Brain mechanisms of learning in visually-guided movement. Each year 40,000 Australian suffer from stoke with many left with problems of limb function. In understanding and enhancing the conditions that promote motor adaptation, this research will make a significant contribution to the design of programs for rehabilitation of the upper limbs to enhance quality of life and reduced health care costs.
Revealing how the human brain coordinates body movements for applications in health and technology. This project will extend the basic understanding about how the brain controls the movements of our bodies, and how it changes to allow us to adapt and refine our movements. This project will generate information that is critical for applications in the fields of health (e.g. rehabilitation) and technology (e.g. human-machine interfaces).
Getting back on track after the unexpected happens: decision making in predictable and unpredictable environments. This project intends to examine how the brain decides where to look next with our eyes, a decision made approximately three times every second. Understanding how the normal brain makes decisions will in turn help us to understand what happens when things go wrong in diseases like dementia and Parkinson's disease.
The structure and function of the human spinal connectome. This project will use complex network analysis to map the interactions between the brain and body, to understand how the central nervous system controls our movements. The project will provide fundamental insights into mechanisms that coordinate activity in the human motor system, and how the breakdown of coordination may lead to movement disorders. By integrating advanced computational analyses with state-of-the-art recording techniques ....The structure and function of the human spinal connectome. This project will use complex network analysis to map the interactions between the brain and body, to understand how the central nervous system controls our movements. The project will provide fundamental insights into mechanisms that coordinate activity in the human motor system, and how the breakdown of coordination may lead to movement disorders. By integrating advanced computational analyses with state-of-the-art recording techniques, the project will generate new knowledge of the neural basis of human motor coordination. Expected outcomes may support future applications to restore motor function through brain stimulation, prosthetics and robotics design.Read moreRead less
Dual routes to fear and aversive motivation. Why do we experience frustration when the pleasant things we expect fail to appear and why is this frustration so aversive? This project shows how frustration is similar to fear and anxiety at the level of behaviour and brain function.
Concepts and control in speech production. While humans produce speech fluently in the course of everyday conversation, comparatively little is understood about the underlying mental processes and brain mechanisms. The overall aim of this project is to investigate how the human brain conceives and controls speech output by using state-of-the-art neuroimaging and brain stimulation techniques. The research aims to contribute novel insights into a key human ability with particular relevance for spe ....Concepts and control in speech production. While humans produce speech fluently in the course of everyday conversation, comparatively little is understood about the underlying mental processes and brain mechanisms. The overall aim of this project is to investigate how the human brain conceives and controls speech output by using state-of-the-art neuroimaging and brain stimulation techniques. The research aims to contribute novel insights into a key human ability with particular relevance for speech disorders such as aphasia, while the methods developed for brain stimulation during imaging of speech production aim to expand Australia's capability and technical innovation in the cognitive neuroscience of language.Read moreRead less
How the brain produces speech: Neuronal oscillations to neuromodulation. Speech is crucial for facilitating human communication through language, yet there is a lack of clarity about where, when and what type of activity occurs in the brain during key stages of production. This project will use intracranial recordings to characterise neuronal oscillations in combination with direct electrical stimulation, functional neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation to establish critical areas and ....How the brain produces speech: Neuronal oscillations to neuromodulation. Speech is crucial for facilitating human communication through language, yet there is a lack of clarity about where, when and what type of activity occurs in the brain during key stages of production. This project will use intracranial recordings to characterise neuronal oscillations in combination with direct electrical stimulation, functional neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation to establish critical areas and their timecourses with millisecond resolution. The outcome will be a better theoretical account of the brain mechanisms involved in spoken production. The benefit of this new theoretical account will be a better basis for prevention of post-surgical language impairment and neuromodulatory treatments after brain injury.Read moreRead less
A more sound approach to the neurobiology of language. How does the brain attain spoken language? Current neurobiological models assume either implicitly or explicitly that there is no relationship between a word's sound and its meaning. Yet considerable evidence shows this strong assumption about the arbitrariness of language is invalid. This project will use a combination of behavioural, neuroimaging and computational studies to characterise how the brain processes statistical regularities in ....A more sound approach to the neurobiology of language. How does the brain attain spoken language? Current neurobiological models assume either implicitly or explicitly that there is no relationship between a word's sound and its meaning. Yet considerable evidence shows this strong assumption about the arbitrariness of language is invalid. This project will use a combination of behavioural, neuroimaging and computational studies to characterise how the brain processes statistical regularities in sound-to-meaning correspondences as probabilistic cues to attain spoken language. The outcome will be a better neural account of language comprehension and production. The benefit of this new account will be a stronger basis for assessment and treatment of developmental and acquired language impairments.Read moreRead less
The sociopath amongst us: the neural basis of empathy disorders. Empathy is fundamental to human relations. Despite this, little is known about its underlying mechanisms. This project tests whether empathy relies upon us simulating the emotion of others in ourselves, and if so, at which stage this occurs. It is significant because it tests several competing theories to advance a coherent model of empathy that can be used to understand human social behaviour. It is innovative because it focuses o ....The sociopath amongst us: the neural basis of empathy disorders. Empathy is fundamental to human relations. Despite this, little is known about its underlying mechanisms. This project tests whether empathy relies upon us simulating the emotion of others in ourselves, and if so, at which stage this occurs. It is significant because it tests several competing theories to advance a coherent model of empathy that can be used to understand human social behaviour. It is innovative because it focuses on adults with brain lesions. This is a powerful means to examine brain mechanisms underpinning empathy, yielding insights not available from observation of healthy adults. It is expected to provide a leap forward in understanding the neuroscience of social behaviour.Read moreRead less
Noradrenaline in learning produced by negative prediction error. This project aims to examine the role of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline in error-driven learning. While dopamine may be involved in initial learning about events, updating this learning, notably when reward is omitted, involves noradrenaline. Predictive learning is adaptive; it allows animals to use information in the environment to anticipate and prepare for events. Animals can also update learned associations when confronted ....Noradrenaline in learning produced by negative prediction error. This project aims to examine the role of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline in error-driven learning. While dopamine may be involved in initial learning about events, updating this learning, notably when reward is omitted, involves noradrenaline. Predictive learning is adaptive; it allows animals to use information in the environment to anticipate and prepare for events. Animals can also update learned associations when confronted with new information and environmental contingencies. This project expects to provide information about how noradrenaline signals reward prediction errors and how predictive information is detected, encoded and modified using cutting edge behavioural and neuroscience tools.Read moreRead less