Dec 20, 2024
Taylor McEachnie, a doctoral student of clinical neuropsychology, is exploring how
sex hormones interact and affect cognitive processes.
Taylor McEachnie is a PhD student in the clinical neuropsychology program working under professor Carlin Miller.
Like many students in the UWindsor MAPhD program, McEachnie came from away. She’s from Comox, B.C. and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria.
“When I learned about clinical neuropsychology as an undergrad, I decided that's it.
That's what I want to do,” she says.
She knew from her coursework that she loved both the biology piece and the psych component. She also knew that she enjoyed working with people and that she wanted to help people through assessment and intervention.
“I learned that I could combine these things perfectly in clinical neuropsychology. And then I learned that it would also be a challenging process.
“When I was researching programs, I discovered that there are very few Canadian universities that offer graduate clinical neuropsychology training,” she says. “I learned more about the University of Windsor and where it was on the map, and then I discovered how prevalent UWindsor graduates of this program are; many are in B.C., and many are scattered across Canada, doing amazing things.”
Now McEachnie is in her fourth year of the MAPHD program — the second year of her doctorate — and a member of Dr. Miller’s lab.
A lot of Miller’s research comes from the perspective that females have been historically understudied, specifically in psychological research. Now many researchers are going back and uncovering very important sex differences that affect how researchers think about their clinical work, and how they think about people and design treatments. One of these differences is hormones. Hormones have been historically understudied in psychology. Especially how sex hormones interact and affect cognitive processes, how they work in the brain.
McEachnie’s area of research will concern sex hormones and hormonal transition periods: puberty, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause. She wants to look at how these might influence cognitive functioning in females.
“A lot of people often think of sex hormones only affecting things like reproduction or sexual differentiation,” she says. “We know that sex hormones interact with our brain and its neurotransmitters and seemingly affect our cognitive functioning, as anecdotal evidence shows us, and as research evidence also demonstrates.”
Females are traditionally understudied, but females with ADHD are especially understudied, because ADHD was once considered a predominantly male disorder.
“Now we know that's not the case. So, we are going back to the drawing board to fill in a huge research gap that we see,” says McEachnie. “So, for my dissertation, we're pulling those pieces together and we want to see how sex hormone availability and/or hormonal transition periods might affect cognitive functioning in females with ADHD.”
This past summer, Miller’s lab conducted a review of published research that they are preparing now. The review found that there is some research, but very little that looks specifically at females with ADHD and how their cognitive functioning relates to hormones or where they are regarding their hormonal transition period. The little research that exists has primarily focused on puberty and the menstrual cycle. Most studies were from 2018 onwards.
“So, we're missing a huge chunk of the female lifespan. It hasn’t been captured yet,” says McEachnie.
“For one part of my dissertation, we're working closely with a research group at the University of Calgary. We're hoping to gather a national sample of females with ADHD, and for my piece we would be throwing in some questions about subjective cognitive functioning and thinking about how this may relate to these hormonal transition periods — such as where a female is in their menstrual cycle.”
For another part of her dissertation, the lab is hoping to do some in-person data collection working with UWindsor students both with and without ADHD. They want to collect saliva samples and analyze them to see what the hormone availability looks like related to where that person is in their menstrual cycle, and then see how this relates to performance on objective cognitive functioning measures.
“Everything right now is still in the planning phase where we are getting our measures together. I'm going to have to propose my dissertation to my committee, and then we would make any revisions based on their suggestions,” McEachnie says. “The scoping review piece is close to being done. We’re writing it up and we hope to have that published for people to be able to read soon.”
According to Miller, “Taylor’s work is critically important as there is substantial evidence that women have received inadequate research attention in all domains. As a result, they are at higher risk for poor outcomes and are less likely to receive treatment. In the case of ADHD, people who are untreated or non-optimally treated are at increased risk for mental health problems, incomplete education, under- and unemployment, relationship difficulties, and parenting challenges.
“Taylor’s interest has also expanded my research portfolio, and we are excited about our new partnership with UCalgary researchers.”
McEachnie is hoping to start parts of the actual data collection in 2025.
At this stage of her doctoral journey, McEachnie is focused on research and her practicum placements. Currently, she is working with Andrea Downie in the pediatric neuropsychology-oncology service at London Health Science’s Children’s Hospital,
“Right now, being in this stage where I’m just thinking about the research, it’s very exciting,” she says. “Once we get all the work underway, I’m sure I’ll be a bit more stressed. But right now, it’s very positive and heartening.”
Courtesy: https://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2024-12-13/understudied-populations-subject-neuropsychology-doctoral-research
