Neural mechanisms of attention in the honeybee and Drosophila melanogaster. By examining convergent neural mechanisms of attention in insects and comparing these mechanisms to those found in vertebrates, we may uncover basic principles of how attention operates in widely divergent systems. This type of basic scientific research could be used to provide a framework to develop better approaches for treatment for individuals with defects in attention. Such defects are symptoms of several psycholo ....Neural mechanisms of attention in the honeybee and Drosophila melanogaster. By examining convergent neural mechanisms of attention in insects and comparing these mechanisms to those found in vertebrates, we may uncover basic principles of how attention operates in widely divergent systems. This type of basic scientific research could be used to provide a framework to develop better approaches for treatment for individuals with defects in attention. Such defects are symptoms of several psychological conditions, including attention deficit disorder, autism, and schizophrenia, which have major social and economic costs in Australia. Therefore, by expanding our understanding of how attention operates at the level of neurons, we can begin to develop targeted treatments for addressing these conditions. Read moreRead less
The efficacy of a physical activity intervention in the management of psychological and physical symptoms among breast and prostate cancer patients. The vastly improved survival rates for breast and prostate cancer in recent years has resulted in an ever-increasing number of people living with a history of cancer. Treatment for cancer is often associated with negative side effects like fatigue, depression and sleep disturbance, and an overall impaired quality of life.
This project will assess ....The efficacy of a physical activity intervention in the management of psychological and physical symptoms among breast and prostate cancer patients. The vastly improved survival rates for breast and prostate cancer in recent years has resulted in an ever-increasing number of people living with a history of cancer. Treatment for cancer is often associated with negative side effects like fatigue, depression and sleep disturbance, and an overall impaired quality of life.
This project will assess the effectiveness of a physical activity program in alleviating these symptoms of treatment. The program will include regular walking and gentle resistance strength training.
The outcomes from the project will advance research by shedding light on which symptoms are most helped by physical activity, and how much activity is needed to gain these benefits.
Read moreRead less
Are there common mechanisms for the inhibition of fear? Disorders of fear and anxiety affect up to 28% of Australians across their lives. This project studies how the brain inhibits fear and anxiety. It has four National Benefits. First, the knowledge generated by this project will contribute to coherent theoretical accounts of fear inhibition. Second, it will increase Australia's competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. Third, it will provide novel ....Are there common mechanisms for the inhibition of fear? Disorders of fear and anxiety affect up to 28% of Australians across their lives. This project studies how the brain inhibits fear and anxiety. It has four National Benefits. First, the knowledge generated by this project will contribute to coherent theoretical accounts of fear inhibition. Second, it will increase Australia's competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. Third, it will provide novel insights into ways of reducing anxiety and fear among sufferers of clinical anxiety disorders. Finally, it will provide internationally competitive training opportunities for Australian students.
Read moreRead less
The regulation of fear and attention: From genes to the brain to behaviour. Exposure to dangerous events elicits fear concomitant with attentional processing of environmental stimuli accompanying those events. However this fear and attention are typically inhibited so that they are restricted to dangerous events or stimuli which signal them. This project studies the role of endogenous opioids in the inhibition of fear and threat-related attention. It studies opioid inhibition in terms of its con ....The regulation of fear and attention: From genes to the brain to behaviour. Exposure to dangerous events elicits fear concomitant with attentional processing of environmental stimuli accompanying those events. However this fear and attention are typically inhibited so that they are restricted to dangerous events or stimuli which signal them. This project studies the role of endogenous opioids in the inhibition of fear and threat-related attention. It studies opioid inhibition in terms of its consequences for gene transcription, learning, and attention. It will provide the first integrated analysis of fear inhibition, from the level of the gene to the brain to behaviour. Thus, the project will provide significant insights into the biological complexity underpinning vulnerability to anxiety and fear.Read moreRead less
Predicting danger: The nature, consequences, and neural mechanisms of predictive fear learning. This project has four major national benefits. First, it addresses a fundamental scientific issue from a novel perspective to increase knowledge. By combining innovative approaches to study how the brain predicts danger, it will shed light on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Second, the project will contribute significantly to Australia's international competitiveness and reputation in ex ....Predicting danger: The nature, consequences, and neural mechanisms of predictive fear learning. This project has four major national benefits. First, it addresses a fundamental scientific issue from a novel perspective to increase knowledge. By combining innovative approaches to study how the brain predicts danger, it will shed light on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Second, the project will contribute significantly to Australia's international competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology. Third, the knowledge generated by this project has the potential to improve the welfare of Australians by addressing an increasingly important health problem - anxiety. Finally, the project provides outstanding, internationally competitive, training opportunities for Australian students in Psychology.Read moreRead less
Social psychological, personality, and neural processes underlying anger, aggression, and health. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates the cost of assault, sexual assault, and homicide in Australia at over $2.5 billion per annum. Despite these enormous costs, very little is known about the cognitive and neural mechanisms guiding these phenomena. This research will also provide cues regarding risk for domestic violence. Understanding domestic violence is especially significant bec ....Social psychological, personality, and neural processes underlying anger, aggression, and health. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates the cost of assault, sexual assault, and homicide in Australia at over $2.5 billion per annum. Despite these enormous costs, very little is known about the cognitive and neural mechanisms guiding these phenomena. This research will also provide cues regarding risk for domestic violence. Understanding domestic violence is especially significant because it is the leading cause of homicide among women in Australia. The insights gained from this research may lead to substantial social (e.g., stronger social fabric, reduced crime) and economic benefit (e.g., reduced spending on healthcare and crime).Read moreRead less
Honesty and efficiency in the provision of expert services: doctors and other experts as participants in economic experiments. Experts serve us when we see the doctor, the financial planner or the car mechanic. In all these case the expert can take advantage of his superior knowledge and sell us something we do not need. This research will inform policy makers about the underlying motives of real world experts and allow them to design better institutions.
(When) should organisations employ over/underqualified individuals? The aim of the project is to better understand how employee qualifications (ie the extent to which an employee is qualified for the job they hold) influences their voluntary turnover decisions and job performance. Demand and supply in the labour market are frequently out of sync; around half of Australian employees have a level of qualification that does not match the position in which they are currently working. The project aim ....(When) should organisations employ over/underqualified individuals? The aim of the project is to better understand how employee qualifications (ie the extent to which an employee is qualified for the job they hold) influences their voluntary turnover decisions and job performance. Demand and supply in the labour market are frequently out of sync; around half of Australian employees have a level of qualification that does not match the position in which they are currently working. The project aims to establish under what conditions organisations and employees can get the performance benefits from employee qualifications while avoiding fast rates of voluntary turnover. The goal of the project is to develop insights about how to make full use of the benefits of qualifications while avoiding the pitfalls. Insights from this research may be of potential benefit to both workers and to employing organisations.Read moreRead less
Understanding different speakers vs. different accents: apples and apples or apples and pears? This project will examine how human infants, human adults and songbirds learn the variability in the speech signal and will show whether the underlying skills are uniquely human and specific to certain languages. Converging data using innovative technologies will reveal the details of speech comprehension, an important component of human cognition.
Flexible methods for latent variable models applied to Health Economics. This project aims to develop flexible and powerful methods for estimating models containing variables that are unobserved, that is, latent. Such models are often used to capture individual heterogeneity and time dependence in data collected on individuals, with each individual observed for several time periods. Latent variables can also infer group membership, where such membership is unavailable from the data. The intended ....Flexible methods for latent variable models applied to Health Economics. This project aims to develop flexible and powerful methods for estimating models containing variables that are unobserved, that is, latent. Such models are often used to capture individual heterogeneity and time dependence in data collected on individuals, with each individual observed for several time periods. Latent variables can also infer group membership, where such membership is unavailable from the data. The intended methodology is Bayesian and based on new particle methods that allow users to select between models and predict future observations even in complex situations. The research aims to inform decision making through improved use of data in health economics and related fields.Read moreRead less