Neurodiversity is an emerging term to describe neurological diagnoses including Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and learning disabilities. This literature review is an overview of information from various articles regarding mentoring programs and relationships for neurodivergent undergraduate students whose needs are not being met in today’s academia. It also examines the strengths of neurodivergent students in an undergraduate institution and the barriers faced by neurodivergent students in post-secondary education including transition, mental health concerns, social and communication struggles, accommodation barriers, and academic concerns. Current literature related to strategies for supporting neurodivergent students is reviewed, including the Holistic Critical Mentoring model, which aims to create a network of inclusive reciprocal relationships between mentees and mentors that centers the voices of and values mentees’ whole beings. Finally, recommendations are given for supporting neurodivergent students in the post-secondary educational environment. Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, undergraduate student, accommodations, neurodivergent, academic, disabilities, outcomes

Our world and how individuals perceive the space around them depend on their cognitive state, primarily through the memories and thought processes we form. Within thought processes are event boundaries, which serve as separations between thoughts based on the main focus of our thoughts. Transitions between thoughts can either be associational, where one thought leads to a new thought, or strong, where there is no connection between thoughts. Previous research has found that freely moving thought, where thoughts are not constrained by an individual on one specific theme, is significantly associated with more positive affect. Positive affect is suggested to be more highly valued by older adults compared to younger adults. However, there is also research that suggests that older adults have higher levels of mindfulness compared to younger adults, and mindfulness is associated with diminished levels of mind wandering in individuals. With this previous research in mind, the present study suggests that older adults will experience a difference in thought transitions when compared to the young adult group, and we also suggest that there will be a difference in transition type between groups. Additionally, we are curious about event boundaries and the APoE allele, which indicates a predisposed risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. We will investigate possible differences in transition type between APoE positive and APoE negative groups to determine if older adults who are APoE positive experience higher levels of strong transitions, which may serve as an early sign of the forgetfulness symptoms seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Depression is associated with elevated inflammatory markers, thus factors that sensitize inflammatory responses increase the risk of depression. Stress, or the administration of corticosterone, 24hr prior to an immune challenge sensitizes inflammatory protein mediators like TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 to lipopolysaccharide challenge. Here, we investigated whether corticosterone (CORT) administration also sensitizes PGE2, an important inflammatory lipid mediator involved in immune-to-brain communication, to low concentrations of live E. coli. Pair-housed adult male and female Fischer rats were administered 2.5mg/kg CORT or vehicle subcutaneously 24h before being challenged with an intraperitoneal injection of saline, 2.5x10⁶ CFU E. coli, or 2.5x10⁷ CFU E. coli. A tail blood sample was collected 30 minutes later for measurement of PGE2. Animals were euthanized 2h after immune challenge for measurement of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 in blood, liver, spleen, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala. We expect that prior CORT administration will sensitize inflammatory cytokines when given 24h prior to 2.5x10⁷ CFU E. coli, a concentration known to induce sickness response. We also expect to observe greater PGE2 in animals that were previously administered CORT compared to vehicle-injected controls, which have not been previously measured. Additionally, 2.5x10⁶ CFU E. coli is a subthreshold concentration that does not induce sickness behaviors. This study will determine whether CORT sensitizes inflammatory responses to sub-threshold levels of immune stimuli, potentially leading to depression-like behaviors that would normally not be observed in controls.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the top ten causes of disability among young adults, with one in ten patients having severe symptoms that do not respond to cognitive and medical therapies. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an implantable neuromodulation therapy that has recently emerged to treat severe cases of OCD via modulation of abnormal brain circuits using electrical stimulation. This study aims to evaluate the underlying therapeutic mechanisms of DBS in individuals with OCD by analyzing changes in whole-brain functional connectivity during stimulation. We collected fMRI data in five patients with severe OCD while DBS was cycled ON and OFF. Each patient was imaged multiple times with their DBS device set to different (non)-therapeutic configurations. Using a functional neuroimaging toolbox called CONN, we preprocessed the fMRI data and are now comparing whole-brain connections for configurations that were found to be therapeutic versus non-therapeutic. We expect to find that therapeutic DBS reduces abnormal hyperconnectivity between brain areas of the OCD network such as the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and basal ganglia nuclei. For non-therapeutic DBS settings, we do not expect to see a significant reduction in hyperconnectivity within the OCD network. The results of this work will help inform the optimal brain target and therapeutic stimulation settings such that clinicians can help their patients maximally benefit from DBS. More broadly, the work will reinforce our current understanding of functional connectivity alterations in OCD.