Payne, Alyssa Maria

This exploratory investigation seeks to evaluate the efficacy of Neurofeedback (NFB) Training Therapy, a type of biofeedback that works with the brain’s natural capacity for plasticity, as a viable treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Strengthening connections among remaining neurons despite neurogenesis may benefit patients. However, the vast array of methodologies utilizing different technologies and focusing on varying brain waves makes it challenging to determine the true efficacy of the treatment methods, especially when compounded with the number of disorders each method is claimed to treat. Therefore, this investigation aims to address 1) technology that will best target specific brain areas, and 2) the most suitable NBF protocols for patients with AD. Taken together, this analysis contributes towards assessing the feasibility of NFB as treatment for patients with dementia, leading to the determination that electroencephalography (EEG) NFB with peak alpha or theta brainwave protocols may be the best option.

This investigation seeks to recover the memory of Mariano Viñuales (1900-1955), who was a Spanish writer forced into exile first to the Dominican Republic (1939-1942) and later to Mexico (1942-1959) due to his involvement in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Never able to return to his family in Spain, Viñuales experienced what Paul Tabori calls bacillus emigraticus, a shared experience by exiles of an intense longing to return to their home country. Delving into the personal history and literary legacy of Viñuales alongside chronological analysis of his works “¡Siembra!” (1940), “El león y la libertad” (1950), and “Mi tía Dominga” (1952) reveals how his literature represents the identity of Spanish Republican exiles, with special attention to familial themes. In doing so, this project contributes towards Spain’s Historical Memory Law (2007) which reverses the Pact of Forgetting (1977) to recover the memory of victims of the Spanish Civil War.