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Alyssa Picchini ’04 (York, Pa.), a Trustee Scholarship recipient majoring in neuroscience, is engrossed in two research projects this summer that deal with hormones and their effect on the human attitude. She is working as an EXCEL Scholar with Wendy Hill, professor of psychology and chair of the neuroscience program.
Picchini recently achieved national distinction as a recipient of the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Awarded for academic merit, the Goldwater is the premier undergraduate award of its type in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering.
Hill was named Pennsylvania’s Professor of the Year in 1999 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The award salutes her extraordinary dedication to teaching and exceptional impact on and involvement with undergraduate students.
Picchini decided to spend the summer on campus because she could not get this type of experience anywhere else and because it’s a good opportunity to enhance her course work, she says.
“The research experience in general is not something you can get from sitting through a lecture,” says Picchini. “It is an invaluable hands-on learning experience.”
One of Picchini’s projects investigates the possible connection between estrogen levels, and exercise and depression in females. Picchini and Hill designed the project together, using rats as an animal model.
“Dr. Hill and I are going to remove the ovaries of female rats and give them differing levels of estrogen,” explains Picchini. “Then we will expose some of the rats to an exercise regimen, while others will not be given the opportunity to exercise. Finally, we are going to measure the depressive symptoms of the rats to see if the estrogen level or exposure to exercise affected their level of depression.”
Picchini says she finds studies on women and depression very interesting because she knows so many people who suffer from depression. “I am also very interested in the physiological basis of behavior, which is exactly what this study focuses on,” she says.
The second EXCEL project explores the relationship between testosterone or T levels, sports competition and explanatory style, the way someone routinely accounts for bad events, in women. Picchini is in the process of evaluating the samples and correlating the data.
“Since I am an athlete, the testosterone study is very interesting to me,” she says. “It not only explores the physiological basis of behavior, but it also incorporates athletic competition.”
“Previous research on male athletes has demonstrated that testosterone levels increase following winning competitions and decrease after losses,” explains Hill. “These changes may last for a few days and can affect the athlete’s performance in subsequent competitions.”
Hill says that the purpose of their research is threefold. First, they want to determine if they can replicate the findings showing that testosterone levels change with winning and losing in male lacrosse players at Lafayette. They will examine whether female lacrosse players also show these changes in testosterone levels, and lastly, they hope to assess how the explanatory style of athletes moderates their hormonal response to winning and losing.
“Although the concept that T levels increase after winning and decrease after losing has been experimentally proven many times in men, this study is unique because there are very few, if any, studies that look at women,” says Picchini.
Hill says that female participants have been avoided in these studies because of concerns that hormone variations during the menstrual cycle might skew results.
“Testosterone levels, which are generally much lower in females than males, reach a peak during ovulation, when estrogen levels are the highest,” says Hill. “We’ve asked female athletes where they are in their menstrual cycle so that we can control for the normal fluctuation in testosterone.”
To measure testosterone levels in the players, Picchini collected saliva samples before and after women’s lacrosse games. She also gave the team a questionnaire to assess players’ explanatory styles. People with a negative explanatory style ascribe internal forces for the bad event, whereas those with a positive explanatory style blame the bad event on something other than themselves, adds Hill.
“Although the change in testosterone with competition is a robust phenomenon that has been found to occur in sports as different as basketball, judo, and chess, there is some variability in the data,” says Hill. “We believe that the explanatory style of the athlete might explain some of this variability.”
“We want to see if explanatory style has any effect on testosterone levels as well,” says Picchini.
“The explanatory style of athletes may have an impact on the way that they react to the outcome of a competition and also on the change in testosterone levels following competition,” explains Hill. “Athletes with a negative explanatory style may be more likely to show significant declines in testosterone, which could then decrease their ability to win upcoming competitions. Given that explanatory style can be changed through coaching strategies, it is important for coaches to know how explanatory style interacts with an athlete’s physiology.”
Picchini, who began collaborating with Hill at the beginning of last semester, says that she is very happy to be working with her. “She is an amazing teacher and mentor,” says Picchini. “I really like her approach to research, and the freedom she gives me to explore the questions I have about the projects we are working on. I had Dr. Hill as my Introduction to Psychology Lab professor, and I am taking her Physiological Psychology course next semester. I am really looking forward to it!”
“Alyssa takes a no-nonsense approach to conducting research. She figures out what has to be done and she does it,” Hill says. “As a result, she has been a wonderful addition to my laboratory. I have been impressed with her initiative and her ability to think critically, which are vital in becoming an independent scholar.”
Picchini says that Lafayette provides a good environment for this project and that she doesn’t think she would have been given this opportunity at a larger school.
“Lafayette’s academic program is giving me a strong foundation in the sciences along with the tools I need to achieve my professional goals,” says Picchini. “EXCEL has provided me with a chance to conduct laboratory research that most undergraduates are not given. I look forward to earning my doctorate and conducting my own research.”
Picchini is an orientation leader, peer tutor, and children’s tutor. She has participated in varsity track and field and is vice president of programming for Delta Gamma sorority.
Goldwater Scholarship. Alyssa Picchini ’04 received the premier national undergraduate award of its type in math, science, and engineering. One of her research mentors was Wendy Hill, Rappolt Professor in Neuroscience.