Investigating anticipatory traumatic threat in refugees and asylum seekers. This project seeks to establish how traumatic threat differs from post-traumatic stress and generalised worry. Research into traumatic stress has focused on the pathogenic role of past trauma. There has been little research among populations facing ongoing traumatic threat. A cluster of future-oriented threat-related intrusive symptoms has been identified among refugees with insecure residency that is distinct from post- ....Investigating anticipatory traumatic threat in refugees and asylum seekers. This project seeks to establish how traumatic threat differs from post-traumatic stress and generalised worry. Research into traumatic stress has focused on the pathogenic role of past trauma. There has been little research among populations facing ongoing traumatic threat. A cluster of future-oriented threat-related intrusive symptoms has been identified among refugees with insecure residency that is distinct from post-traumatic stress and worry. The project aims to investigate this traumatic threat response using descriptive and experimental approaches. The findings from this study may lay the foundation of a revised understanding of the human response to traumatic threat.Read moreRead less
Testing posterior parietal cortex contributions to human episodic memory. This project aims to determine the involvement of parietal brain regions for episodic memory. Using novel experimental tasks and multimodal neuroimaging techniques in young and healthy aging, this project expects to clarify the role of posterior parietal structures, and their interactions with core memory structures, during memory retrieval. Expected outcomes include advanced understanding of how we remember the past in ri ....Testing posterior parietal cortex contributions to human episodic memory. This project aims to determine the involvement of parietal brain regions for episodic memory. Using novel experimental tasks and multimodal neuroimaging techniques in young and healthy aging, this project expects to clarify the role of posterior parietal structures, and their interactions with core memory structures, during memory retrieval. Expected outcomes include advanced understanding of how we remember the past in rich contextual detail, and how such processes are altered in healthy aging. This potentially provides significant benefits in predicting and treating memory dysfunction due to brain injury or neurodegeneration.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101275
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Contribution of basal ganglia networks to the fine-tuning of action. This project aims to identify the changes occurring in specific brain circuits when new behaviours are learned. Our ability to perform efficient goal-directed actions involves a learning process in which separate movements are organised into sequences of action. This project aims to determine how this is encoded in the brain by mapping basal ganglia networks that are directly engaged during different stages of learning. This pr ....Contribution of basal ganglia networks to the fine-tuning of action. This project aims to identify the changes occurring in specific brain circuits when new behaviours are learned. Our ability to perform efficient goal-directed actions involves a learning process in which separate movements are organised into sequences of action. This project aims to determine how this is encoded in the brain by mapping basal ganglia networks that are directly engaged during different stages of learning. This project also seeks to identify specific neural circuits that are important for the refinement of action. The knowledge developed in this project is expected to support the development of training programs to instruct individuals in specialised tasks and may be used in the design of biologically inspired robots.Read moreRead less
Role of shifting thalamostriatal networks in action refinement. This project aims to determine the changes occurring in specific brain circuits when automatic behaviours are established. Ability to acquire new skills depends on the dynamic reorganisation of particular neural networks across brain territories throughout training. This project seeks to investigate how the thalamus-to-striatum pathway, a neural circuit that is central to motor control, progressively adjusts its activity as animals ....Role of shifting thalamostriatal networks in action refinement. This project aims to determine the changes occurring in specific brain circuits when automatic behaviours are established. Ability to acquire new skills depends on the dynamic reorganisation of particular neural networks across brain territories throughout training. This project seeks to investigate how the thalamus-to-striatum pathway, a neural circuit that is central to motor control, progressively adjusts its activity as animals automatise their actions. The project will combine behavioural designs with the latest neuroscience techniques for tracing, functional mapping and manipulation of specific neural circuits in behaving mice. The outcomes of this project will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the refinement of action at the systems level, which is critical for performance and professional dexterity.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100088
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$390,000.00
Summary
Central nervous system insulin and hippocampal-dependent cognitive function. This project plans to examine the effects of both infusion of insulin into the brain and the genetic knockdown of insulin transport and activity on cognitive function in mice. This project should increase our understanding of how circulating insulin enters the brain to influence the brain and resulting behaviours.
Cognitive neuroscience of spatial asymmetry: behaviour, genes and brain imaging. When humans distribute their attention in space, biases or asymmetries of spatial attention exist. Healthy individuals exhibit a processing advantage favouring left space but this advantage is lost in disorders such as unilateral spatial neglect, ADHD and dyslexia. This project will develop novel electrophysiological methods to dissociate the sensory, attentional, decision-making and motoric contributions to spatial ....Cognitive neuroscience of spatial asymmetry: behaviour, genes and brain imaging. When humans distribute their attention in space, biases or asymmetries of spatial attention exist. Healthy individuals exhibit a processing advantage favouring left space but this advantage is lost in disorders such as unilateral spatial neglect, ADHD and dyslexia. This project will develop novel electrophysiological methods to dissociate the sensory, attentional, decision-making and motoric contributions to spatial asymmetries. By interfacing electrophysiology with genetic, neurochemical and brain imaging methods, this project will comprehensively map the biology of spatial asymmetry. This knowledge is vital to developing effective treatments for disorders where atypical patterns of spatial asymmetry index neurological vulnerability.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100463
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Back to the future - dissociating mental simulation processes in the brain. Remembering the past and imagining the future are two linked processes that rely on a core brain network. The project will examine how damage to different parts of this brain network affects mental simulation of the past and future, providing fundamental information regarding the role of brain structures and systems for complex thought processes.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668421
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
A MEG-based cognitive neuroscience laboratory. At present there is no MEG system in Australia, whereas MEG systems are currently springing up in research institutions in many other countries across the globe. This project will enable Australia to remain at the forefront of research in the cognitive neurosciences, as well as provide training opportunities to Australian doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the use of MEG in research. Finally, the MEG laboratory will allow Australian resea ....A MEG-based cognitive neuroscience laboratory. At present there is no MEG system in Australia, whereas MEG systems are currently springing up in research institutions in many other countries across the globe. This project will enable Australia to remain at the forefront of research in the cognitive neurosciences, as well as provide training opportunities to Australian doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the use of MEG in research. Finally, the MEG laboratory will allow Australian researchers to fill important gaps in our understanding of several areas of cognitive neuroscience, including basic auditory and visual processing, the study of cognitive processing in schizophrenia and in children with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment.Read moreRead less
The metrics of associative learning. All animals readily learn about associations between events in their environment, allowing them to use their past experience to predict future events based on current circumstances. This project develops a new approach to studying this simple learning process in humans and uses the approach to investigate the basis of this learning in the brain.
Establishing how head and face movement properties contribute to the perception of speech and identity. The proposed studies provide an extensive research program into audio-visual speech processing and person identification: key components of face-to-face communication. The likely impact and benefits of the project concern its contribution to perceptual theory (linking signal, brain and behaviour) and its practical implications: For determining the viability of multimodal biometric identificati ....Establishing how head and face movement properties contribute to the perception of speech and identity. The proposed studies provide an extensive research program into audio-visual speech processing and person identification: key components of face-to-face communication. The likely impact and benefits of the project concern its contribution to perceptual theory (linking signal, brain and behaviour) and its practical implications: For determining the viability of multimodal biometric identification procedures by assessing the distinctiveness and permanence of AV speech characteristics. In the development of a visual dubbing technique that has potential for communication in noisy environments (and for the deaf) and for the development of a morphable model for AV presentation that has application for both first and second language learning.Read moreRead less