Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect ....Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect basic learning and memory processes in an understudied population of adolescents. The expected outcomes of this project include a richer knowledge of how peers shape emotional regulation during development, which will ultimately inform social-based approaches for improving emotion regulation in youth.
Read moreRead less
Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory develo ....Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory development about human and robot intergroup acceptance, enhanced institutional and international collaborations, and much needed psychological knowledge for robot designers. Benefits include a detailed understanding of how to increase the acceptance of robots in a wide variety of fields.Read moreRead less
Evaluating the Network Neuroscience of Human Cognition to Improve AI. This project will translate the brain’s inherent complexity into a set of explorable networks that will test the network theory of intelligence, and also be used to drive advances in next generation artificial neural networks. Our approach will catalyse new knowledge regarding how the complexity of the brain gives rise to cognition using innovative analyses inspired by physics and engineering. This fresh perspective on cogniti ....Evaluating the Network Neuroscience of Human Cognition to Improve AI. This project will translate the brain’s inherent complexity into a set of explorable networks that will test the network theory of intelligence, and also be used to drive advances in next generation artificial neural networks. Our approach will catalyse new knowledge regarding how the complexity of the brain gives rise to cognition using innovative analyses inspired by physics and engineering. This fresh perspective on cognition will accelerate understanding of normal cognitive function and also advance the development of advances in artificial neural network performance. Expected outcomes include methods to describe the computational signature of how cognition emerges from dynamic brain network activity and novel AI algorithms. Read moreRead less
Automatic detection and modelling of acoustic markers of speech timing. This project aims to create new automatic sensing, analysis and assessment of cognitive, affective, mental and physical state from voice for mobile and computing devices. This project expects to generate new understanding of the effects of these states on detailed timing indicators of speech motor control, and new signal processing and machine learning methods that best exploit it. Expected outcomes from this project include ....Automatic detection and modelling of acoustic markers of speech timing. This project aims to create new automatic sensing, analysis and assessment of cognitive, affective, mental and physical state from voice for mobile and computing devices. This project expects to generate new understanding of the effects of these states on detailed timing indicators of speech motor control, and new signal processing and machine learning methods that best exploit it. Expected outcomes from this project include a new and accurate deep neural network framework for learning, analysing and detecting human states from speech automatically using articulatory timing markers. This should provide significant benefits, such as individually-tailored, frequent and low-cost automatic detection, monitoring and analytics for adverse states.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100608
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$457,810.00
Summary
Characterising brain networks of intelligence through information tracking. For intelligent behaviour, the human brain needs to engage several processes including sensory, memory and motor processes. How it does this is one of the most significant questions in cognitive neuroscience. This project characterises the neural networks of human intelligence by advancing and building on the most recent advances in neuroimaging analyses. It will determine the interaction of different brain processes by ....Characterising brain networks of intelligence through information tracking. For intelligent behaviour, the human brain needs to engage several processes including sensory, memory and motor processes. How it does this is one of the most significant questions in cognitive neuroscience. This project characterises the neural networks of human intelligence by advancing and building on the most recent advances in neuroimaging analyses. It will determine the interaction of different brain processes by developing novel connectivity methods that track the flow of information through the brain with high temporal and spatial accuracy. The outcomes will be fundamental insights into the mechanisms of human intelligence and new connectivity analysis software that will have wide application in brain research.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100380
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$447,683.00
Summary
The dynamics of object representations in the human brain. The human brain's ability to effortlessly recognise and categorise objects enables effective behavioural responses in complex everyday environments. Despite the apparent efficiency of this process, it is still unknown how the brain solves object recognition. This project capitalises on cutting-edge advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience to resolve the spatiotemporal dynamics of object processing in the human brain. The outc ....The dynamics of object representations in the human brain. The human brain's ability to effortlessly recognise and categorise objects enables effective behavioural responses in complex everyday environments. Despite the apparent efficiency of this process, it is still unknown how the brain solves object recognition. This project capitalises on cutting-edge advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience to resolve the spatiotemporal dynamics of object processing in the human brain. The outcomes will be a step change in our understanding of the nature and development of the multi-dimensional space underpinning neural object processing. This will ultimately facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders across the lifespan and accelerate the development of intelligent machines.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100614
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,007.00
Summary
How does the brain process conflicting information? Learning is the means by which we adapt to our environments. Occasionally, what we learn contradicts our present knowledge about the world. When this occurs, the old and new (contradictory) information compete for control over behaviour. Yet, how the brain processes contradictory information and resolves this competition is poorly understood. This project uses modern genetic tools in rodents to examine how the brain encodes and retrieves contra ....How does the brain process conflicting information? Learning is the means by which we adapt to our environments. Occasionally, what we learn contradicts our present knowledge about the world. When this occurs, the old and new (contradictory) information compete for control over behaviour. Yet, how the brain processes contradictory information and resolves this competition is poorly understood. This project uses modern genetic tools in rodents to examine how the brain encodes and retrieves contradictory information to influence behaviour. The outcomes include new insights regarding the neural basis of adaptive behaviour; and the benefits include an understanding of why we sometimes fail to adapt to change, and disorders characterized by such failures (e.g., anxiety disorders, addiction).Read moreRead less
Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shape ....Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shaped by experience, and how controlling these cells and circuits controls choice. This outcome should provide significant benefits including a new knowledge base bridging behavioural, cognitive, and neural sciences to advance theories of behaviour and laying a new basic science platform to understand impulsive behaviours.Read moreRead less