Psychiatry, Psychology & Brain Studies

David Masolak has completed his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. He is expected to gain his M.D. from Poznan University of Medical Sciences in June of 2020. He plans on starting a Psychiatry Residency in the United States after graduation.

Eating disorders are relatively common, affecting approximately 1% of the general population. Like many other psychological conditions, eating disorders are somewhat stigmatized in our society. Because of this, patients may be reluctant to discuss these disorders with their physician. Nonetheless, their clinical presentation could be noticed by an adequately trained clinician based on several fundamental and easily recognizable signs. Therefore, it is important for all physicians, despite their specialty, to have a basic knowledge of the diagnostic criteria surrounding eating disorders. For diseases like anorexia and bulimia, early detection is often key to effective treatment. That way, a multidisciplinary and holistic approach can be taken for the diagnosis and management of affected individuals. The purpose of doing this study is to investigate the average U S physician’s knowledge of eating disorders, diagnostic criteria, and current screening methods. We have conducted self-answered questionnaires with physicians across multiple specialties in the United States and Poland. The questionnaire asks medical student level, basic questions about the clinical presentation of various eating disorders. It also assesses the physicians’ knowledge of the current screening methods for eating disorders, and includes a simple survey to collect demographic information about the participant and their overall opinions about the screening, diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. We expect a majority of physicians to be fairly familiar with most aspects of eating disorders recognition and diagnosis, but there may be some lack of knowledge when it comes to the current, recommended screening methods.

Tamara (Tammi) McGill-Carter expertise is in Neuro-anatomy and Neuroscience with a focus on the intricate workings of the Limbic and Memory systems. Her masters thesis surrounds Human Memory and Encoding, detailing the fundamental changes that creates as well as destroy memories. Tammi also excels in psychological theories and is currently in her final year of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology Educational Psychology and Technology doctorate program, due to graduate by next summer. Her dissertations focus centers on Autism, Theory of Mind, and Executive Functioning. Tammi expertise in neuro-anatomy further expanded while working with individuals with developmental disabilities/delays at several Home Health Agencies, which created several projects centering on how autism and developmental delays affect the brain.Tammi currently holds dual bachelors degrees in Psychology from Indiana University Northwest in Gary and a Masters of Arts degree from the Chicago School of professional Psychology, the concentration focus being Trauma and Crisis Intervention.

DeVillers and DeVillers (2014) and Iacoboni (2009) discovered that the ability for one to find their voice and actively engage in the world around them, mirror neurons take part in speech production. However, for several sets of children with verbal delays and who are non-verbal who Speech Generating Devices (SGD). The question posed is whether the devices are more effective in school settings considering the nature of communication and interactions that occur in that setting than other settings. Past researchers made convincing cases regarding the role of language development using SGD in several settings, but the one setting that has limited literature is SPG device use in the home (Thunberg, Ashlen, & Sandberg, 2011). More specifically, a child with definite understanding of their own feelings and desires, it is necessary to hear language used by them to understand what they most desire (DeVillers & DeVillers, 2014). We can observe behavior in expressing wants and needs, but the proper verbal expressions for that childs age range can indicate the maturity of the ToM and development of the executive functioning for their stage of life (DeVillers & DeVillers, 2014). That would lead to the second case of how the child obtains the information for a conversation. For example, when we hear someone try to get things that they want and driven by those wants, they voice and go to the place to get those wants. This approach to ToM development, therefore, focuses on the importance of learning words as labels for mental states (DeVillers & DeVillers, 2014). What kind of language reflects or supports the developments of ToM reasoning to give researchers an understanding of the child maturity is what several studies seeks to answer. Recent research focused on the verbs that reflect the child mental state (Devillers & DeVillers, 2014). Rarely do children express their own and/or another beliefs until around four year of age. This study has been replicated with children who are slightly and moderately language delayed, but has not been studied with adults whom are non-verbal and severely delayed in language (DeVillers & DeVillers, 2014). Therefore, to fill the research gap, examining data provided by the population of non-verbal/severely delayed individuals using Voice Output Command Aides (VOCA) in either a school, home or day program setting will hopefully answer the researchers pressing research question.