Improving Legal Frameworks to Support Online Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions. This project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of online child sexual abuse prosecutions in Australia. Using empirical studies to draw on the practical experience of law enforcement and other stakeholders, it will generate new knowledge concerning the suitability of Australia's legal and policy frameworks to effectively investigate and prosecute such offences, with a particular focus on the Asia ....Improving Legal Frameworks to Support Online Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions. This project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of online child sexual abuse prosecutions in Australia. Using empirical studies to draw on the practical experience of law enforcement and other stakeholders, it will generate new knowledge concerning the suitability of Australia's legal and policy frameworks to effectively investigate and prosecute such offences, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region and the use of new technologies. Expected outcomes include evidence-based recommendations on criminal law reform and enforcement policy that aim to improve the international enforcement of online child sexual abuse offences, and to provide a model for other forms of serious transnational online crime.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101708
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$406,821.00
Summary
New directions for using brain stimulation to understand brain function. Neuroplasticity is of fundamental importance to brain function as it mediates learning, memory and development. Deficits in neuroplasticity are observed in a number of neurological conditions and thought to contribute to cognitive dysfunction. This study is designed to develop a better understanding of the neurochemical and genetic factors impacting on neuroplasticity. In addition, it aims to (i) upregulate brain connectivi ....New directions for using brain stimulation to understand brain function. Neuroplasticity is of fundamental importance to brain function as it mediates learning, memory and development. Deficits in neuroplasticity are observed in a number of neurological conditions and thought to contribute to cognitive dysfunction. This study is designed to develop a better understanding of the neurochemical and genetic factors impacting on neuroplasticity. In addition, it aims to (i) upregulate brain connectivity in a precise and targeted manner, (ii) elicit functional increases in cognitive performance and (iii) demonstrate the relationship between functional connectivity and cognition. Outcomes include a better understanding of plasticity in the brain & a enhanced capacity to examine and modulate brain plasticity.Read moreRead less
Brain mechanisms for coordinating with others through sound. Distinguishing between sounds produced by self and others is critical for interpersonal coordination and communication through speech and music. This project employs a novel dual-brain electrophysiological technique with tagged audio signals to elucidate how the human brain achieves this distinction, and when and why it cannot. Expected outcomes include new knowledge on the neurophysiological mechanisms that support self-other processi ....Brain mechanisms for coordinating with others through sound. Distinguishing between sounds produced by self and others is critical for interpersonal coordination and communication through speech and music. This project employs a novel dual-brain electrophysiological technique with tagged audio signals to elucidate how the human brain achieves this distinction, and when and why it cannot. Expected outcomes include new knowledge on the neurophysiological mechanisms that support self-other processing, and the acoustic conditions and behavioural strategies that facilitate their operation. These outcomes should ultimately have applied benefits for improving interpersonal coordination and social interaction, especially in digital environments and clinical populations with atypical self-other processing.Read moreRead less
Tracking the Flow of Perceptual Information Through Decision Networks. The choices we make define our lives. Despite exciting progress in neuroscience, we still don’t know how the inner workings of the brain give rise to simple decisions. This project brings together experts from diverse domains of computational neuroscience to investigate how our brains turn perceptual information into action. Together, we will develop new methods to track information flow through the brain during the decision ....Tracking the Flow of Perceptual Information Through Decision Networks. The choices we make define our lives. Despite exciting progress in neuroscience, we still don’t know how the inner workings of the brain give rise to simple decisions. This project brings together experts from diverse domains of computational neuroscience to investigate how our brains turn perceptual information into action. Together, we will develop new methods to track information flow through the brain during the decision making process. By doing so, we will develop a world-leading model of how the brain makes decisions, and also provide the broader scientific community with a set of exciting new tools for studying information processing in the brain.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240101129
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$442,000.00
Summary
Synergy between future 21-cm experiments and physical cosmology. The nature of dark matter and formation of the first galaxies are both unsolved mysteries. During the first 500 million years, our universe was filled with hydrogen atoms illuminated by the first galaxies. The 21-cm radiation from this gas encodes properties of unseen galaxies and dark matter during this so-called cosmic dawn. This project aims to build an innovative framework to leverage future 21-cm experiments using The Square K ....Synergy between future 21-cm experiments and physical cosmology. The nature of dark matter and formation of the first galaxies are both unsolved mysteries. During the first 500 million years, our universe was filled with hydrogen atoms illuminated by the first galaxies. The 21-cm radiation from this gas encodes properties of unseen galaxies and dark matter during this so-called cosmic dawn. This project aims to build an innovative framework to leverage future 21-cm experiments using The Square Kilometre Array to observe cosmic dawn, and to forecast the optimal constraints on dark matter physics. Additional outcomes include the largest cosmological simulation of the first galaxies powered by neural networks and improved knowledge of their properties using Bayes' theorem and The James Webb Space Telescope.Read moreRead less
Understanding biological pathways underlying social behaviour in humans. This project aims to show for the first time how oxytocin interacts with neural social and reward pathways to guide social behaviour. Oxytocin is a natural neuropeptide and hormone that has a critical role in the regulation of social behaviour across mammalian species. In animals, direct evidence demonstrates how endogenous and exogenous oxytocin interacts with social and reward neural pathways to alter social behaviour, in ....Understanding biological pathways underlying social behaviour in humans. This project aims to show for the first time how oxytocin interacts with neural social and reward pathways to guide social behaviour. Oxytocin is a natural neuropeptide and hormone that has a critical role in the regulation of social behaviour across mammalian species. In animals, direct evidence demonstrates how endogenous and exogenous oxytocin interacts with social and reward neural pathways to alter social behaviour, including social recognition, relationship formation, and long-term bonds. The project intends to use radio-labelling techniques in combination with positron emission tomography to track oxytocin and show what regions of the brain oxytocin impacts to then influence social cognition and behaviour in humans.Read moreRead less
Multiscale and multimodal modelling of brain dynamics. This project aims to understand dynamics of how several brain regions work together to process information. This project will generate new knowledge in brain sciences by using state of the art computational modelling and neuroimaging methods like functional and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and electromagnetic measurements. This project will develop technologies to compute multiscale, multimodal and directed connectivity in the brain. ....Multiscale and multimodal modelling of brain dynamics. This project aims to understand dynamics of how several brain regions work together to process information. This project will generate new knowledge in brain sciences by using state of the art computational modelling and neuroimaging methods like functional and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and electromagnetic measurements. This project will develop technologies to compute multiscale, multimodal and directed connectivity in the brain. Expected outcomes of this project will enhance our understanding of the brain’s functional organization and dynamics. The benefits of this project will include breakthroughs in development of new neuro-technologies like brain-machine interfaces and neuroscience inspired artificial intelligence. Read moreRead less
Attention vs Perception: When is selection optimal, when relational? This project aims to investigate an important, newly discovered dissociation between early visual selection and perceptual decision-making. Contrary to current theories, attentional and perceptual processes are tuned to different stimulus attributes described in the relational vs. optimal account, which implies that current theories of attention do not describe early attention but later, decisional processes. This project will ....Attention vs Perception: When is selection optimal, when relational? This project aims to investigate an important, newly discovered dissociation between early visual selection and perceptual decision-making. Contrary to current theories, attentional and perceptual processes are tuned to different stimulus attributes described in the relational vs. optimal account, which implies that current theories of attention do not describe early attention but later, decisional processes. This project will provide an accurate description of these processes, which promises important theoretical breakthroughs. Work on this project will also significantly advance methods to detect and describe early attentional processes, by identifying error-prone methods of Psychophysics and Neuroscience studies, and proposing remedies.Read moreRead less
Automatic Training Data Search and Model Evaluation by Measuring Domain Gap. We aim to investigate computer vision training data and test data, using automatically generated data sets for facial expression recognition and object re-identification. This project expects to quantify and understand the domain gap, the distribution difference between training and test data sets. Expected outcomes of this project are insights on measuring the domain gap, the ability to estimate model performance witho ....Automatic Training Data Search and Model Evaluation by Measuring Domain Gap. We aim to investigate computer vision training data and test data, using automatically generated data sets for facial expression recognition and object re-identification. This project expects to quantify and understand the domain gap, the distribution difference between training and test data sets. Expected outcomes of this project are insights on measuring the domain gap, the ability to estimate model performance without accessing expensive test labels and improvements to system generalisation. This should provide significant benefits for computer vision applications that currently require expensive labelling, and commercial and economic benefits across sectors such as transportation, security and manufacturing.Read moreRead less