Inhibition Of Fear Memories By Extinction: Neural Substrates.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$234,250.00
Summary
Anxiety disorders [e.g., Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)] are the most prevalent type of psychopathology in the industrialised world. They are associated with characteristic behavioural (e.g., heightened startle) and autonomic (e.g., cardiovascular) reactions. These disorders are often characterised as an inability to regulate the emotion of fear. Significant progress has been made in understanding the neural and cellular processes involved in the establishment of fear memories, but relati ....Anxiety disorders [e.g., Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)] are the most prevalent type of psychopathology in the industrialised world. They are associated with characteristic behavioural (e.g., heightened startle) and autonomic (e.g., cardiovascular) reactions. These disorders are often characterised as an inability to regulate the emotion of fear. Significant progress has been made in understanding the neural and cellular processes involved in the establishment of fear memories, but relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which fear memories can be inhibited or suppressed. Understanding this latter process is a key to the development of effective treatments for anxiety disorders such as PTSD where the patient suffers from persistent, intrusive, unwanted trauma memories. A common experimental procedure for reducing learned fear is to repeatedly expose the subject to a fear-eliciting stimulus but without any aversive outcome. This procedure leads to a progressive loss, or extinction, of the fear reactions elicited by the stimulus. Historically, the extinction of fear was thought to be due to an erasure of the fear memory. However, recent evidence shows that extinction inhibits, rather than erases, the fear memory. Because the fear memories remain intact, some structure(s) in the brain must inhibit activity in the fear pathway. This project uses extinction of conditioned fear reactions in rat subjects to determine the structure(s) in the brain that inhibit fear memories and their behavioural and cardiovascular expression. It brings together the expertise of four well-established researchers and uses a combination of behavioural, physiological, immunohistochemical, tract tracing, and lesion approaches to achieve this aim. The proposed experiments will reveal the structure(s) in the brain that control the inhibition of fear, as well as the site(s) of this inhibition in the fear pathwayRead moreRead less
Indigenous Mental Health Model Of Care: RCT Based On A Trans-diagnostic CBT Program Co-designed With Community
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$996,217.00
Summary
We propose to develop an Indigenous Model of Mental Health Care (IMMHC) that encompasses psychological therapy and cultural healing practices developed in consultation with local, participating Indigenous communities, that will for the first time treat highly prevalent mood and anxiety disorders in Indigenous Australians.
THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT ON DISEASE PROGRESSION IN MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,201.00
Summary
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults, is a progressive neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no effective disease modifying treatment. This proposal will explore whether co-morbid stress accelerates disease progression in MTLE, and whether targeting stress pathways by medical and environmental manipulations can mitigate against this.
The Transition From Hospital To Home: A Longitudinal Study Of Indigenous Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$888,851.00
Summary
The six-month transition period following discharge from hospital after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is critical. During the transition period, key sentinel events may influence health and wellbeing. The research will investigate key sentinel events during the transition period following TBI in the first longitudinal study with Indigenous Australians. This study will provide the first systematic evidence regarding the support Indigenous Australians need to successfully transition back into the
Therapeutic Thermal Regulation In Critical Illness
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$189,384.00
Summary
Patients who are admitted to intensive care units often develop abnormalities of their body temperature as part of their illness. Common illnesses include infections and injuries to the brain from trauma or strokes. Clinicians are unsure of how to react to these changes in temperature. My research is designed to provide high quality evidence on body temperature and the use of treatments, so that clinicians can improve patient outcomes.
Using Reward-based Biomarkers To Improve The Early Detection Of Bipolar Disorder In Individuals Seeking Treatment For Depression
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$366,252.00
Summary
Bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed as unipolar major depression, which can have disastrous clinical consequences. Emerging evidence indicates that individuals with bipolar disorder show particular dysfunctions within brain regions involved in processing reward. This research will use cutting-edge neuroscience methodologies to investigate reward processing in these two disorders, with the objective of identifying biological markers that help distinguish bipolar from unipolar depression.
Brain Connectivity Imaging Markers To Confirm Diagnosis For Bipolar Vs. Unipolar Depression – A Connectome Approach.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,369.00
Summary
Differentiating Bipolar disorders from Unipolar Depression is a major clinical challenge. This misdiagnosis hinders optimal clinical care and has many deleterious consequences such self-harm, increased chances of suicide, poor prognosis, and greater health care costs related to this disorder. This project will provide urgently-needed advance in accurate identification of Bipolar disorders using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and remove one of the key obstacles to accurate diagnosis.
Increased Vulnerability To Stress During Opiate Dependence: Molecular, Anatomical, And Behavioural Correlates
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$272,640.00
Summary
Heroin addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. It is a chronically relapsing condition for which few, if any effective prevention and treatment strategies exist. Moreover, why an individual initiates and maintains heroin taking remains unclear. Stress and negative emotions have a strong impact on heroin use. Stress may drive some individuals to start using heroin, s ....Heroin addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. It is a chronically relapsing condition for which few, if any effective prevention and treatment strategies exist. Moreover, why an individual initiates and maintains heroin taking remains unclear. Stress and negative emotions have a strong impact on heroin use. Stress may drive some individuals to start using heroin, stress increases the pleasurable effects of heroin and stress increases the aversive effects of heroin withdrawal. These effects will encourage addiction and discourage addicts from seeking treatment. Stress can also cause an otherwise drug-free individual to relapse to heroin addiction despite having been drug-free for some time. In this project we will study why stress has such a large impact on heroin addicts and heroin addiction. We will test the hypothesis that heroin use actually produces profound alterations in the neural network in the brain which controls responses to stress. This project uses a simple animal model of heroin addiction whereby rats are injected with morphine to study the regulation of several genes which are important in responding to stress. We will also study how this exposure and changes in gene expression alter neurobiological, cardiovascular, and behavioural responses to stress. This project will identify parts of the brain that are altered during heroin addiction, and will also identify why heroin addicts are more vulnerable to stress than the general population. Therefore, this project will help us to identify targets for therapeutic intervention (both psychological and pharmacological) and possibly disrupt the addictive cycle.Read moreRead less
Does Obesity Have The Characteristics Of Addiction?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$430,832.00
Summary
The number of overweight or obese people in Australia has increased dramatically in recent years, increasing disease risk. The brain responds to palatable food in ways similar to the response to drugs of addiction, and this may explain why people find it hard to resist palatable food. Our work will explore whether obesity in rats has the characteristics of addiction by examining bingeing, craving, withdrawal and brain circuits in animals chronically exposed to palatable food.