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Ontogeny of neural mechanisms of episodic memory
Šafová, Lucie ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Blahna, Karel (referee)
Two brain structures in particular - the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) - are essential for episodic memory, the ability to recall personal experiences with details of time, place, and event. It is their developmental changes that contribute significantly to the progressive development of episodic memory. The hippocampus is a complex structure composed of several subregions that is crucial to the function of the neural basis of episodic memory. Findings show that both neuronal changes within the hippocampus and changes in its volume and the volume of hippocampal subfields influence episodic memory. As in the hippocampus, changes in the prefrontal cortex also affect episodic memory, with the PFC being among the last regions to fully mature and affecting the accuracy of recalling contextual details of episodic memories. The transfer of information between brain regions is also crucial for episodic memories, and is provided by white matter connections (fornix, cingulum, uncinate fasciculus). This thesis summarizes the knowledge about the structures and mechanisms involved in the development of episodic memory and mentions the factors that influence its development. Keywords: episodic memory, ontogeny, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, synaptic plasticity
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Cross-cultural differences in ontogenetic development
Smetanová, Hana ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Popper, Miroslav (referee)
The aim of the bachelor's thesis is to compare the ontogenetic development of children in the context of cultural environment. The theoretical and research focus of the thesis is on a population of children aged 3 to 5 years. The literature review section will introduce the developmental aspects of preschool age with an emphasis on cognitive development. It will also focus on social cognition, especially Theory of Mind, and its relation to other cognitive phenomena. The possibilities of testing Theory of Mind will also be mentioned. In the last theoretical chapter, the recent findings on cross-cultural differences in Theory of Mind will be summarized and selected factors explaining possible differences in development will be described. The aim of the research part will be to design a research proposal that would map the relationship between theory of mind, selected cognitive functions and sociodemographic factors in Czech and British children. Universality of the influence of language ability and executive functions on the Theory of Mind will also be examined. The contribution of this bachelor thesis is the extension of knowledge of the influence of culture on ontogenetic development and the comparison of Theory of Mind between two European countries. Key words: development; theory of mind;...
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The willingness of women to engage in unwanted sexual activity in the context of self-esteem and mate value
Pícková, Anna ; Weiss, Petr (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
This master's thesis primarily focuses on examining the relationships between women's willingness to voluntarily participate in unwanted sexual activities, their self-esteem and mate value. The theoretical part of the thesis defines the concept of consent, analyzes the reasons and psychological factors contributing to women's participation in unwanted sexual activities. The results indicate a moderately strong negative relationship between women's willingness to engage in unwanted sexual activities and their self-esteem. However, the relationship with mate value did not reach the level of significance. None of the aspects of women's sexual history significantly influenced the relationships between variables. The exploratory part of the research suggests that there is no difference between older and younger women in their willingness to engage in unwanted sexual activities. These findings have the important implications for prevention and education regarding sexual consent and establishing boundaries in sexual interactions. Key words: Consent, Unwanted consensual sex, Self-esteem, Mate value
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Stress markers and methodologies for their measurement in selected model species
Langmajerová, Anna ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Petrásek, Tomáš (referee)
The stress response is a cascade of physiological and subsequently behavioural processes that enable the organism to cope with various stressful situations and influences (stressors). The manifestations of stress in different organisms are to some extent similar, but at the same time they may differ in intensity and manner. Stress can be measured using biological markers, which are objective and measurable and indicative of underlying biological processes. This bachelor thesis focus on stress markers and the methodology of their measurement. It also discusses specific types of stress markers in each model, for example, measurement of stress hormones (cortisol, corticosteroid), measurement of body temperature, blood pressure or heart rate, or behavioural performance. The thesis also focus on the issue of suitability and applicability of various methods of measuring and evaluating stress in individual models, depending on their accuracy and welfare of the animals during a given measurement, which may influence the test results. Keywords: animal model, behavior, biomarker, stress
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Effects of interaction with animals on human resilience
Vondráková, Barbora ; Polák, Jakub (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the effect of animals on human resilience through their interactions. The aim of the thesis is to summarize current knowledge in this area and to propose research that could help to discover some of the as yet unstudied effects of animal-human interactions. In the theoretical part, the concept, related concepts, mechanisms and factors of resilience are first briefly described. Next, attention is paid to the current knowledge in the field of resilience research and some selected measurement tools are mentioned. The next section focuses on the general effects of interactions with animals on bio-psycho-social domains of human life at different developmental stages, together with an introduction to some research methods. The theoretical part of the thesis concludes with a more detailed description of the investigated links between human-animal relationships and the state of human resilience. This is followed by a quantitative panel research design that aims to examine the development of resilience in adults in the periods before and after the acquisition of an animal as a human companion.
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Effect of Verbal Dual-tasks on Function of Central Executive Network and Default Mode Network
Valeš, Jáchym ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Kaplan, Cyril (referee)
This paper examines the role of inner speech in the domains of the central executive and default mode network. Studies of inner speech have repeatedly indicated its role and use in a variety of cognitive tasks, regardless of the verbal or non-verbal nature of the procedure employed in their execution. These studies have primarily focused on the domains of the central executive network; no such study has yet been conducted for the default mode network. The aim of the present work is to design an fMRI study that could approximate the role of inner speech in a selected domain of the default mode network - the retrieval of content from long-term, episodic memory. The theoretical section provides a definition of inner speech, describes the neural correlates of different types of speech, and compares a number of studies and their approaches to studying inner speech. In addition, the thesis emphasizes neurodevelopmental and neurobiological aspects, which the thesis places in the context of significant developmental leaps, particularly between the ages of 5 and 10 years. The given facts are also developed in the context of autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, deaf-mute individuals and individuals with aphasia. Key words Inner speech; Cognitive functions; Central Executive Network; Default Mode...
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Cognitive, structural and functional brain changes in a model of psychotic relapses
Ledvinková, Michaela ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Schizophrenia is a serious nerodevelopmental disease with many sophisticated symptoms. One of its characteristics are relapses which are currently surrounded by consensus that each relaps causes further structural and functional defecits and can even lead to loss of grey matter. Recently, studies of cognitive deficit became prominent and increased the number of possible methods to study schizophrenia. Animal models are used for studying this phenomenon and focuses on neurobiological processes and cellular metabolism and its research is crucial to developing new ways of treatment and understanding schizophrenia. This review mainly focuses on relapses and how they affect progression of this desease. Key words: schizophrenia, psychosis, relaps, neurobiological progression, energy metabolism, cognitive deficit, animal models
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EEG Neurofeedback as an instrument to explore introspective correlates of cortical activity
Kaplan, Cyril ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee) ; Uher, Tomáš (referee)
Background: EEG neurofeedback is mostly used as a tool in clinical research and practice. Though many studies exploring the efficiency of neurofeedback training in treating distinct symptoms were performed, mostly adopting a design similar to clinical trials, many aspects of the whole process remain unclear as they are frequently neglected by and/or underreported in the published studies. Surprisingly, one of the first uses that the EEG neurofeedback was put to, had no clinical ambitions. The act of playing a simple sonic game with a goal to generate simple tones (by upregulating own alpha activity) served as a bridge for subsequent interviews targeting the subjective experience that accompanied the shifts in alpha oscillations. Objectives: The series of studies as a whole (a pilot and three studies) was designed around the instrument of EEG neurofeedback loop. The main objective was to capture the essence of subjective experience that accompanies rises and drops in the power of specific EEG features. Similarities and incongruencies in the character of subjective experience across subjects while interacting with the same EEG neurofeedback game were of interest, as well as the similarities and incongruencies in the subjective experience of one subject engaged in distinct EEG neurofeedback tasks....
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Cognitive approach to learning
Kuchtíková, Nicole ; Morávková Krejčová, Lenka (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
The undergraduate thesis deals with two cognitive approaches, which are part of the learning process. In the first part of this thesis, the literature review provides a description of a current status of educational policy of the Czech Republic with reasons why we should pay attention to the cognitive processes in learning. The work assesses the learning process from the aspect of cognitive psychology. Two cognitive processes are elaborated, namely attention and memory. Both chapters start with a theoretical introduction and continue with specific recommendations and findings which could be used by teachers and students as well. The second part of the thesis describes a research design, which aims to find out the effect of the practice testing as one of the learning strategies by a quantitative methodology.
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Hippocampal coding of positions of visual objects and prediction of their future interactions
Dvořáková, Tereza ; Levčík, David (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
The hippocampus is a crucial brain structure involved in spatial navigation. It contains populations of spatially sensitive cells as the place cells, head-direction cells, grid cells, border cells, or object-vector cells. These neurons together create a cognitive map of the environment that serves for navigation in space. The role of hippocampal cells in the encoding of positions of other objects has also been suggested. Other studies found so-called time cells in the hippocampus that are active during specific delays in a behavioral task and associated them with place cells. While there are recent studies researching the encoding of accessible objects' positions, the encoding of objects in the inaccessible space has lacked research. The neural representation of dynamic situations (that constitute the majority of real-world encounters) has also been only scarcely researched. We designed a behavioral task to study the learning of static and dynamic spatial visual scenes presented in the inaccessible space and combined it with single-unit electrophysiological recording from the CA1 area of the hippocampus of freely moving rats. Our results show that rats can discriminate both static and dynamic inaccessible spatial stimuli, and that they prefer dynamic over static stimuli. They can also generalize...
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