Are there common mechanisms for the inhibition of fear? Disorders of fear and anxiety affect up to 28% of Australians across their lives. This project studies how the brain inhibits fear and anxiety. It has four National Benefits. First, the knowledge generated by this project will contribute to coherent theoretical accounts of fear inhibition. Second, it will increase Australia's competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. Third, it will provide novel ....Are there common mechanisms for the inhibition of fear? Disorders of fear and anxiety affect up to 28% of Australians across their lives. This project studies how the brain inhibits fear and anxiety. It has four National Benefits. First, the knowledge generated by this project will contribute to coherent theoretical accounts of fear inhibition. Second, it will increase Australia's competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. Third, it will provide novel insights into ways of reducing anxiety and fear among sufferers of clinical anxiety disorders. Finally, it will provide internationally competitive training opportunities for Australian students.
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The regulation of fear and attention: From genes to the brain to behaviour. Exposure to dangerous events elicits fear concomitant with attentional processing of environmental stimuli accompanying those events. However this fear and attention are typically inhibited so that they are restricted to dangerous events or stimuli which signal them. This project studies the role of endogenous opioids in the inhibition of fear and threat-related attention. It studies opioid inhibition in terms of its con ....The regulation of fear and attention: From genes to the brain to behaviour. Exposure to dangerous events elicits fear concomitant with attentional processing of environmental stimuli accompanying those events. However this fear and attention are typically inhibited so that they are restricted to dangerous events or stimuli which signal them. This project studies the role of endogenous opioids in the inhibition of fear and threat-related attention. It studies opioid inhibition in terms of its consequences for gene transcription, learning, and attention. It will provide the first integrated analysis of fear inhibition, from the level of the gene to the brain to behaviour. Thus, the project will provide significant insights into the biological complexity underpinning vulnerability to anxiety and fear.Read moreRead less
Predicting danger: The nature, consequences, and neural mechanisms of predictive fear learning. This project has four major national benefits. First, it addresses a fundamental scientific issue from a novel perspective to increase knowledge. By combining innovative approaches to study how the brain predicts danger, it will shed light on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Second, the project will contribute significantly to Australia's international competitiveness and reputation in ex ....Predicting danger: The nature, consequences, and neural mechanisms of predictive fear learning. This project has four major national benefits. First, it addresses a fundamental scientific issue from a novel perspective to increase knowledge. By combining innovative approaches to study how the brain predicts danger, it will shed light on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Second, the project will contribute significantly to Australia's international competitiveness and reputation in experimental psychology. Third, the knowledge generated by this project has the potential to improve the welfare of Australians by addressing an increasingly important health problem - anxiety. Finally, the project provides outstanding, internationally competitive, training opportunities for Australian students in Psychology.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101071
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Does obesity alter the associations to food related cues, contexts and responses? Obesity is increasing dramatically in the developed world. The reasons for this are unclear, however the abundance of cheap, palatable food is clearly a contributing factor. Studies suggest differences arise in the processing of food rewards between overweight and lean individuals and the way they respond to food associated cues. This indicates that food associated cues may be more likely to evoke feeding behaviour ....Does obesity alter the associations to food related cues, contexts and responses? Obesity is increasing dramatically in the developed world. The reasons for this are unclear, however the abundance of cheap, palatable food is clearly a contributing factor. Studies suggest differences arise in the processing of food rewards between overweight and lean individuals and the way they respond to food associated cues. This indicates that food associated cues may be more likely to evoke feeding behaviours in absence of metabolic needs, therefore contributing to over eating that leads to obesity. This project will determine how rats, exposed to a model of our obesogenic western diet, process distinct cues and contexts associated with food rewards and control value driven responses to gain food rewards.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