Characterising And Modulating Corticostriatal Connectivity In Schizophrenia.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$316,449.00
Summary
Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness that affects approximately 0.5-1% of the population. Many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as problems with memory and motivation, remain untreatable. This project will explore the brain processes that underlie memory deficits in people with schizophrenia and investigate the use of non-invasive brain stimulation to improve these impairments. The results from this study will hopefully lead to new treatments for people with schizophrenia.
Radiological Features Correlating With Seizures In Patients With Supratentorial Gliomas
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$47,877.00
Summary
Gliomas are the most common brain tumours, with more than 1,500 new cases diagnosed in Australia each year. Around 50% of all glioma patients suffer from seizures, which are difficult to control with current anti-epileptic drugs. The epilepsy and the side-effects of the drug therapies are a major cause of morbidity and impaired quality of life. It is also a significant burden on the economy, leading to more and longer hospital admissions, and loss of productivity for both patients and carers.
The Rane And Spain Routes In The Brain: Functional Studies And Remediation In Dyslexia Subtypes.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,426.00
Summary
According to a recent DEST report a disturbingly high number of Australian school children are failing to meet a minimum acceptable standard in literacy . Failure to reach these standards is associated with poorer outcomes in mental health and socioeconomic status, greater representation among the prison population and with failure to achieve to true ability. Further, failure to correct these problems may well result in transmission of the problems associated with failed literacy into the next g ....According to a recent DEST report a disturbingly high number of Australian school children are failing to meet a minimum acceptable standard in literacy . Failure to reach these standards is associated with poorer outcomes in mental health and socioeconomic status, greater representation among the prison population and with failure to achieve to true ability. Further, failure to correct these problems may well result in transmission of the problems associated with failed literacy into the next generation. Despite the obvious immense social and personal ramifications and cost, literacy instruction for adults continues to lack a theoretical and research based approach . It is plain that improving population literacy would have significant benefits and it is also plain that early detection, intervention and remediation is desirable. This project brings to bear on these important aims current expertise in the nature of reading, how children learn to read and why some have so much difficulty in doing so, and techniques for determining the neural substrates of the mechanisms involved in reading and learning to read. We will subdivide child readers on the basis of their ability to read words using the letter to sound route or dictionary look-up route. We will use magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy to examine which parts of the brain are disrupted and-or disconnected when ability to read in either of these two routes is poor. We will then remediate these poor readers using targetted remediation therapy and re-image them to see whether remediation has altered the way the brain reads.Read moreRead less
Selective Modulation Of Corticostriatal Functional Circuitry Using TMS-fMRI
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$757,546.00
Summary
This project will validate a novel brain imaging-based method for targeted and non-invasive stimulation of specific brain circuits that play an important role in diverse cognitive, emotional and motor functions. The ability to selectively up-regulate or down-regulate activity in these circuits will have far-reaching treatment implications for a wide range of brain disorders.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Structural And Functional Connectivity In Lesion-negative Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Compared To Hippocampal Sclerosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$99,883.00
Summary
Epileptic seizures in the temporal lobe of the brain can affect how the temporal lobe connects to other brain regions. We are using new MRI techniques to investigate these altered connections, in patients who have no other abnormality on their brain scans. Our aim is to find distinctive patterns of altered connectivity, which will help us better understand this type of epilepsy.
Novel Approaches To Improve Cognitive Recovery Following Stroke And Traumatic Brain Injury
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$344,724.00
Summary
Stroke and traumatic brain injury costs the Australian economy over $13 billion, annually. Both disorders result in impaired cognition that impedes individuals’ return to the community. Current rehabilitation strategies, however, fail to adequately rehabilitate cognitive deficits following these disorders. My fellowship will develop new strategies to improve rehabilitation of cognitive functions by using cutting-edge neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques.
Neural Signatures Of Disease Spread And Evolution In Motor Neurodegenerative Syndromes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,768.00
Summary
A lack of understanding of the earliest changes brought on by motor neurone disease (MND), otherwise known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), prevents early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. The proposed project aims to comprehensively characterise neurological changes prior to disease onset in pre-symptomatic carriers with a known genetic mutation linked to MND using targeted neuropsychological assessments and advanced multi-modal neuroimaging to track disease progression.
Fibromyalgia: Investigating The Prefrontal Cortex And Its Role In Novel Treatment Approaches
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$338,110.00
Summary
Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, is experienced by 1-3% of Australians. Despite this high number, the cause of fibromyalgia is still unknown with no effective treatment options. In the proposed investigations I will use state of the art neuroscientific paradigms to explore the brain basis of fibromyalgia and utilise novel brain stimulation protocols to provide long-lasting pain relief.
What Drives Abnormal Cerebral Activity In Secondary Generalised Epilepsy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$565,809.00
Summary
Secondary Generalised epilepsy (2GE) is a severe, disabling epilepsy syndrome characterised by childhood onset frequent, treatment resistant seizures and developmental delay. Although one of the four major categories of epilepsy, it is poorly understood. This project uses combined EEG (brainwave testing) and MRI to reveal which brain areas are involved in the epileptic activity of 2GE. Advanced analysis techniques will explore which brain regions initiate 2GE epileptic activity.
We have previously made the most widely used animal brain atlas in the world. This atlas based on stained histological sections of the rat brain. In recent years, advances in MRI have made it possible to generate images of the rat brain at very high resolution. We have obtained a very high quality MRI image set from colleagues in Duke University in the USA, and we have begun to map these images in great detail, using our histological atlas as a guide.