Reconciling perceptual and cognitive accounts of dyslexia: The neural rate deficit hypothesis. The proposed research will form part of a co-ordinated program to understand the causes of dyslexia, a disorder that affects a large number of children and often persists into adulthood. It complements parallel efforts to elucidate the genetic basis of dyslexia, the heterogeneity and subtypes of dyslexia, and the developmental precursors to the disorder. This research will inform early intervention and ....Reconciling perceptual and cognitive accounts of dyslexia: The neural rate deficit hypothesis. The proposed research will form part of a co-ordinated program to understand the causes of dyslexia, a disorder that affects a large number of children and often persists into adulthood. It complements parallel efforts to elucidate the genetic basis of dyslexia, the heterogeneity and subtypes of dyslexia, and the developmental precursors to the disorder. This research will inform early intervention and remediation efforts and will also assist in the understanding of the normal process of reading acquisition in children.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354848
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
The Australian e-Humanities Research Network: Leveraging Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. Australian humanities researchers, many of them world leaders, are increasingly adopting digital technologies to create scholarly resources in a range of disciplines. It is imperative to provide scale and focus for such diverse, innovative research. This initiative will conduct a stocktake of the infrastructure needs of researchers engaged in digital resource creation projects, and develop a roadmap f ....The Australian e-Humanities Research Network: Leveraging Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. Australian humanities researchers, many of them world leaders, are increasingly adopting digital technologies to create scholarly resources in a range of disciplines. It is imperative to provide scale and focus for such diverse, innovative research. This initiative will conduct a stocktake of the infrastructure needs of researchers engaged in digital resource creation projects, and develop a roadmap for construction and implementation of a Network to address these needs. The Australian e-Humanities Research Network will take up the challenges and opportunities of digital technologies by addressing humanities researchers? requirements for training, networking, and best-practice information and advice.Read moreRead less
Thinking and talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and our understanding of physical space. This project investigates the role of environment in shaping how we think about physical space. By comparing how people in the highly specialised environment of the atoll talk about space in different parts of the world we will gather new data to test ideas on the roles of language and environment in shaping how we understand the physical world.
Participation in the administration of justice: deaf citizens as jurors. This project will pioneer international research on legal signed language interpreting and jury service; the results are likely to innovate law reform. The expected outcome will be to overturn previously held common law that deaf people cannot serve as jurors due to having an interpreter as the 13th person in the jury room as well as confidentiality issues.
NeuroSleep: The Centre For Translational Sleep And Circadian Neurobiology
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,659,061.00
Summary
NeuroSleep, the Centre for Translational Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, will foster innovative clinical research and translation to develop national capacity in understanding how sleep disorders and dysfunction of the body clock impact on health. The Centre will focus its activities on the two-way relationship between disrupted sleep and body clock systems and brain disorders. Our goal is to improve brain performance, workplace safety and health outcomes in patients with sleep and circadian d ....NeuroSleep, the Centre for Translational Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, will foster innovative clinical research and translation to develop national capacity in understanding how sleep disorders and dysfunction of the body clock impact on health. The Centre will focus its activities on the two-way relationship between disrupted sleep and body clock systems and brain disorders. Our goal is to improve brain performance, workplace safety and health outcomes in patients with sleep and circadian dysfunction and in the general community.Read moreRead less
Australian Aboriginal conversational style. This project aims to re-examine claims that Aboriginal Australians conduct conversations in different ways to Anglo-Australians. It will investigate and compare ordinary conversations in these groups on a large scale. The project expects to provide new evidence to explicate Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal conversational norms, pinpointing differences which may lead to intercultural miscommunication. Expected outcomes include endangered language documenta ....Australian Aboriginal conversational style. This project aims to re-examine claims that Aboriginal Australians conduct conversations in different ways to Anglo-Australians. It will investigate and compare ordinary conversations in these groups on a large scale. The project expects to provide new evidence to explicate Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal conversational norms, pinpointing differences which may lead to intercultural miscommunication. Expected outcomes include endangered language documentation, and evidence-based findings to disseminate to service providers, to communities and to Aboriginal organisations to improve ways of engaging with each other. In addition, the project will benefit Aboriginal communities with new approaches to language revitalisation.Read moreRead less
A longitudinal study of the interaction of home and school language in three Aboriginal communities. The importance of language skills cannot be underestimated, and contribute to 'a healthy start to life'. In multilingual Indigenous communities, children must negotiate the complexities of different languages used for different purposes. This project will provide detailed insights into how children manage differences between home and school language, the kinds of problems they encounter when the ....A longitudinal study of the interaction of home and school language in three Aboriginal communities. The importance of language skills cannot be underestimated, and contribute to 'a healthy start to life'. In multilingual Indigenous communities, children must negotiate the complexities of different languages used for different purposes. This project will provide detailed insights into how children manage differences between home and school language, the kinds of problems they encounter when they enter the school system, and how their languages develop over the first four crucial years of school which provide the foundation for the children's future education. Their ability to manage the language of school underpins their ability to lead successful and engaged lives as adults. Read moreRead less
World Crime Fiction: Making Sense of a Global Genre. This project aims to generate new knowledge about the worldwide popularity of crime fiction by analysing the genre’s engagement with the major global challenges of our time, from climate change to the crisis of democracy. Using data from scholars and fans across all continents, and employing an innovative comparative methodology, it seeks to produce a new framework for analysing the global practice of crime fiction. Outcomes include a deeper u ....World Crime Fiction: Making Sense of a Global Genre. This project aims to generate new knowledge about the worldwide popularity of crime fiction by analysing the genre’s engagement with the major global challenges of our time, from climate change to the crisis of democracy. Using data from scholars and fans across all continents, and employing an innovative comparative methodology, it seeks to produce a new framework for analysing the global practice of crime fiction. Outcomes include a deeper understanding of the capacities of crime fiction to explore the complex relationship between crime, law and justice in various settings. The project will benefit Australia by creating new insights into the unique contribution of Australian, including Indigenous, crime writers to this truly global genre.Read moreRead less
An Examination Of Motor Functioning In Autism And Asperger's Disorder: An Analysis Of Gait & Cortical Brain Activity.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$120,220.00
Summary
Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by a triad of deficits: delayed and atypical language development, impaired development of social skills, and ritualistic and stereotypic behaviour. Although not part of the standard diagnosis, movement disorders and gait abnormalities have been clinically observed in autism similar to those seen in Parkinson's disease. In addition, individuals with Asperger's disorder may appear more clumsy, have a stiff or awkward way of walking, and exhibit poo ....Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by a triad of deficits: delayed and atypical language development, impaired development of social skills, and ritualistic and stereotypic behaviour. Although not part of the standard diagnosis, movement disorders and gait abnormalities have been clinically observed in autism similar to those seen in Parkinson's disease. In addition, individuals with Asperger's disorder may appear more clumsy, have a stiff or awkward way of walking, and exhibit poor coordination in posture and gesture. It has been suggested that there is disruption within the basal-ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry (the region connecting the frontal and sub-cortical structures), which may cause the motor dysfunction seen in autism and Asperger's disorder. Few studies have attempted to isolate particular stages of motor functioning which may account for the coordination and motor delay observed clinically in autism and Asperger's disorder. A recent study of ours found evidence to suggest that motor planning deficiencies may account for the 'clumsy' movement patterns frequently reported in the autism - Asperger's disorder literature. Therefore, the aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive neurobehavioural and neurophysiological analysis of motor functioning in young people with autism and Asperger's disorder to further examine the exact stages of motor processing which are deficient in these disorder groups. Recent retrospective studies have shown that even as infants children with autism exhibit clear features of motor disturbance, which, if detected and clearly defined, could advance early diagnosis. In addition to advancing the clinical definition of autism and Asperger's disorder, a careful examination of motor disturbance may also illuminate the neurobiological underpinnings of these disorders.Read moreRead less