Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100206
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$423,154.00
Summary
Pain: Open to interpretation? This project aims to determine how pain interpretation drives pain experience, using rigorous state-of-the-art lab research. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the psychological mechanisms maintaining pain experience and avoidance behaviour, using novel techniques to measure interpretation of pain sensations. Expected outcomes include the development of an evidence-based psychological model of pain interpretation, enhanced capacity to build interna ....Pain: Open to interpretation? This project aims to determine how pain interpretation drives pain experience, using rigorous state-of-the-art lab research. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the psychological mechanisms maintaining pain experience and avoidance behaviour, using novel techniques to measure interpretation of pain sensations. Expected outcomes include the development of an evidence-based psychological model of pain interpretation, enhanced capacity to build international collaborations, and ecologically valid methods for measuring pain interpretation. This research forms a solid platform for further translational research, to build novel, scalable interventions to improve outcomes for the one in five Australians living with chronic pain.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100591
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,956.00
Summary
Show me the money: Investigating how reward shapes attention and behaviour. This project aims to investigate how attention is automatically drawn towards stimuli that signal rewarding outcomes. Sometimes, the attention afforded to these reward cues (how we’ve learned to respond) is in direct conflict with our intentions (how we would like to behave). This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how and when attentional distraction by reward is more automatic in nature as opposed to b ....Show me the money: Investigating how reward shapes attention and behaviour. This project aims to investigate how attention is automatically drawn towards stimuli that signal rewarding outcomes. Sometimes, the attention afforded to these reward cues (how we’ve learned to respond) is in direct conflict with our intentions (how we would like to behave). This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how and when attentional distraction by reward is more automatic in nature as opposed to being inhibited by cognitive control processes. Expected outcomes of this project include better understanding of the learning processes that shape attentional responses, the neural correlates of the conflict that can arise and the link to behavioural outcomes (e.g., food choices). Read moreRead less
Western-style diet and impairments in food-intake control in humans. Animals fed a Western-style (W-S) diet high in saturated fat and added sugar rapidly develop cognitive impairments, which include disrupted food-intake control. This project aims to see if this also occurs in lean healthy people who eat a W-S diet. That is, are W-S diets associated with impaired cognition, and especially food-intake control, in adults and children, and is this caused by a W-S diet? Obesity is a major public hea ....Western-style diet and impairments in food-intake control in humans. Animals fed a Western-style (W-S) diet high in saturated fat and added sugar rapidly develop cognitive impairments, which include disrupted food-intake control. This project aims to see if this also occurs in lean healthy people who eat a W-S diet. That is, are W-S diets associated with impaired cognition, and especially food-intake control, in adults and children, and is this caused by a W-S diet? Obesity is a major public health issue and the significance of this project lies in testing a new account of how overeating may first occur. The expected outcome aims to show that a W-S diet can disrupt various aspects of cognition in adults and children, including food-intake control, providing an entirely new basis to argue for a better diet.Read moreRead less