Research

Ihtisham Ahmed

Program and Department: Applied Science in Kinesiology at the University of Guelph-Humber
Year of Study: 4^th year
Supervisor: Dr. Christopher G.R Perry

Research Project: The project will aim to assess the mechanisms of muscle dysfunction in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. I will be involved in doing histology and RT-PCR on small samples of heart in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (D2.mdx). Fibrosis arising from damaged membranes will be assessed in skeletal muscle of the mice to determine if fibrosis occurs heterogeneously in each muscle type. The expectation is that certain muscles will be resistant to fibrosis, this will allow us to gain a better understanding on how certain muscles defend against scar formation while others don’t. Protein markers of immune cells will also be measured to determine the degree to which each muscle experienced inflammation during fibrosis.

Arian Mohammadi

Program and Department: Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health
Year of Study: 4^th year
Supervisor: Dr. Devin Phillips

Research Project: Previous studies indicate that healthy females often exhibit similar or lower breathing responses to increases in blood carbon dioxide (hypercapnia), when compared to males. Further, females are more likely to experience significant breathing constraints during severe physiological stress, such as hypercapnia. These constraints may underestimate breathing responses to hypercapnia (termed the hypercapnic ventilatory response [HCVR]) when using simple respiratory measurements (e.g., expired gas). Direct measurements of respiratory muscle activation, termed ventilatory neural drive, may provide additional insights in the control of breathing in females. Thus, we will complete a study comparing neural ventilatory drive responses during hypercapnia in 15 healthy young females (aged 18-40 years) and 15 age-matched males. We hypothesize that ventilatory drive during hypercapnia will be similar or higher in females, despite lower ventilation than males. Our methodology includes: 1) a standardized hypercapnia protocol, 2) measurement of expired gas to estimate ventilation, and 3) measurements of ventilatory neural drive, assessed using an esophageal catheter to quantify diaphragmatic (primary respiratory muscle) electromyography signals. Should females demonstrate elevated ventilatory neural drive during hypercapnia, but a lower ventilation, when compared to males, these data would provide evidence that breathing constraints may lead to underestimations in the HCVR.

Kelyn Young

Program and Department: Bachelor of Arts with a major in psychology and minor in neuroscience
Year of Study: 5^th year
Supervisor: Dr. Achala Rodrigo

Research Project: There is still much to be clarified regarding how emotion may modulate an individual’s ability to successfully complete tasks requiring sustained attention. Within that context, the proposed research project aims to evaluate how negative affect may interfere with attentional control. Specifically, the proposed study will examine the dynamic degradation in task-related behavioural performance on a standardized attentional control task across increasing levels of intensity of negative affect. The study will also evaluate hemodynamic activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine previously identified neural markers of attentional control within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. To operationalize negative affect, the proposed study aims to implement and validate a safe thermal discomfort paradigm for eliciting a negative affective response based on momentary physiological discomfort. The findings of the proposed project could provide novel insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms that subserve the complex relationship between negative affect and sustained attention. 

Ryley Nathaniel

Program and Department: Psychology (Cognitive Neuropsychology Stream) Department of Psychology
Year of Study: final year
Supervisor: Dr. Liya Ma

Research Project: Cognitive flexibility, as shown by humans and animals, is an ability to flexibly switch between rules whenever a context changes. An example in humans is when the stoplight changes from green to red; where time and distance permit, the driver must change from the go-at-a-green-light rule to the stop-at-a-red-light rule. Although we benefit from it every day, we do not fully understand how neurons within and across brain areas interact to support the maintenance and switch between alternative rules. By analyzing a dataset previously collected in our lab, we will decipher how these neurons interact. We expect that (1) individual neurons’ activity fluctuates systematically as the animal encounters a new rule and comes to follow it consistently, in a way that closely correlates with performance and may even precede performance improvement. We also hypothesize that (2) dynamics in simultaneously recorded neuronal pairs and ensembles change with the accumulation of experience. Through these analyses, we will have a better understanding of the local and inter-areal dynamics that predict more efficient rule switching, i.e. a greater level of flexibility. attentional control task across increasing levels of intensity of negative affect. The study will also evaluate hemodynamic activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine previously identified neural markers of attentional control within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. To operationalize negative affect, the proposed study aims to implement and validate a safe thermal discomfort paradigm for eliciting a negative affective response based on momentary physiological discomfort. The findings of the proposed project could provide novel insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms that subserve the complex relationship between negative affect and sustained attention. 

David De Caprio

Program and Department: Faculty of Health, B.Sc., Spec. Hons. Kinesiology & Health Science (Health & Kinesiology)
Year of Study: 5^th year
Supervisor:  Dr. Rolando Ceddia

Research Project: Since its inception in the 1800s, the Ketogenic Diet (KD) is the most thoroughly studied diet in existence. It limits carbohydrate intake to a maximum of 10% of one’s daily calories, with fats and proteins providing the remaining 70% and 20%, respectively. This forces the body to utilize fat for fuel and generate ketone bodies. The KD has been shown to reverse a variety of inflammatory conditions, including obesity, dyslipidemia, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The typical obesogenic North American Diet is rich in high-fructose corn syrup and fructose-based sweeteners, which have been shown to impair hepatic metabolism, increase inflammation, and cause obesity and T2D. The mechanisms by which this unfolds are not completely known. Therefore, my research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern hepatic fructose metabolism under either an obesogenic diet rich in sugar and fat or a KD devoid of carbohydrates. To accomplish this, I will assess major metabolic pathways that regulate fructose metabolism, insulin signaling, inflammation, as well as fat synthesis and storage in the liver. The main goal is to develop a dietary approach that can mitigate the current epidemic of metabolic diseases caused by the obesogenic food environment that is prevalent in Canada.cussion that is often relegated to grey literature. This aligns with the faculty’s mission to build on collective responsibility to ensure healthy, equitable relationships within social groups and with the environment. Racialized communities’ experiences with the justice system are typically patterned by their built and social environment, both of which also provide a lens for understanding how encounters shape health outcomes. Therefore, this research aims to explore how encounters and experiences with the criminal justice system and/or the child welfare system impact the psychosocial well-being of the victims; identify their coping mechanisms, and determine the pathways by which these encounters may be deepening the social and health inequality gap using data from the Greater Toronto Area.  

Jordyn Heron

Program and Department: BSc Psychology & Neuroscience. Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University
Year of Study: 4^th year
Supervisor:  Dr. Jennifer Steeves

Research Project: Previous research has identified secondary sex differences in dimensions such as motor skills, verbal abilities, and visual cognition. Males outperform females on navigational tasks, whereas females outperform males in face processing, perceptual speed, and language fluency. Our lab has shown that in addition to sex differences in visual cognition, sexual orientation plays a role, namely in terms of face recognition. Therefore, do sex and sexual orientation differences in visual cognition have origins in brain structure and function? This project aims to quantify the role of gender and sexuality across a suite of visual cognitive and visuomotor tasks that have previously shown sex differences, then correlate this behaviour with underlying neural structure and function using structural and functional MRI. It is expected that gender and sexual orientation differences in behaviour will relate to underlying structural and/or functional differences in how the brain processes visual cognitive information. This gender-based approach will provide fundamental advances to our understanding of visual cognitive development and the biological basis of sex and sexual orientation. These findings will provide a dataset with both behavioural and neuroimaging measures which can inform research, education, and policy around gender-based health differences and the role of gender in neurobiology.

Parmis Falahat

Program and Department: Kinesiology and Health Science, Faculty of Health
Year of Study: 4^th year
Supervisor: Dr. Emilie Roudier 

Research Project:

When a person engages in physical activity, cyclic exposure to increased contractile activity shifts the expression of genes in the skeletal muscle. When repeated sufficiently, PA shifts gene expression and drives tissue adaptations, such as gain in capillaries via angiogenesis. Epigenetic writers establish epigenetic marks on the chromatin by adding methyl groups to the DNA or post-translational modifications (PTM) on histones that aid DNA packaging.These epigenetic marks serve as an adaptable scaffolding for the genome, determining which genes will be accessible to the cell transcriptional machinery. By changing the microenvironmental cues in the skeletal muscle, the contractile activity alters the distribution of epigenetic marks and facilitates changes in gene expression. The mechanisms through which regular physical activity silences angiogenesis-related genes in the skeletal muscle remain unclear. This project aims to study whether contractile activity impacts the function of the epigenetic writer Suv39H1, which establishes a silencing PTM on histone H3 (H3K9me3). We will assess whether contractile activity or exercise modifies the level of expression of Suv39H1 and H3K9me3, and the abundance of H3K9me3 on angiogenesis-related genes in the muscle tissue, myoblasts, myotubes and endothelial cells.