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Students in the Neuroscience emphasis have worked in labs both at University of Puget Sound and outside. Here is a list of current and past student research, with links to their posters/presentations:

2022-2023 Student Research Projects

Student Hayden Smith holding up a laptop with a graph of their research data on the screen.

Hayden Smith ‘23 - Perceived Familial Social Support After Coming Out Predicts Mental Health in Gender-Diverse Adolescents

This study aimed to explore the social experiences of Gender-Diverse (GD) youth and how they influence mental health using longitudinal data collected by the developmental social neuroscience (DSN) lab at the University of Oregon. The data included survey responses from 157 cis-gender, and 17 GD adolescents (age 9-18) from four time points that were approximately 18 months apart. Coarsened Exact Matching based on demographic variables was used to create a cis-gender matched pairs sample (n = 13) for participants who had indicated a GD identity by the third time point. We found a significant decrease in perceived familial social support between wave 1 (W1) and wave 3 (W3) and waves 2 (W2) and W3 for the GD group only. Additionally, we found significant predictive relationships between depression and perceived familial social support at W3 and at the first point an individual indicated their GD identity, suggesting that the negative impacts of perceived familial social support (either after coming out or by W3) in GD adolescents contributes to depressive symptomatology.

Hayden Smith - Psychology (BA), Gender & Queer Studies (MN), Neuroscience (MN) | Faculty advisor: Melvin Rouse | 2022-2023 Academic Year

Student Skyler De la Cruz sitting in front of a dog that is performing a drawer pulling task.

Skyler Dela Cruz ‘23 The Influence of Oxytocin on Social Learning by Domestic Dogs (Canis familiaris)

Domesticated dogs have the ability to be highly responsive to human-delivered cues, making them suitable social partners with humans. In dogs, humans, and other mammals, the brain releases oxytocin (OT) during positive social interactions. Previous research found that oxytocin improves dogs’ performance on tasks involving social engagement from a human. Dogs were pseudo-randomly assigned into four experimental conditions (OT/Placebo, and Demo/No Demo). Participants were given the opportunity to solve a puzzle apparatus containing dog treats while an human experimenter engaged with the dog. Dogs in the social learning (“Demo”) condition interacted with the puzzle longer and solved it more often than dogs not in this condition. The results showed no influence of OT on any solving behaviors with the puzzle. Dogs with the OT gazed at their owner more often than dogs in the Placebo condition and interestingly, these dogs gazed more at the experimenter than their owners on average. These findings reveal that the dogs’ social behaviors of referencing their owners reflected the desire of obtaining cues from a familiar social partner rather than an unfamiliar one. The findings suggest the dogs’ search for having joint attention depends on how active and knowledgeable a social partner may seem related to a particular task. While there were no differences seen between OT and the placebo, the extensive demographic information obtained through surveys may offer additional insights of oxytocin’s influence in future work.

Skyler Dela Cruz - Psychology (BA), Neuroscience (MN), Spanish (MN) | Faculty advisor: Erin Colbert-White | 2022-2023 Academic Year

Past Student Research