Maternal Immune Activation And Adolescent Exposure To Cannabis In Rodents: Do Two Developmental “hits” Lead To Schizophrenia-like Changes In Brain And Behaviour?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$636,711.00
Summary
The cause of schizophrenia most likely lies in early brain development due to either genetics or adverse environments. We will examine two successive environmental ‘hits’ in a rat model: infection during pregnancy followed by early adolescent cannabis use. We will track changes in the brain that occur in late adolescence and in young adults. We will also assess behaviour and brain function in adulthood to see if the animals exhibit patterns that mimic those that we see in schizophrenia.
The Effects Of Maternal Infection On Glutamate-related Behavioural, Electrophysiological And Neuropathological Measures Relevant To Schizophrenia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$533,136.00
Summary
There are two well known facts about schizophrenia: maternal infection increases the risk of a schizophrenia diagnosis in adulthood and certain drugs, such as PCP, that affect particular brain chemicals induce symptoms and brain changes in healthy individuals that are similar to schizophrenia. Here we bring these two facts together by attempting to develop a maternal infection model in rodents that mimics the brain changes seen in schizophrenia, thus opening up new options for treatment.
Impaired Anticipation Of Sensory Events In Schizophrenia.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$307,942.00
Summary
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that costs Australia millions of dollars and hundreds of lives every year. To address this we need to understand more about how schizophrenia develops. A brain measure (mismatch negativity) tracks biological brain changes and functional impairments in daily living that emerge in schizophrenia. It is not yet known if this measure can teach us about vulnerability to developing schizophrenia or only the effect of the disease. This study will address this question.
Identifying Endophenotypes For Schizophrenia And Autism: A Support Vector Machine Learning Approach
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$316,449.00
Summary
Schizophrenia and autism are mental health problems that often occur together. Despite this, little is known about the overlap between them and how to treat people who experience both. In this study, I will compare young adults with schizophrenia and autism using three measures of brain function. I plan to employ complex statistical analyses to better understand the similarities and differences between the disorders in order to improve diagnosis and treatment.
Functional And Structural Imaging Of Auditory Infomation Processing Deficits In Recent-onset And Chronic Schizophrenia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$376,000.00
Summary
Abnormalities in the auditory system have long been suspected to be present among people who suffer from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, due in part to the high prevalence of auditory hallucinations amongst these patients. Over the last decade, a group of Australian researchers have identified an index of auditory information processing, recorded from scalp electrodes, that is abnormal in patients with schizophrenia, and their biological relatives. The present project will examine t ....Abnormalities in the auditory system have long been suspected to be present among people who suffer from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, due in part to the high prevalence of auditory hallucinations amongst these patients. Over the last decade, a group of Australian researchers have identified an index of auditory information processing, recorded from scalp electrodes, that is abnormal in patients with schizophrenia, and their biological relatives. The present project will examine the relationship between these electrophysiological findings, and a new non-invasive technique of functional brain imaging, looking at changes in blood flow, that can identify the specific brain regions that are active during auditory information processing, and link these to the sources of the scalp recorded measures. Both of these functional measures will be examined in relation to the volumes of brain tissue, measured from magnetic resonance imaging scans using new analysis tools, that enable the identification of subtle changes in brain anatomy. By examining patients who have recently developed schizophrenia, those who have suffered from the illness for longer periods of time, and their close relatives, this study will provide the opportunity to identify biological markers of increased vulnerability for the development of schizophrenia.Read moreRead less
Abnormal Auditory System Function In Schizophrenia: An ERP And MEG Study Of Its Origin, Course And Generality.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$250,770.00
Summary
In 1991, an Australian group found that schizophrenia patients have a reduced brain response to deviant sounds in a repeating pattern of identical sounds. Deviant sounds produce a brain electrical response known as mismatch negativity which is generated by the auditory cortex in the brain's temporal lobes and by adjacent areas in the frontal lobes. A smaller mismatch negativity in patients has since been replicated in laboratories in the US, Europe and Australia. The importance of this finding i ....In 1991, an Australian group found that schizophrenia patients have a reduced brain response to deviant sounds in a repeating pattern of identical sounds. Deviant sounds produce a brain electrical response known as mismatch negativity which is generated by the auditory cortex in the brain's temporal lobes and by adjacent areas in the frontal lobes. A smaller mismatch negativity in patients has since been replicated in laboratories in the US, Europe and Australia. The importance of this finding is that it had not been previously recognised that patients have low level auditory problems that could potentially have a profound impact on higher level functions. Finnish researchers have gone on to show in healthy individuals that mismatch negativity can reveal important features about how well the auditory system works, e.g., for the brain to respond to a deviant sound, it must have a memory of what happened in the past. Mismatch negativity provides a measure of the integrity of these memory functions. But it also provides an index of how well the auditory system discriminates different aspects of sound, pitch, loudness, and temporal features, such as duration. There are hints in our data and from US researchers that processing of the temporal features of sounds is particularly impaired in schizophrenia. We have also recently discovered that first-degree relatives of patients may have a similar deficit. The aim of this project is to use mismatch negativity to probe what is wrong with the auditory system in schizophrenia and those at risk (first degree relatives). Is it the areas of the brain primarily involved in sound perception (the temporal lobes) that are faulty or is the problem in the frontal lobes? Is it the case that processing of temporal features are particularly compromised and if so, is this a biological marker for schizophrenia. Answers to these questions will greatly enhance our understanding of the nature of the brain dysfunction in schizophrenia.Read moreRead less
Physiological And Neurochemical Mechanisms Of Executive Control
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$285,500.00
Summary
This study will examine how manipulating brain chemistry influences our ability to inhibit behaviour and monitor our own performance errors. We will determine the response of the brain using the physiological techniques of event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The first technique allows us to determine how drugs influence the timing of neural events, while the second technique allows us to determine where in the brain these drugs act.