Information Encoding By Temporal Structure Of Afferent Spike Trains
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$231,175.00
Summary
Our ability to sense, discriminate and interpret touch stimuli underpins some of the most crucial functions of the human hand that relate to object exploration and manipulation. The fundamental mechanism of how nerve impulses generated by tactile receptors are interpreted by the nervous system is not understood. Only by discovering the underlying neural encoding mechanisms can we appreciate the functional impairments in patients and learn to identify them before they become widespread and irreve ....Our ability to sense, discriminate and interpret touch stimuli underpins some of the most crucial functions of the human hand that relate to object exploration and manipulation. The fundamental mechanism of how nerve impulses generated by tactile receptors are interpreted by the nervous system is not understood. Only by discovering the underlying neural encoding mechanisms can we appreciate the functional impairments in patients and learn to identify them before they become widespread and irreversible.Read moreRead less
Discovery And Development Of Better Pain Treatments
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$9,613,850.00
Summary
Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clini ....Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clinical potential.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101468
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$413,614.00
Summary
Context matters: from sensory processing to decision making. Contextual modulation refers to prominent changes in the processing of information in brain and perception caused by interactions across space and time. Over the past two decades, an enormous amount of work has shown that spatial contextual effects occur throughout the sensory processing hierarchy. However, there has been little work examining how temporal context effects affect information processing and operate for high-level attribu ....Context matters: from sensory processing to decision making. Contextual modulation refers to prominent changes in the processing of information in brain and perception caused by interactions across space and time. Over the past two decades, an enormous amount of work has shown that spatial contextual effects occur throughout the sensory processing hierarchy. However, there has been little work examining how temporal context effects affect information processing and operate for high-level attributes of stimuli as well as interactions of self and environment. The project aims to fill this gap to further understand the nature and mechanisms of temporal contextual modulation on sensory information processing, perception, perceptual judgement and decision making at cellular, circuit and cognitive levels.Read moreRead less
Peripheral and central mechanisms of sensory coding and integration. The research described in this proposal seeks to provide generic answers to fundamental questions about sensory processes, the nature of perceptual experience, and how these are subserved by the nervous system. The study of inter-sensory interactions in perception has the potential to be incorporated into the development of virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. The neurophysiology research will provide basic informa ....Peripheral and central mechanisms of sensory coding and integration. The research described in this proposal seeks to provide generic answers to fundamental questions about sensory processes, the nature of perceptual experience, and how these are subserved by the nervous system. The study of inter-sensory interactions in perception has the potential to be incorporated into the development of virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. The neurophysiology research will provide basic information that has the potential to deepen our understanding, and even enhance possible treatment, of neurological conditions that involve sensory systems.Read moreRead less
Predicting Behaviour from Brain Representations. This project aims to advance our understanding of how perceptual information is represented in the human brain and to link the structure of perceptual brain representations to human behaviour. The project plans to use complementary methods for recording brain activity (human neuroimaging and primate single-cell neurophysiology) and cutting-edge analytic techniques to generate a predictive model of behaviour based on the structure of perceptual bra ....Predicting Behaviour from Brain Representations. This project aims to advance our understanding of how perceptual information is represented in the human brain and to link the structure of perceptual brain representations to human behaviour. The project plans to use complementary methods for recording brain activity (human neuroimaging and primate single-cell neurophysiology) and cutting-edge analytic techniques to generate a predictive model of behaviour based on the structure of perceptual brain representations. It is anticipated that the results will significantly advance the field of cognitive neuroscience by providing a novel empirical framework for understanding how brain representations are predictive of behaviour.Read moreRead less
Sensory Coding Mechanisms in Rat Somatosensory System; A Combined Behavioural and Electrophysiological Approach. This inter-disciplinary project spans behavioural sciences, neurophysiology and computational neuroscience. It investigates fundamental questions such as how different aspects of stimuli are presented in sensory areas of the brain and how the animal interprets the neuronal activity in such areas to generate the relevant behaviour. A major problem with making prosthetic sensory devices ....Sensory Coding Mechanisms in Rat Somatosensory System; A Combined Behavioural and Electrophysiological Approach. This inter-disciplinary project spans behavioural sciences, neurophysiology and computational neuroscience. It investigates fundamental questions such as how different aspects of stimuli are presented in sensory areas of the brain and how the animal interprets the neuronal activity in such areas to generate the relevant behaviour. A major problem with making prosthetic sensory devices is the way by which these devices can communicate with the brain. Research into the coding of different features of simple stimuli will provide basic knowledge which can be implemented in prosthetic sensory devices. Read moreRead less
Motion and Spatial Coding in Vision. The results of this project will have implications for the design and implementation of artificial visual systems. Completion of this project will depend upon international collaboration - forging links between a young Australian investigator and outstanding overseas scientists as well as providing excellent training opportunities. Subsequent publication of the research in top-ranking international journals will further promote Australian science abroad.
Are there advantages in having a lateralized brain? Specialisation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain to process different information and to control different responses is not, as once thought, unique to humans but common to all vertebrates. In fact, the same general pattern of lateralization occurs in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Until now, it has been important to document the presence and nature of lateralization in different species. Now it is important to discover t ....Are there advantages in having a lateralized brain? Specialisation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain to process different information and to control different responses is not, as once thought, unique to humans but common to all vertebrates. In fact, the same general pattern of lateralization occurs in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Until now, it has been important to document the presence and nature of lateralization in different species. Now it is important to discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of having a lateralized brain. This project will do so using two model species, the chick and the marmoset, and new techniques to measure behaviour.Read moreRead less
Mobile computation in human perception and feature binding. Perception is so complex that still we cannot give computers more than a fraction of the human ability to perceive things. Experiments with humans can unravel the computations that underlie human abilities. Here we focus on distinguishing between perceptual mechanisms that analyze information from only patches of the visual world and those that combine information from across the visual field as an object moves across it. Results should ....Mobile computation in human perception and feature binding. Perception is so complex that still we cannot give computers more than a fraction of the human ability to perceive things. Experiments with humans can unravel the computations that underlie human abilities. Here we focus on distinguishing between perceptual mechanisms that analyze information from only patches of the visual world and those that combine information from across the visual field as an object moves across it. Results should also help to understand the general issue of how the brain combines information from different groups of neurons. Australian understanding of brains should be advanced, benefiting neuroscience, medicine, and eventually computer science.Read moreRead less
Parallel and generative binding in human visual cortex. Imagine watching a group of children running around in brightly coloured T-shirts. How does your brain keep track of which colour goes with which T-shirt goes with which child? This project will use magnetic resonance imaging to identify where in our brains information about colour, shape and motion gets put together.