Students in the Psychology department are busy working on research year round. Two students, in particular, were supported by the New Hampshire-INBRE through an Institutional Development Award (IDeA), P20GM103506, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH. Rebecca Spaulding ’21 spent the summer working with Professor Troisi in the department’s animal research lab. Two recent alumni of the department (Julia Valine ’19 and Erin Conley ’19) had done experimental studies with female rats, in which they used a drug discrimination paradigm to identify the differences in the effect of nicotine on operant behavior during the different stages of the estrous cycle (the rodent’s equivalent of a menstrual cycle). Building upon their work, Rebecca Spaulding and Professor Troisi began an experimental study with four more sets of rats. This time, however, two of these four sets of rats were male. The same drug discrimination paradigm was used, and half of the rats (equally male and female) were trained to associate nicotine with the presence of reinforcing food pellets, while half were trained to associate the control (saline) with the same. The rats, if under the drug condition for which they were reinforced with food pellets on a VI-30 schedule, learned to poke their nose in a small hole in a Skinner box for the pellets. After it was evident from their nose-poking that the rats had learned to discriminate between the drug and non-drug states, extinction sessions were begun. In these extinction sessions, the reinforcing food pellets were removed. The sex differences in the decrease in nose-poking among the rats reinforced with nicotine were the focus of the study. It was found that the only noticeable difference between the male and female nicotine-reinforced rats was on the second day of extinction training with nicotine, which was, while close, found not to be statistically significant. Rebecca and Prof. Troisi presented these findings at the Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NH-INBRE) conference in August at the Omni Mt. Washington Hotel, and they are continuing with their research this fall.
The psychology department’s own Janelle Fassi ‘21 was also involved in INBRE-supported research alongside Professor Rickenbach this previous summer. Janelle and Professor Rickenbach examined a sample of grandparents who take care of their grandchildren. By developing a daily diary correlational study, the two researchers evaluated some of the stressors that affect a grandparent’s ability to care for their grandchildren. Some of the stressors included financial difficulties, the children’s parents visiting unexpectedly, a family member falling ill, or even larger societal issues, such as the opioid epidemic. The grandparents’ stress levels were measured via a survey that focused on their emotional and physical well-being. Although data analysis is still ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that grandparents who regularly care for their grandchildren have unique challenges that intersect with co-occurring aging-related changes. In the past, Janelle and Prof. Rickenbach have presented their research at the New England Psychological Association (NEPA) conference in Worcester, MA, at Saint Anselm’s own Showcasing Our Art and Research (S.O.A.R) program, and at the INBRE conference in August.
