Targeting GDNF Family Ligand (GFL) Signalling To Treat Inflammatory Bone Pain
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$329,285.00
Summary
Pain associated with bone marrow oedema syndromes, osteomyelitis, osteoarthritis, fractures and bone cancer causes a major burden on individuals and health care systems in Australia and worldwide. In this application, we will explore specific signalling pathways that we have identified in nerves that code bone pain. This will provide an opportunity for the rational design of highly specific drugs capable of interacting exclusively with molecules that drive pain in these conditions.
High Speed Video To Assess Eye Movements In Vestibular Dysfunction - A Validation Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$133,351.00
Summary
Dizziness affects a third of the population during their lives. Abnormal eye movements are often the best guide as to what has gone wrong in the dizzy person. The problem is that these eye movements can be difficult to see, and hence measure, as a way of diagnosing and then treating the dizziness. Video-oculography holds great promise for helping doctors identify the cause, and in many cases offer simple curative treatment, for dizziness.
Does The Complement System Contribute To Neuropathic Pain?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$262,958.00
Summary
Nerve injury often results in increased sensitivity to painful stimuli and the perception of innocuous stimuli as painful; it may also result in spontaneous pain. These disorders of pain sensation due to nerve injury are common, debilitating and difficult to treat. They are symptoms of neuropathic pain. Pain is normally signalled to the brain by sensory nerve cells called nociceptors. Following nerve injury, nociceptors are sensitised by chemicals released by inflammatory cells. This contributes ....Nerve injury often results in increased sensitivity to painful stimuli and the perception of innocuous stimuli as painful; it may also result in spontaneous pain. These disorders of pain sensation due to nerve injury are common, debilitating and difficult to treat. They are symptoms of neuropathic pain. Pain is normally signalled to the brain by sensory nerve cells called nociceptors. Following nerve injury, nociceptors are sensitised by chemicals released by inflammatory cells. This contributes to neuropathic pain. We have evidence that inflammatory responses play a key role in initiating neuropathic pain. Other evidence suggests that the immune system contributes to neurological diseases and accompanying pain (e.g. Guillain-Barr syndrome and multiple sclerosis). We plan to test the idea that a component of the immune system known as the complement pathway contributes to the development of neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury. The outcome of this work will be a better understanding of the way in which nerve injury leads to chronic disorders of pain, including increased sensitivity to painful stimuli. This will lead in turn to the development of more effective treatments for neuropathic pain.Read moreRead less
Plasticity of gastrointestinal vagal afferents. The aim of this project is to identify how leptin modulates specific subtypes of vagal afferent within the gut and the plasticity of this system under different dietary conditions. This proposed project will substantially increase understanding of the interactions between leptin, known to influence food intake, and vagal afferent satiety signals. It will also increase understanding of how these interactions alter in obesity and ultimately provide t ....Plasticity of gastrointestinal vagal afferents. The aim of this project is to identify how leptin modulates specific subtypes of vagal afferent within the gut and the plasticity of this system under different dietary conditions. This proposed project will substantially increase understanding of the interactions between leptin, known to influence food intake, and vagal afferent satiety signals. It will also increase understanding of how these interactions alter in obesity and ultimately provide targets and/or concepts for the pharmacotherapy of obesity.Read moreRead less
Listen and learn - statistical learning and the adapting auditory brain. This project aims to explore the link between rapid neural adaptation - a form of learning referred to as statistical learning - and human listening performance in noisy environments. The project aims to generate a new understanding of mechanisms that contribute to listeners' abilities to understand speech in noise, and to complex communication disorders such as dyslexia. Expected outcomes will include increased capacity to ....Listen and learn - statistical learning and the adapting auditory brain. This project aims to explore the link between rapid neural adaptation - a form of learning referred to as statistical learning - and human listening performance in noisy environments. The project aims to generate a new understanding of mechanisms that contribute to listeners' abilities to understand speech in noise, and to complex communication disorders such as dyslexia. Expected outcomes will include increased capacity to investigate a broad range of cognitive and communication functions. Benefits will include potential technologies and algorithms to assist listening (in devices such as hearing aids), language development and reading.Read moreRead less
Central pathways regulating visceral pain. This project aims to investigate the neural pathways within the spinal cord and brain processing colorectal pain perception. The project aims to identify the spinal cord neurons relaying colorectal signalling into the brain and the influence of descending modulation from the brainstem upon these pathways. The outcomes will greatly benefit fundamental understanding of the central pathways processing visceral pain.
Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project ....Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project is to address this deficiency by measuring the patterns of neural activity evoked by speech sounds across the tonotopic axis in the inferior colliculus and auditory cortex and assess the extent to which the pattern of neural activity allows discrimination between the different speech sounds.Read moreRead less
Identifying the basis for perceptual stability and perceptual omission during saccadic eye movements. The ability to explore the world via eye movements is an important feature of visual capabilities. This project will establish how the brain maintains the perception of a stable and stationary world despite the several eye movements made each second. This knowledge will fill a conspicuous gap in the understanding of the human visual system.
Relationship of the functional architecture of the mammalian brain to its microcircuitry. The project seeks to understand a very fundamental issue in neuroscience: how the connectivity and architecture of the cortex are related to the functions of neurones in that area? This will be investigated by imaging the surface of the visual cortex of anaesthetised cats and monkeys as special visual patterns are shown to the eye/s. The overall picture gained of the active and inactive cortical areas will ....Relationship of the functional architecture of the mammalian brain to its microcircuitry. The project seeks to understand a very fundamental issue in neuroscience: how the connectivity and architecture of the cortex are related to the functions of neurones in that area? This will be investigated by imaging the surface of the visual cortex of anaesthetised cats and monkeys as special visual patterns are shown to the eye/s. The overall picture gained of the active and inactive cortical areas will be related to the properties of neurones in those areas and to those of individual input and output fibres. An optical imaging equipment will be acquired in 2004 using a recently awarded LIEF grant to the CI.Read moreRead less
Thalamic inputs and cortical microcircuitry underlying the functional architecture of the visual cortex. This project seeks to reveal the fundamental circuitry of the visual cortex that enables visual perception. Such understanding is essential not only for explaining many perceptual disturbances, but also for providing a neuronal basis for developing functionally useful prostheses for the blind.