Neural noise in human cognitive ageing and reserve. Age-related increases in neural noise degrade information transfer in the brain and lead to diminished cognitive function. Yet with cognitive reserve, some people are able to maintain healthy functioning well into their later years. This project aims to investigate the effects of neural noise on brain connectivity, cognitive performance and reserve, advancing breakthrough work on the neural physiology of healthy cognitive ageing and malleabilit ....Neural noise in human cognitive ageing and reserve. Age-related increases in neural noise degrade information transfer in the brain and lead to diminished cognitive function. Yet with cognitive reserve, some people are able to maintain healthy functioning well into their later years. This project aims to investigate the effects of neural noise on brain connectivity, cognitive performance and reserve, advancing breakthrough work on the neural physiology of healthy cognitive ageing and malleability of neural noise. This will be delivered by novel combinations of electrophysiology, neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation. Benefits extend from developing neural markers for measuring cognitive reserve to new strategies for building resilience to age-related cognitive decline.Read moreRead less
Uncovering a novel memory process mediating stimulus-based decisions. The project aims to describe how environmental stimuli influence choice between actions. The goal is to demonstrate that this influence recruits a novel form of memory characterised by a durable change in the expression of an opioid receptor. It will combine sophisticated behavioural tasks with modern genetic tools in rodents to identify the molecular, cellular and neural interactions underlying the acquisition, maintenance an ....Uncovering a novel memory process mediating stimulus-based decisions. The project aims to describe how environmental stimuli influence choice between actions. The goal is to demonstrate that this influence recruits a novel form of memory characterised by a durable change in the expression of an opioid receptor. It will combine sophisticated behavioural tasks with modern genetic tools in rodents to identify the molecular, cellular and neural interactions underlying the acquisition, maintenance and retrieval of this memory. The project expects to provide new insights into the brain machinery promoting motivated behaviours and adaptive decision-making, and to extend knowledge about the physiological underpinnings of our memories. Read moreRead less
Gut-brain control of cue-induced feeding behaviours. This proposal aims to determine how food cues (e.g., advertisements) trigger our desire to eat. Using modern virally-mediated strategies, behavioural and histological techniques in a transgenic rat, this proposal seeks to characterise novel gut-brain circuits that mediate cue-induced feeding behaviours. This is significant as food cues can cause overeating, which is problematic in the current obesogenic society, yet the mechanisms are unclear. ....Gut-brain control of cue-induced feeding behaviours. This proposal aims to determine how food cues (e.g., advertisements) trigger our desire to eat. Using modern virally-mediated strategies, behavioural and histological techniques in a transgenic rat, this proposal seeks to characterise novel gut-brain circuits that mediate cue-induced feeding behaviours. This is significant as food cues can cause overeating, which is problematic in the current obesogenic society, yet the mechanisms are unclear. This project expects to provide new knowledge on how the gut communicates with multiple brain regions to control cue-induced eating. This work should benefit the advancement of knowledge and establish a framework for future research on gut-brain mechanisms in cue-induced feeding.Read moreRead less
Dealing with distraction: understanding recovery after interruption. Interruptions impair cognitive performance but modern environments have normalised distractions in our workplaces, homes, schools and cars. Daily tragedies occur because people are unaware of their attentional capacity limits. This Fellowship explores the consequences of interruption in moving displays using cutting-edge methods to determine how the brain holds information over an interruption and the process of attentional rec ....Dealing with distraction: understanding recovery after interruption. Interruptions impair cognitive performance but modern environments have normalised distractions in our workplaces, homes, schools and cars. Daily tragedies occur because people are unaware of their attentional capacity limits. This Fellowship explores the consequences of interruption in moving displays using cutting-edge methods to determine how the brain holds information over an interruption and the process of attentional recovery. It includes translational work determining effective ways to raise awareness of attention limits and guide policy. The outcomes will advance knowledge of the mechanisms of recovery from interruption, raise awareness of capacity limits beyond academia, and guide policy to improve safety.Read moreRead less
The cognitive neuroscience of motor skill learning. The capacity to produce skilled motor behaviour is essential for success in almost every aspect of our lives, whether it be playing sport, driving a car, operating machinery at work, or touch-typing. This project aims to establish the causal role of brain regions in motor skill learning by combining cutting-edge techniques in neuroimaging and brain stimulation. It is expected to lead to fundamental new knowledge on how new motor memories are cr ....The cognitive neuroscience of motor skill learning. The capacity to produce skilled motor behaviour is essential for success in almost every aspect of our lives, whether it be playing sport, driving a car, operating machinery at work, or touch-typing. This project aims to establish the causal role of brain regions in motor skill learning by combining cutting-edge techniques in neuroimaging and brain stimulation. It is expected to lead to fundamental new knowledge on how new motor memories are created to enable the expression of skilled motor behaviour. The knowledge gained from this project may identify new strategies for learning skills that are widely applicable to education, industry, sport, and health.Read moreRead less
Neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between pain and sleep. The project aims to reveal the brain mechanisms behind the interaction between such fundamental biological phenomena as sleep and pain. This highly interdisciplinary project expects to deliver significant insights into how poor sleep changes the brain to increase pain sensitivity in healthy adults, by combining novel lab-based mechanistic sleep and pain manipulations and naturalistic longitudinal observation. The rich multimod ....Neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between pain and sleep. The project aims to reveal the brain mechanisms behind the interaction between such fundamental biological phenomena as sleep and pain. This highly interdisciplinary project expects to deliver significant insights into how poor sleep changes the brain to increase pain sensitivity in healthy adults, by combining novel lab-based mechanistic sleep and pain manipulations and naturalistic longitudinal observation. The rich multimodal dataset generated by the project will be made publicly available to enhance research transparency and international collaboration. This should provide significant benefits, ultimately opening up ways to improve quality of life and wellbeing of the Australian population.
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The neurobiology of curiosity. This project aims to define the neurobiology of curiosity by combining cutting-edge techniques in computational modelling, pharmacointervention and neuroimaging. It is expected to lead to a comprehensive neuroscientific framework of curiosity, which will characterise its evolution over the lifespan, and its dependency on key neurotransmitter systems. Expected outcomes include a legacy of open access stimulus & data sets; the development of a global collaborative ne ....The neurobiology of curiosity. This project aims to define the neurobiology of curiosity by combining cutting-edge techniques in computational modelling, pharmacointervention and neuroimaging. It is expected to lead to a comprehensive neuroscientific framework of curiosity, which will characterise its evolution over the lifespan, and its dependency on key neurotransmitter systems. Expected outcomes include a legacy of open access stimulus & data sets; the development of a global collaborative network; and an increase in our national capacity and profile in decision neuroscience. The benefits of this project include laying the foundations for future interventions to improve curiosity, with potential downstream effects on many aspects of education, social & public policy.Read moreRead less
Know thyself: Development of metacognition in childhood and adolescence. This project aims to advance our understanding of the development of children and adolescents’ insight into their own thoughts and behaviours, or metacognition. Individual differences in metacognition impact learning and contribute to the educational achievement gap observed in many countries, including Australia. By combining analysis of existing international cohort data and state-of-the art developmentally appropriate ne ....Know thyself: Development of metacognition in childhood and adolescence. This project aims to advance our understanding of the development of children and adolescents’ insight into their own thoughts and behaviours, or metacognition. Individual differences in metacognition impact learning and contribute to the educational achievement gap observed in many countries, including Australia. By combining analysis of existing international cohort data and state-of-the art developmentally appropriate neuroimaging methodology, the project is expected to create new basic research knowledge. An intended benefit is the development and evaluation of an evidence-based intervention to enhance the metacognitive skills of primary and secondary school pupils and improve their achievement in mathematics.Read moreRead less
Prefrontal dopamine in the dynamic processes of learning across lifetime. To facilitate age-specific adaptive action in a changing environment, how we learn changes not only as we grow, but also as we age. However, the neurobiological processes in these age-related changes are poorly studied. This is a significant knowledge gap that needs to be addressed to promote healthy cognitive development and ageing. This research program aims to examine the contribution of prefrontal dopamine and its rece ....Prefrontal dopamine in the dynamic processes of learning across lifetime. To facilitate age-specific adaptive action in a changing environment, how we learn changes not only as we grow, but also as we age. However, the neurobiological processes in these age-related changes are poorly studied. This is a significant knowledge gap that needs to be addressed to promote healthy cognitive development and ageing. This research program aims to examine the contribution of prefrontal dopamine and its receptors D1 and D2 in associative learning and its inhibition at 9 distinct ages spanning development to ageing in male and female rats. The outcomes will provide a new neuroscientific framework to understand learning and memory throughout life, which will foster new research opportunities and inform our education and health.Read moreRead less