SPECTRAL TILT: DO INFANTS KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM? This project falls within the National Research Priorities, giving children 'a healthy start to life'. The research is important economically because it will lay the groundwork for the informed design of hearing aid frequency responses based on empirical research, and give infants the opportunity to be fitted with hearing aids amplified for infants, not adults as is the current unsatisfactory practice. Moreover, the cross fertilisation of meth ....SPECTRAL TILT: DO INFANTS KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM? This project falls within the National Research Priorities, giving children 'a healthy start to life'. The research is important economically because it will lay the groundwork for the informed design of hearing aid frequency responses based on empirical research, and give infants the opportunity to be fitted with hearing aids amplified for infants, not adults as is the current unsatisfactory practice. Moreover, the cross fertilisation of methods and knowledge that the collaborators bring to this grant should provide outcomes that will help maintain attention on Australia as a site of cutting edge research into hearing impairment, hearing aid development and use.Read moreRead less
Speech production in the developing brain. This project aims to study how children acquire language. Speech is arguably the most complicated action that humans can perform, yet is acquired with apparent ease in the pre-school years. The brain mechanisms of speech production have rarely been studied in children due to methodological and technical challenges. This project will address this gap using an articulographic setup for measuring speech movements concurrently with scanning of brain activit ....Speech production in the developing brain. This project aims to study how children acquire language. Speech is arguably the most complicated action that humans can perform, yet is acquired with apparent ease in the pre-school years. The brain mechanisms of speech production have rarely been studied in children due to methodological and technical challenges. This project will address this gap using an articulographic setup for measuring speech movements concurrently with scanning of brain activity in a customised paediatric brain imaging system. The results are expected to help explain why most children acquire speech easily and smoothly and why this process can be more difficult for others.Read moreRead less
The role of preferred brain states in perceptual and cognitive processing: New insights into brain dynamics. New insights into brain dynamics will improve our understanding of both normal and atypical functioning. Extending previous work on normals will confirm how innovative Australian approaches can lead the research agenda in basic neuroscience, at the psychology-physiology interface. Testing in AD/HD and elderly populations will clarify dysfunctional brain mechanisms underlying AD/HD, and th ....The role of preferred brain states in perceptual and cognitive processing: New insights into brain dynamics. New insights into brain dynamics will improve our understanding of both normal and atypical functioning. Extending previous work on normals will confirm how innovative Australian approaches can lead the research agenda in basic neuroscience, at the psychology-physiology interface. Testing in AD/HD and elderly populations will clarify dysfunctional brain mechanisms underlying AD/HD, and the cognitive losses in elderly populations (exacerbated by dementia). These results may lead to better diagnosis, treatment, and community understanding of these groups. Also, publications on these target groups will demonstrate internationally the widespread utility of this approach, encouraging further novel applications of basic neuroscience in health.Read moreRead less
A novel DNA damage repair protein as a regulator of DNA double strand break repair and genome integrity. This project aims to define the function of a novel DNA damage repair protein. These data will provide a better understanding of DNA repair biology and may reveal novel diagnostic and treatment options for many diseases associated with DNA repair defects, including cancer.
Control of developmental switches by importin 5. Aims: This project will study a key molecular switch called IPO5, a protein that is required for cells and organs to form and function normally, and it will reveal how it works.
Significance: These experiments will provide the first complete description of how this molecular switch controls the behaviour of a cell across its lifespan. IPO5 is highly conserved, so these studies will be relevant to a wide range of animals.
Expected Outcomes: This k ....Control of developmental switches by importin 5. Aims: This project will study a key molecular switch called IPO5, a protein that is required for cells and organs to form and function normally, and it will reveal how it works.
Significance: These experiments will provide the first complete description of how this molecular switch controls the behaviour of a cell across its lifespan. IPO5 is highly conserved, so these studies will be relevant to a wide range of animals.
Expected Outcomes: This knowledge will reveal how IPO5 controls formation of sperm by revealing what other proteins it binds to and how this affects cell signaling and responses to the environment.
Benefits: This will provide information about potential interventions to control fertility or to repair abnormal cells.
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Inflammation as an early form of maternal-fetal signalling in pregnancy. The project aims to understand the role of inflammatory signalling in marsupial pregnancy. This project is expected to explain why inflammation, a processes normally confined to injury and infection, is a part of reproduction in live-bearing mammals. Outcomes of this project include robust measures of the capacity for, impact of, and evolution of, inflammatory signalling in marsupial pregnancy. The project will provide new ....Inflammation as an early form of maternal-fetal signalling in pregnancy. The project aims to understand the role of inflammatory signalling in marsupial pregnancy. This project is expected to explain why inflammation, a processes normally confined to injury and infection, is a part of reproduction in live-bearing mammals. Outcomes of this project include robust measures of the capacity for, impact of, and evolution of, inflammatory signalling in marsupial pregnancy. The project will provide new knowledge about the unique biology of Australia's marsupial fauna.This project will provide significant benefits, including enhanced capacity for reproduction research in Australia, new international collaborations between Melbourne and Yale, and a new explanation for the puzzling role of inflammation in pregnancy.Read moreRead less
Old genes learning new tricks: characterising regulatory changes driving increased heart complexity during vertebrate evolution. The heart has dramatically increased in morphological complexity during vertebrate evolution but the molecular basis driving these major changes remains unknown. Using comparative genomics approaches, this project will explore changes in the regulation of genes involved in heart formation that lead to changes in cardiac structure. It will elucidate for the first time t ....Old genes learning new tricks: characterising regulatory changes driving increased heart complexity during vertebrate evolution. The heart has dramatically increased in morphological complexity during vertebrate evolution but the molecular basis driving these major changes remains unknown. Using comparative genomics approaches, this project will explore changes in the regulation of genes involved in heart formation that lead to changes in cardiac structure. It will elucidate for the first time the cardiac regulatory repertoire in zebrafish and will compare it with that of fly and mouse using cutting-edge bioinformatics pipelines. This work will unravel cardiac-specific regulatory modifications that give rise to evolutionary changes. On a broader scale, it will shed new light on the role of regulatory innovations over gene innovations in the emergence of new traits.Read moreRead less
Determining principles for successful episode retrieval of repeated events. This project aims to develop the first-ever set of explanatory principles for how people successfully retain and retrieve individual episode memories from repeated experiences (e.g., one occurrence of a routine social encounter or job-related activity). By deepening our understanding of how memory works, this new knowledge is expected to lay the foundation for interview guidance and ongoing research aimed at enhancing th ....Determining principles for successful episode retrieval of repeated events. This project aims to develop the first-ever set of explanatory principles for how people successfully retain and retrieve individual episode memories from repeated experiences (e.g., one occurrence of a routine social encounter or job-related activity). By deepening our understanding of how memory works, this new knowledge is expected to lay the foundation for interview guidance and ongoing research aimed at enhancing the proficiency of investigations into matters that rely on detailed and accurate accounts of specific episodes. This includes workplace or traffic accident investigations, infectious disease contact tracing, as well as prosecution of repeated sexual offences.Read moreRead less
Investigating differences in decision-making ability in older adults. This project aims to investigate how healthy ageing impacts decision making and its associated neural circuits using computation modelling and neurogenetic methods. Decision-making is a fundamental cognitive ability, allowing us to choose the best course of action. This project will investigate the relationship between genes and decision-making performance across the adult lifespan. Expected outcomes include a deeper understan ....Investigating differences in decision-making ability in older adults. This project aims to investigate how healthy ageing impacts decision making and its associated neural circuits using computation modelling and neurogenetic methods. Decision-making is a fundamental cognitive ability, allowing us to choose the best course of action. This project will investigate the relationship between genes and decision-making performance across the adult lifespan. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of how decision-making evolves in healthy ageing, and a tool based on genetic scores and computational modelling to predict an individual's trajectory of cognitive function. This could help identify individuals who are at risk for cognitive decline, which could then inform better interventions.Read moreRead less
Impact of the male germ line on the mutational load carried by mammalian embryos. This project examines whether a man's age or exposure to lifestyle factors (alcohol, cigarette smoke and mobile phone radiation) can have a major effect on the health of his children. The project is particularly relevant to the safety of assisted conception procedures used to treat the 1 in 20 Australian men suffering from infertility.