Do Ongoing Cognitive Demands Affect The Efficacy Of Transcranial Electrical Brain Stimulation In Young And Older Healthy Adults?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$627,857.00
Summary
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the brain is widely used to enhance cognitive and motor function in healthy individuals and people with neurological disorders. Unfortunately, the efficacy of tDCS is highly variable between individuals. This project tests the hypothesis that ongoing cognitive processes – particularly attention – play an important role in regulating the effect of tDCS on brain function. The knowledge gained will help refine tDCS as a clinical and research tool.
Nicotine abuse is the single greatest preventable risk factor for physical illness and death in Australians. Our understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underlie the transition from use to dependence is yet to be understood. The current proposal investigates the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control, critical to self-control over the impulse for drug rewards, in non-dependent and dependent nicotine users.
Efficacy Of Prism Adaptation For Recovery Of Brain Function In Unilateral Spatial Neglect
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$531,690.00
Summary
Damage to the brain’s attention network causes profound impairments of visual and sensory perception. These deficits are frequently long-lasting, and are a major factor in preventing patients from regaining functional independence. This project will use a combination of behavioural and brain imaging techniques to determine whether a promising new treatment involving visual retraining can improve function and reduce perceptual impairments after unilateral brain lesions.
Gene-environment Interactions Modulating Cortical And Cognitive Dysfunction
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$618,300.00
Summary
A feature of many major brain disorders, including schizophrenia and dementia, is disruption of cognition. A key brain area impacted in such cognitive disorders is the prefrontal cortex. This project will use clinically translatable touchscreen to understand how this aspect of brain dysfunction causes abnormal cognition. We will investigate the mechanisms involved, using highly innovative approaches, which will contribute to the development of new treatments for such cognitive disorders.
Enhancing The Treatment Of Anxiety: The Role Of Mental Imagery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$246,491.00
Summary
This proposal will conduct the first pre-clinical study augmenting the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in the treatment of anxiety disorders using mental imagery. There is an urgent need to develop means to increase the success rate of CBT. This study will utilise recent developments in cognitive neuroscience to show that mental imagery plays an important role in the mechanisms of CBT.
Neurophysiology Of Attention Deficits After Right Hemisphere Stroke
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$611,742.00
Summary
Stroke is a common and debilitating condition affecting thousands of Australians per year. Problems of attention are common after right hemisphere stroke and arise from lesions to multiple different brain regions. This project utilises a unique multi-modal approach to understand the neurophysiology of sensory, attentional, decision-making and motoric aspects of deficit after right hemisphere stroke and will map these objective signatures to discrete lesion locations.
Does Antipsychotic Dose Reduction Lead To Better Functional Recovery In First Episode Psychosis: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,371,552.00
Summary
Can a person with a first episode of psychosis, once remitted, reduce their dosage of medication and still achieve better outcomes in functioning, physical health and brain volume, than if they had stayed on traditional maintenance doses of medication? This study will examine if using a dose reduction strategy in conjunction with an evidence based suite of psychosocial interventions leads to better social and vocational recovery and improved physical health and brain volume.
Testing The Imprecision Hypothesis Of Chronic Pain.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$788,984.00
Summary
Pain usually occurs when something triggers activity in danger receptors, which are all over the body. The brain receives a huge amount of other sensory input too, which tells the brain what was happening when the danger arose. The brain imprints this sensory barrage and uses it as an early (painful!) warning system next time. If the imprint is imprecise, then the painful warning occurs in non-dangerous situations. We will test whether imprecise imprinting of the sensory input causes the gradual ....Pain usually occurs when something triggers activity in danger receptors, which are all over the body. The brain receives a huge amount of other sensory input too, which tells the brain what was happening when the danger arose. The brain imprints this sensory barrage and uses it as an early (painful!) warning system next time. If the imprint is imprecise, then the painful warning occurs in non-dangerous situations. We will test whether imprecise imprinting of the sensory input causes the gradual development of chronic debilitating pain.Read moreRead less
Controlling Intrusive Images In Psychopathologies: Disarming Symptoms And Enhancing Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$285,085.00
Summary
This proposal will conduct the first pre-clinical study disarming symptoms and enhancing treatment of many psychopathologies by controlling the strength of mental imagery. This study represents the first attempt to alleviate symptoms by developing a cognitive-neuroscience vaccine to control the strength of traumatic imagery and to show a causative means of enhancing imagery strength to boost the success rate of cognitive therapy involving imagery.
The Role Of Attention In Modifying Neural Plasticity In The Adult Human Cortex
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$391,242.00
Summary
The human brain is constantly changing in response to experience. These changes, known as plasticity, are necessary to respond to new environments, to learn new skills and to recover from brain injury. This project will determine how selective attention, a process that filters sensory information in the brain, alters brain plasticity. The outcomes will inform the design of rehabilitation treatments for individuals with a brain injury.