Association for Behavior Analysis International

Years of using lead in paint and gasoline resulted in widespread environmental contamination and human exposure. The particular vulnerability of the developing brain to lead puts children at particular risk for detrimental effects and numerous studies have documented the association of elevated blood lead in children with reduced IQ scores. Behavior analysis (BA)has been critical to the delineation of the specific cognitive deficits that underlie the IQ loss.BA hasrevealed deficits in learning/reversal learning that appear to result from increases in response perseveration and disruption of attention-related behaviors, particularly the ability to wait for reward. In the human environment, lead exposure occurs with many other risk factors for cognitive deficits, particularly in low socioeconomic status communities where lead levels are highest. Two such risk factors—high levels of maternal stress and early behavioral adversity in children—share pathways of brain mediation with lead, and thus could enhance or alter its behavioral toxicity. Indeed, studies in animal models show that lead-induced deficits in cognitive behaviors can be enhanced by, or even unmasked, in the presence of prenatal stress. Further, early behavioral adversity can further exacerbate the adverse effects of lead on learning.

Licensed Psychologists, certified behavior analysts, graduate students.

Young adults report greater levels of drug and alcohol misuse than any other age or demographic group yet they rarely report significant substance dependence or any desire to participate in formal substance abuse treatment. Dr. Murphy's presentation will focus on novel behavioral economic approaches to understanding risk, quantifying severity, and motivating change in substance use in high-risk young adult populations. Dr. Murphy has developed and evaluated a brief behavioral economic intervention approach that attempts to increase engagement in patterns of goal-directed substance-free activities that are associated with delayed reinforcement and will describe the treatment elements and outcomes. He has also developed and evaluated demand curve and relative behavioral allocation indices of reward value and will present data on their clinical relevance in the prediction of substance abuse severity and treatment response.

Undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals in psychology and behavior analysis

Western dualistic conceptions of "mind" and "self" create unrealistic behavioral expectations of patients for themselves, for their families, and for professionals alike. An alternative neuroscience-based conceptualization of the self allows a deeper and ultimately more forgiving model of human behavior. This lecture presents emerging perspectives on the neuroscience of self and reviews the accumulating data on the science of mindfulness meditation. Specific application of these concepts and of mindfulness training in traumatic brain injury and intellectual disorders is also discussed.

Behavior analysts and clinicians treating behavior issues in individuals with traumatic brain injuries or intellectual disabilities.

Human memory evolved subject to the constraints of nature's criterion: differential survival and reproduction. Consequently, our capacity to remember and forget is likely tuned to solving fitness-based problems, particularly those prominent in ancestral environments. Do the operating characteristics of memory continue to bear the footprint of nature's criterion? Are there mnemonic "tunings" rooted in the remnants of a stone-age brain? Work from the presenter's laboratory suggests that: (1) processing information for its survival relevance leads to superior long-term retention, better, in fact, than most known learning techniques; (2) animate (living) stimuli are remembered much better than matched inanimate (nonliving) stimuli; and (3) stimuli that have been potentially contaminated by disease are remembered especially well. Understanding how memory is used to solve adaptive problems relevant to fitness, the presenter argues, provides critical insight into how and why human memory systems formed, and why they work the way they do.

Licensed Psychologists, certified behavior analysts, graduate students.

Dr. Campbell has conducted extensive research into the influence of dietary and other behavioral interventions as they relate to cardiovascular health, longevity, cancer and diabetes prevention, and a host of other medical benefits. He is a leading scholar and authority on the role of diet and lifestyle changes in the prevention and treatment of disease. He and his father published The China Study in 2005. The book details the groundbreaking work that he has completed with his father in the area of the prevalence of cancer and its relation to our dietary habits.

Licensed Psychologists, certified behavior analysts, graduate students.

Drug addiction is a pernicious and prevalent problem with little available for clinical treatment. This presentation will review the presenter's recent studies that show roles for the ventral pallidum (VP), ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA), and orexin/hypocretin brain systems in cocaine seeking and demand. A within-session behavioral economic paradigm revealed potent contributions of the VTA DA system to demand for cocaine. The presenter used designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) to show that the projection from VP to VTA DA neurons is critical for cocaine seeking. Additional pharmacologic studies reveal that orexin inputs to VTA interact with glutamate inputs and those from VP to augment cocaine seeking elicited by cocaine-associated cues. The presentation concludes that DREADDs are a promising avenue for novel therapies to treat drug abuse.

Licensed Psychologists, certified behavior analysts, graduate students.

Back in the 1950s, fewer than 5% of Americans were non-religious. Today, nearly 30% define themselves as such. And in many other nations, rates of irreligion are even higher. This recent increase of people who describe themselves as "none" in terms of religious identification is one of the most significant demographic shifts in recent history. Who are these non-religious individuals? Are they all atheists? Agnostics? Secular Humanists? And more importantly: what do these various designations even mean? In this lecture, secular typologies and taxonomies will be covered, and secular humanism -- as a growing worldview, existential orientation, and group identification -- will be defined, explored, and explained. For as the number of non-religious men and women continues to dramatically rise both in the USA and abroad, it is more important than ever to understand those men and women who choose to live without religious affiliation or beliefs, and yet still maintain core values, morals, and convictions which influence and direct so many aspects of their lives.

Board certified behavior analysts and graduate students.