Is Stroke Neurodegenerative? A Longitudinal Study Of Changes In Brain Volume And Cognition Following Stroke
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$290,946.00
Summary
There is no direct evidence linking Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and stroke. It is unknown whether stroke can trigger progressive dementia in the same way as AD. In a group of stroke patients, I will measure MRI brain volume and cognition in the 5 years after stroke. These findings will be critical for identification of those patients most at risk of dementia after stroke. This may allow future early intervention for these patients, via promising AD disease-modifying therapies.
A Population-based Study Of Cerebrovascular Mechanisms Underyling Gait, Balance And Cognition In Older People
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$528,330.00
Summary
Mobility problems, falls and dementia are among the major problems affecting older Australians with significant consequent disability. Treatment of such disorders carries an estimated annual cost of around 4 billion dollars. This study will examine the role of age-related brain changes in causing problems with walking, balance and cognitive abilities in the general community. The clarification of the role of the ageing brain in causing such disorders will guide efforts directed at preventing the ....Mobility problems, falls and dementia are among the major problems affecting older Australians with significant consequent disability. Treatment of such disorders carries an estimated annual cost of around 4 billion dollars. This study will examine the role of age-related brain changes in causing problems with walking, balance and cognitive abilities in the general community. The clarification of the role of the ageing brain in causing such disorders will guide efforts directed at preventing the occurrence of falls and dementia.Read moreRead less
Is Stroke Neurodegenerative? A Longitudinal Study Of Changes In Brain Volume And Cognition Following Stroke
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,044,837.00
Summary
There is no direct evidence linking Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and stroke. It is unknown whether stroke can trigger progressive dementia in the same way as AD. In a group of stroke patients, we will measure MRI brain volume and cognition in the 5 years after stroke. These findings will be critical for identification of those patients most at risk of dementia after stroke. This will allow future early intervention for these patients, via promising AD disease-modifying therapies.
Cognition In Cerebellar Degeneration: Correlations With Lateral Neocerebellar Dysfunction And Atrophy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$205,500.00
Summary
Diseases of the main brain coordination centre (the cerebellum) were once thought to impair only movement skills. However, effects on thinking, and especially on mental flexibility and rational planning, are increasingly being reported. These cognitive difficulties may hinder rehabilitation. They also often cause tension within the sufferers' families if other family members are not aware that such difficulties are part of the disease and beyond the sufferers' control. We will test how common su ....Diseases of the main brain coordination centre (the cerebellum) were once thought to impair only movement skills. However, effects on thinking, and especially on mental flexibility and rational planning, are increasingly being reported. These cognitive difficulties may hinder rehabilitation. They also often cause tension within the sufferers' families if other family members are not aware that such difficulties are part of the disease and beyond the sufferers' control. We will test how common such thinking difficulties are in patients with different inherited forms of incoordination, and determine what aspects of thinking are particularly affected. We will see whether the severity of movement incoordination predicts the extent of thinking disruption, as different but neighbouring parts of the cerebellum seem to be involved in each. We will also use magnetic brain scans (MRI's) to check that the thinking problems are not caused by shrinkage of other parts of the brain in these diseases.Read moreRead less
Is Periosteal Bone Formation Responsible For Sexual Dimorphism In Bone Fragility
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$316,320.00
Summary
Men and women sustain fractures as they age because their bones become fragile. Women sustain fractures more often than men. Bone thinning occurs in both sexes but it is usually believed that this thinning or loss of bone is greater in women than men. We have evidence to suggest that this may not be correct. In fact, it is likely that men and women lose a similar amount of bone, about half what they started with, but during ageing, men lay down more bone on the outside surface of the bone than w ....Men and women sustain fractures as they age because their bones become fragile. Women sustain fractures more often than men. Bone thinning occurs in both sexes but it is usually believed that this thinning or loss of bone is greater in women than men. We have evidence to suggest that this may not be correct. In fact, it is likely that men and women lose a similar amount of bone, about half what they started with, but during ageing, men lay down more bone on the outside surface of the bone than women compensating for the similar amount lost on the inside of the bone. We also have evidence to suggest than men and women who get spine fractures do so because the process of laying down bone may fail to occur normally. We will study these processes of bone loss inside the bone and bone gain outside the bone to try to better understand why bones become weak. We will measure the bone size and its density in healthy men and women and patients with fractures to determine how the increasing size of the bone produced by laying down bone on its outside helps to keep it strong and to preserve the bone that would otherwise be lost if it didn't occur or if a disease developed that might reduce the compensatoryRead moreRead less
Does Coeliac Disease Cause Ataxia Or Cognitive Impairment?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$606,013.00
Summary
Coeliac disease (CD) is due to an allergy to a protein (gluten) found in wheat, barley and rye. It classically causes disease of the small bowel, resulting in impaired absorption of important nutrients, and is treated by a restrictive diet eliminating foods containing extracts of these grains. However, it has recently been found that CD is much commoner than previously thought (about 1 in 100-200), and often causes only non-specific symptoms. Two important conditions linked to CD by some, but no ....Coeliac disease (CD) is due to an allergy to a protein (gluten) found in wheat, barley and rye. It classically causes disease of the small bowel, resulting in impaired absorption of important nutrients, and is treated by a restrictive diet eliminating foods containing extracts of these grains. However, it has recently been found that CD is much commoner than previously thought (about 1 in 100-200), and often causes only non-specific symptoms. Two important conditions linked to CD by some, but not all, researchers are ataxia (incoordination) and impairment of thinking and memory. The problem is that many normal people (12% of the population) have antibodies to gluten, so that studies suggesting that sensitivity to gluten, as determined by the presence of antibodies, causes these brain disorders are not conclusive. That is, this could be a chance association. Furthermore, there is some evidence that damage to the coordination part of the brain (the cerebellum) from other causes may also cause antibodies to gluten. It is quite possible that antibodies to the cerebellum can cross-react with gluten, and vice versa. In this case, treating patients with ataxia and antibodies to gluten with the restrictive diet may be treating the result rather than the cause of the disorder. This project will study patients with CD (proven on small bowel biopsy) with sensitive, objective methods, including MRI, electronic measures of coordination, and psychological tests of thinking and memory, to see whether CD really is associated with these two problems. It will also study coordination and brain structure in a mouse model of CD. If the associations are proven, all patients with these disorders will need to be tested for CD, and treated with the restrictive diet if found to be positive. If not, clinicians will be confident that testing for anti-gluten antibodies would be irrelevant and misleading in these two situations.Read moreRead less
Structural And Functional Networks In The Human Brain: Disturbance In Disease And Influence Of Genes.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$568,892.00
Summary
Professor Graeme Jackson is a Neurologist at the Austin Hospital whose research is dedicated to the problem of understanding how epilepsy occurs and devising strategies for successful treatment. He is Deputy Director and head of the epilepsy division of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes which has research dedicated advanced MR imaging systems and physics support largely dedicated to solving these problems in epilepsy. He has 170 plus papers, 10 cited over 200 times. Career citations exceed 6000 ....Professor Graeme Jackson is a Neurologist at the Austin Hospital whose research is dedicated to the problem of understanding how epilepsy occurs and devising strategies for successful treatment. He is Deputy Director and head of the epilepsy division of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes which has research dedicated advanced MR imaging systems and physics support largely dedicated to solving these problems in epilepsy. He has 170 plus papers, 10 cited over 200 times. Career citations exceed 6000.Read moreRead less
My aim is to use advanced Neuroimaging to further our understanding of the pathophysiology of brain disorders, in particular Epilepsy, but also Sleep disorders, Schizophrenia, the Dementias. In the case of my main research interest (Epilepsy) it is to red
Modelling Traumatic Brain Injury Using Neuropsychological, Neurosurgical, Neurochemical, And Neuroradiological Measures
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$403,370.00
Summary
Post mortem and brain imaging studies of patients who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) indicate that they sustain both focal damage and widespread diffuse damage. This diffuse damage is more difficult to detect but has been found to occur even after mild injuries and in the absence of focal brain damage. Moreover, diffuse damage is thought to contribute both to changes in a patient's level of consciousness at the time of injury and to the long-term problems experienced by patients after a ....Post mortem and brain imaging studies of patients who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) indicate that they sustain both focal damage and widespread diffuse damage. This diffuse damage is more difficult to detect but has been found to occur even after mild injuries and in the absence of focal brain damage. Moreover, diffuse damage is thought to contribute both to changes in a patient's level of consciousness at the time of injury and to the long-term problems experienced by patients after a TBI, suggesting that diffuse damage may provide a valuable index of the amount of brain damage that has been sustained as a result of an injury. While clinicians presently assess many cognitive abilities, they do not target the cognitive problems that are thought to arise from diffuse damage. This is largely due to an absence of validated measures and a limited understanding of the effects of diffuse damage on cognitive functioning. Consequently, we do not have a clear understanding of the extent to which diffuse damage contributes to patient outcome after a TBI. The present study is designed to provide a model of the effects of TBI that will include neuropsychological, neurosurgical, neurochemical and neuroradiological variables. The cognitive effects of diffuse damage will be assessed and related to neurochemical and brain imaging indices of diffuse damage in order to examine the relationship between brain structure and function. This study will improve our understanding of the effects of diffuse damage on cognitive functioning and will lead to the development of measures that can be used to assess the consequences of diffuse damage. In doing so, this study will improve the accuracy with which we are able to diagnose the cognitive problems of patients who have suffered a TBI. This will, in turn, reduce the public health, insurance and litigation costs associated with this type of injury.Read moreRead less