative study was conducted on media representations of youth climate change activists because of its usefulness for exploring the complexity of youth voices, and how they are ignored. This research focuses closely on Swedish teen activist, Greta Thunberg, currently 18, and Autumn Peltier, 17, a Canadian Indigenous activist and Chief Water Commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation. By employing Foucault’s theory of discourse and power, the sociology of childhood, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, herein UNCRC), this research provides new insight on our representations of youth activism. Through analysis, there were seven distinct discourses related to the research questions: adults as supporters, active actors, westernized viewpoints, lone and collective activism, media as a gatekeeper/catalyst, hierarchical and power relations, and dismissal of children. Findings showed that to change media’s perceptions of youth activism, we must first challenge the discourse of childhood innocence, while also still holding relative power in a non-authoritarian way. The UNCRC (1989) also needs to be integrated further within schools and policy implementation as even though childhood globally shares the same inherent rights, not all youth activists are being afforded the same opportunities that Swedish teen Greta Thunberg has been given.
The Christian Summer Camp as a Location for Queer Theoretical Inquiry
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15272
The Christian Summer Camp as a Location for Queer Theoretical Inquiry
Harding, Evan
This project presents a queer-theoretically informed analysis of the Christian summer camp environment, a minimally-researched recreational environment, relying in particular on Foucault’s understanding of surveillance and discourse, Butler’s concepts of performativity and intelligibility, Dyer’s conceptualization of queer futurity, and Messner’s identification of gender salience. After recruiting thirteen participants, twelve of whom worked at the same Baptist summer camp and one other who worked at a non-denominational Christian summer camp, each participant completed a short narrative discussing a gender-charged experience they encountered at camp. After this, ten of the thirteen participants agreed to complete interviews discussing those experiences further, as well as other topics surrounding how gender and sexuality were managed at camp. Findings were divided into three themes. The first theme foregrounds camp as a place where participants described acceptance and community as central pillars to the camp environment, while exclusionary practices complicated that understanding for many of the participants. The second theme highlights this exclusion and expands on who is excluded from camp and the methods of exclusion. The third theme discusses the responses and instances of resistance participants had to exclusionary camp policies, as well as the responses camp leadership had to violations of policy and instances of resistance. This has resulted in a better understanding of the locational salience of gender performance in the camp environment, as well as how gender and sexuality are taken up and negotiated on a personal and institutional level.