Master of Science / Department of Architecture / David R. Seamon / This thesis provides an overview of some key researchers and research topics in the field of environment-behavior studies (EBS), an interdisciplinary field that examines ways in which the natural and human-made environments contribute to human well-being. A key aim of environment-behavior studies is to better understand clients’ and users’ environmental needs, and to design the physical environment accordingly. Specifically, this thesis highlights two key research questions: (1) What are environment-behavior studies and why are they relevant to architecture and environmental design? and (2) How can environment-behavior studies be drawn upon practically to generate more effective architectural and environmental design? To provide answers to these two questions, the thesis first introduces five “pioneers” in environment-behavior studies— psychologist Roger Barker, anthropologist Edward Hall, psychologist Robert Sommer, urban designer Kevin Lynch, and architect Christopher Alexander—and reviews their major work. This discussion provides a general understanding as to what environment-behavior studies involve and how they have design significance. Next the thesis overviews three major theories developed in environment-behavior studies: (1) territoriality theory; (2) cognitive-mapping theory; and (3) prospect-refuge theory. Each of these theories is overviewed, and pragmatic examples are provided to indicate each theory’s value for architecture and environmental design.

This thesis will deal with problems and solutions of cross-platform developing using MoNo framework as a replacement of Microsoft .NET framework on Linux and Mac OS-X platforms. It will take in account matters such as limitations in the filesystem to problems with deploying released programs. It will also deal with demands of precise timing and the need of efficient code on precise tasks to construct a program used for creating data from recordings of animals. These animals is set to perform a task, for example exploring a labyrinth or running on a rod, and it is all recorded on video. These videos are later reviewed by an observer which transcripts the recordings into data based on predefined behaviors and the time and frequency with which the animal is expressing them.

This thesis will deal with problems and solutions of cross-platform developing using MoNo framework as a replacement of Microsoft .NET framework on Linux and Mac OS-X platforms. It will take in account matters such as limitations in the filesystem to problems with deploying released programs. It will also deal with demands of precise timing and the need of efficient code on precise tasks to construct a program used for creating data from recordings of animals. These animals is set to perform a task, for example exploring a labyrinth or running on a rod, and it is all recorded on video. These videos are later reviewed by an observer which transcripts the recordings into data based on predefined behaviors and the time and frequency with which the animal is expressing them.

<p>Persistent and maladaptive fear in the absence of a threat can be disruptive because it decreases an organism’s opportunity to seek life-sustaining substances. Learned safety signaling can suppress fear and encourage reward-seeking behavior, thus freeing the organism from fear induced immobilization. The infralimbic (IL) region of the prefrontal cortex is important for recalling fear extinction memories and for suppressing fear via learned safety signals. Neurons in the IL show an excitatory response to an extinguished fear cue. We thus hypothesized that neurons in the IL would encode safety by showing an excitatory response during active fear suppression to a learned safety signal. </p> <p>To assess global changes in IL activity, we monitored IL multi-unit activity to different cues while training animals in a fear-reward-safety discrimination task (Sangha, Chadick, & Janak, 2013). During the discrimination task, male rats learned that the reward cue predicted liquid sucrose, the fear cue predicted footshock and the joint presentation of both the fear and safety cues resulted in no footshock. We also counterbalanced the modality of fear and safety cues (auditory vs visual) with two separate groups of animals to control for potential sensory modality effects. Male rats showed high levels of freezing to the fear cue, and significantly reduced levels of freezing to the combined fear+safety cue. Male rats also showed high levels of port activity to the reward cue. There was no significant difference in the learning rate between the two counterbalanced conditions. </p> <p>Our multi-unit-data showed an increase in IL neuronal firing to the fear+safety cue across training sessions. This effect was consistent between the two counterbalanced conditions. We also examined single-unit activity from all animals that received light as the safety cue (n=8). This allowed us to examine the population response profile with a subset of the total animals. Although not statistically significant, our preliminary single-unit data demonstrated a decrease in the percentage of neurons that showed an inhibitory response to the fear+safety cue, but no change in the percentage of neurons that showed an excitatory response to the fear+safety cue. There was also no change in the magnitude of averaged firing rate in fear+safety excitatory or inhibitory neurons across training. Taken together, the decreased inhibition of single-unit activity in the IL may drive the increased excitation in multi-unit activity in the IL during behavioral fear suppression to a safety signal. </p>