Efficacy Of Prism Adaptation For Recovery Of Brain Function In Unilateral Spatial Neglect
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$531,690.00
Summary
Damage to the brain’s attention network causes profound impairments of visual and sensory perception. These deficits are frequently long-lasting, and are a major factor in preventing patients from regaining functional independence. This project will use a combination of behavioural and brain imaging techniques to determine whether a promising new treatment involving visual retraining can improve function and reduce perceptual impairments after unilateral brain lesions.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100614
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,007.00
Summary
How does the brain process conflicting information? Learning is the means by which we adapt to our environments. Occasionally, what we learn contradicts our present knowledge about the world. When this occurs, the old and new (contradictory) information compete for control over behaviour. Yet, how the brain processes contradictory information and resolves this competition is poorly understood. This project uses modern genetic tools in rodents to examine how the brain encodes and retrieves contra ....How does the brain process conflicting information? Learning is the means by which we adapt to our environments. Occasionally, what we learn contradicts our present knowledge about the world. When this occurs, the old and new (contradictory) information compete for control over behaviour. Yet, how the brain processes contradictory information and resolves this competition is poorly understood. This project uses modern genetic tools in rodents to examine how the brain encodes and retrieves contradictory information to influence behaviour. The outcomes include new insights regarding the neural basis of adaptive behaviour; and the benefits include an understanding of why we sometimes fail to adapt to change, and disorders characterized by such failures (e.g., anxiety disorders, addiction).Read moreRead less
Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shape ....Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shaped by experience, and how controlling these cells and circuits controls choice. This outcome should provide significant benefits including a new knowledge base bridging behavioural, cognitive, and neural sciences to advance theories of behaviour and laying a new basic science platform to understand impulsive behaviours.Read moreRead less
How Genetic And Environmental Risk Factors Interactively Impact On Animal Models For Schizophrenia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,489.00
Summary
The proposed research will clarify to what degree a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia alters the response to environmental risk factors (e.g. social stress and drugs of abuse) or interacts with them. Further, it will provide more sophisticated animal models for schizophrenia as well as better tools to validate these models. These studies may offer novel genetic and molecular clues to help explain the interactive nature of the impact genetic and environmental factors have on schizophrenia.
Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect ....Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect basic learning and memory processes in an understudied population of adolescents. The expected outcomes of this project include a richer knowledge of how peers shape emotional regulation during development, which will ultimately inform social-based approaches for improving emotion regulation in youth.
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Uncovering a novel memory process mediating stimulus-based decisions. The project aims to describe how environmental stimuli influence choice between actions. The goal is to demonstrate that this influence recruits a novel form of memory characterised by a durable change in the expression of an opioid receptor. It will combine sophisticated behavioural tasks with modern genetic tools in rodents to identify the molecular, cellular and neural interactions underlying the acquisition, maintenance an ....Uncovering a novel memory process mediating stimulus-based decisions. The project aims to describe how environmental stimuli influence choice between actions. The goal is to demonstrate that this influence recruits a novel form of memory characterised by a durable change in the expression of an opioid receptor. It will combine sophisticated behavioural tasks with modern genetic tools in rodents to identify the molecular, cellular and neural interactions underlying the acquisition, maintenance and retrieval of this memory. The project expects to provide new insights into the brain machinery promoting motivated behaviours and adaptive decision-making, and to extend knowledge about the physiological underpinnings of our memories. Read moreRead less
Gut-brain control of cue-induced feeding behaviours. This proposal aims to determine how food cues (e.g., advertisements) trigger our desire to eat. Using modern virally-mediated strategies, behavioural and histological techniques in a transgenic rat, this proposal seeks to characterise novel gut-brain circuits that mediate cue-induced feeding behaviours. This is significant as food cues can cause overeating, which is problematic in the current obesogenic society, yet the mechanisms are unclear. ....Gut-brain control of cue-induced feeding behaviours. This proposal aims to determine how food cues (e.g., advertisements) trigger our desire to eat. Using modern virally-mediated strategies, behavioural and histological techniques in a transgenic rat, this proposal seeks to characterise novel gut-brain circuits that mediate cue-induced feeding behaviours. This is significant as food cues can cause overeating, which is problematic in the current obesogenic society, yet the mechanisms are unclear. This project expects to provide new knowledge on how the gut communicates with multiple brain regions to control cue-induced eating. This work should benefit the advancement of knowledge and establish a framework for future research on gut-brain mechanisms in cue-induced feeding.Read moreRead less
Advanced Paternal Age: Behavioural, Neuroanatomical And Genomic Correlates In The Offspring Of Older Fathers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$501,565.00
Summary
The offspring of older fathers have an increased risk of developing disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. This is thought to be due to mutations in the developing sperm. Our group has shown in a mouse model that the offspring of older fathers have changes in brain shape and in behaviour, similar to some findings in autism. In this grant we will refine this animal model and explore the brain, behavioural and genetic correlates of advanced paternal age.
How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with th ....How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with the latest tools for manipulation of brain activity in behaving rodents. The project expects to generate new insights into how the mammalian brain extracts inhibitory predictions from the environment to guide our behaviours and decisions in the most optimal way.Read moreRead less
Methamphetamine-induced Habits And The Re-establishment Of Behavioural Control.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$577,079.00
Summary
The aim of this project is to understand the neural bases of drug addiction, specifically methamphetamine addiction, particularly the changes in neural processes that render drug seeking compulsive. We aim to establish the physical and chemical changes in the brain that cause the changes in decision making induced by exposure to drugs of abuse, most notably the changes that result in a loss of behavioural control.