Intergenerational Prediction of Social and Early Emotional Development. This project aims to investigate multi-generational influences on child psychosocial development. It plans to take advantage of a not-to-be-repeated opportunity to follow offspring born to one of Australia’s oldest longitudinal studies of social and emotional development. The Australian Temperament Project has followed around 2000 parents and offspring across 30 years from birth in 1983. Third-generation babies have been fol ....Intergenerational Prediction of Social and Early Emotional Development. This project aims to investigate multi-generational influences on child psychosocial development. It plans to take advantage of a not-to-be-repeated opportunity to follow offspring born to one of Australia’s oldest longitudinal studies of social and emotional development. The Australian Temperament Project has followed around 2000 parents and offspring across 30 years from birth in 1983. Third-generation babies have been followed across the peak period of first births to females. This project plans to continue recruitment across the peak period of first births for males in 2016–18. This would create one of the most extensive and well-powered three-generation resources worldwide, yielding unique data on intergenerational pathways through mother and father lines. It expects to inform targeting of interventions and psychosocial resources to promote wellbeing within and across generations.Read moreRead less
Preconception predictors of early childhood social and emotional development: a 30-year longitudinal study of grandparents, parents and children. There is increasing recognition of the importance of preconception pathways in shaping the family environments that parents provide for their children. This project will advance understandings of preconception pathways to healthy early child development, by recruiting offspring born to a 30-year longitudinal study: The Australian Temperament Study.
Dissecting the Brain Circuitry Shaping Fear Regulation Across Development. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. This project aims to understand how maturational changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain hinder adolescents when learning to reduce reactivity to threats. It aims to do so by dissecting the brain circuitry shaping learning, memory, and emotional regulation across pre-adolescence, adolescence, and adulthood. The proje ....Dissecting the Brain Circuitry Shaping Fear Regulation Across Development. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. This project aims to understand how maturational changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain hinder adolescents when learning to reduce reactivity to threats. It aims to do so by dissecting the brain circuitry shaping learning, memory, and emotional regulation across pre-adolescence, adolescence, and adulthood. The project expects to generate new knowledge about why developmental changes in the brain are necessary for mature forms of learning and memory. The expected outcomes of this project include a significantly richer knowledge of the developing brain, which will ultimately inform approaches for improving emotion regulation in youth.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668421
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
A MEG-based cognitive neuroscience laboratory. At present there is no MEG system in Australia, whereas MEG systems are currently springing up in research institutions in many other countries across the globe. This project will enable Australia to remain at the forefront of research in the cognitive neurosciences, as well as provide training opportunities to Australian doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the use of MEG in research. Finally, the MEG laboratory will allow Australian resea ....A MEG-based cognitive neuroscience laboratory. At present there is no MEG system in Australia, whereas MEG systems are currently springing up in research institutions in many other countries across the globe. This project will enable Australia to remain at the forefront of research in the cognitive neurosciences, as well as provide training opportunities to Australian doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the use of MEG in research. Finally, the MEG laboratory will allow Australian researchers to fill important gaps in our understanding of several areas of cognitive neuroscience, including basic auditory and visual processing, the study of cognitive processing in schizophrenia and in children with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment.Read moreRead less
Establishing how head and face movement properties contribute to the perception of speech and identity. The proposed studies provide an extensive research program into audio-visual speech processing and person identification: key components of face-to-face communication. The likely impact and benefits of the project concern its contribution to perceptual theory (linking signal, brain and behaviour) and its practical implications: For determining the viability of multimodal biometric identificati ....Establishing how head and face movement properties contribute to the perception of speech and identity. The proposed studies provide an extensive research program into audio-visual speech processing and person identification: key components of face-to-face communication. The likely impact and benefits of the project concern its contribution to perceptual theory (linking signal, brain and behaviour) and its practical implications: For determining the viability of multimodal biometric identification procedures by assessing the distinctiveness and permanence of AV speech characteristics. In the development of a visual dubbing technique that has potential for communication in noisy environments (and for the deaf) and for the development of a morphable model for AV presentation that has application for both first and second language learning.Read moreRead less
The Role of Colour and Luminance in Spatial Location. How does the brain form our impression of the world? Black and white images appear normal to us. However, colour images without luminance variation have little depth, suggesting that the brain does not process colour in the same way as luminance. A series of fresh experiments examine how colour and luminance are utilised for seeing the depth and position of objects. The results will help us to understand how the first stages of visual process ....The Role of Colour and Luminance in Spatial Location. How does the brain form our impression of the world? Black and white images appear normal to us. However, colour images without luminance variation have little depth, suggesting that the brain does not process colour in the same way as luminance. A series of fresh experiments examine how colour and luminance are utilised for seeing the depth and position of objects. The results will help us to understand how the first stages of visual processing in the brain shape our sense of the world, and help develop theories of human vision, as well as animal and machine models of vision.Read moreRead less
Investigating the role of Zona Incerta RXFP3+ cells in learning and memory. Learning and memory are fundamental to human and animal behaviour. We identified a specific population of cells in the zona incerta of the brain, where activation inhibits expression of memory, and facilitates the acquisition of new learning. Aside from our observations, nothing is currently known about the anatomy and function of these cells. This project aims to map how they connect to the rest of the brain, to observe ....Investigating the role of Zona Incerta RXFP3+ cells in learning and memory. Learning and memory are fundamental to human and animal behaviour. We identified a specific population of cells in the zona incerta of the brain, where activation inhibits expression of memory, and facilitates the acquisition of new learning. Aside from our observations, nothing is currently known about the anatomy and function of these cells. This project aims to map how they connect to the rest of the brain, to observe how these connections are recruited during learning and memory, and then to test their function experimentally. The outcomes will extend the known neural circuitry that controls learning by defining how and where these unexplored pathways fit within it; thus advancing knowledge regarding neural regulation of behaviour.
Read moreRead less
Hunger flexibly modifies hypothalamic neural circuits responding to threat. Animal and human behaviour frequently involves a choice between actions or goals with conflicting positive and negative outcomes. However, the appropriate action or goal in conflicting situations often depends on physiological pressures like hunger, stress and mating opportunities. For example, the need for resources within an environment, such as food, drives approach behaviour, whereas threats to survival, such as pred ....Hunger flexibly modifies hypothalamic neural circuits responding to threat. Animal and human behaviour frequently involves a choice between actions or goals with conflicting positive and negative outcomes. However, the appropriate action or goal in conflicting situations often depends on physiological pressures like hunger, stress and mating opportunities. For example, the need for resources within an environment, such as food, drives approach behaviour, whereas threats to survival, such as predator cues, enhance avoidance behaviour. This project will uncover the neural circuitry and endocrine mechanisms through which hunger influences hypothalamic threat-detecting circuits that suppress food intake. These studies provide a new hypothalamic model to understand risk/reward decision in the brain.Read moreRead less
Co-evolution of Cooperation, Mindreading, and Morality. The project aims to investigate the evolutionary and cultural–historical underpinnings of human cooperation. Human cooperation is critical to meet contemporary challenges to humanity such as climate change and humanitarian emergencies. Yet, when cooperation incurs some cost to benefit others, how can cooperation emerge? The project’s main contention is that human cooperation co-evolved with the human capacities to read each other’s minds an ....Co-evolution of Cooperation, Mindreading, and Morality. The project aims to investigate the evolutionary and cultural–historical underpinnings of human cooperation. Human cooperation is critical to meet contemporary challenges to humanity such as climate change and humanitarian emergencies. Yet, when cooperation incurs some cost to benefit others, how can cooperation emerge? The project’s main contention is that human cooperation co-evolved with the human capacities to read each other’s minds and to monitor and sanction each other’s deeds in the social context of pursuing a collective goal for a greater good. The project plans to tests the theoretical integrity of this contention through computer simulations and its empirical validity through laboratory experiments and cross-cultural studies.Read moreRead less
Understanding secrecy in everyday life. This project aims to undertake the first systematic investigation of secrecy in everyday life. Secrecy is often vital in professional and personal life, but current scientific understanding of the costs and processes of secrecy is limited. This project proposes using innovative methodologies to estimate the psychological costs of secrecy and test an intervention to reduce these costs. Expected outcomes include developing theory, advancing methodology, and ....Understanding secrecy in everyday life. This project aims to undertake the first systematic investigation of secrecy in everyday life. Secrecy is often vital in professional and personal life, but current scientific understanding of the costs and processes of secrecy is limited. This project proposes using innovative methodologies to estimate the psychological costs of secrecy and test an intervention to reduce these costs. Expected outcomes include developing theory, advancing methodology, and building research capacity in supporting exceptional scholars. Significant benefits include educating community members about how to combat the harmful effects of secrecy.Read moreRead less