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
Spinal Cord Injury Pain: Understanding Mechanisms To Develop Treatments
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$597,675.00
Summary
Spinal cord injury has devastating effects on health and quality of life. Many of the major consequences of injury, such as chronic pain and loss of voluntary voiding, are "invisible" – i.e., they are not as visible as limitations of mobility. Our study aims to define the neurobiological changes that cause development of persistent pain after spinal cord injury and use pharmacological tools to attenuate the development of pain.
Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages thes ....Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages these tasks. This project will reveal changes that occur in the processing of visual objects by the bee's brain with increasing experience, with potential applications including robotics or building interfaces between sensors and biological systems.Read moreRead less
The neuronal bases of consciousness and attention. Why and how do some electrical activities in the brain make us see, hear and feel pain? Why other neural activities remain non-conscious? This project will utilise visual illusions combined with a range of state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques to understand what kind of neuronal mechanisms underlie attention and consciousness.
Centre-surround interactions in ageing human vision. Australia has a rapidly ageing population. This project will study how ageing affects the visual perception of objects presented on non-uniform backgrounds. Our ability to discriminate objects from their backgrounds is key to most natural visual tasks. The visual processes involved are known as centre-surround interactions, and are considered fundamental building blocks to human perception. This project will significantly advance our knowledge ....Centre-surround interactions in ageing human vision. Australia has a rapidly ageing population. This project will study how ageing affects the visual perception of objects presented on non-uniform backgrounds. Our ability to discriminate objects from their backgrounds is key to most natural visual tasks. The visual processes involved are known as centre-surround interactions, and are considered fundamental building blocks to human perception. This project will significantly advance our knowledge of which spatial visual mechanisms are altered due to age, supplying key information for understanding and improving visual environments for the elderly, as well as increasing knowledge of the brain mechanisms susceptible to the ageing process.Read moreRead less
Chromatic Inputs to Cortical Receptive Fields in Primates. The human eye contains three kinds of receptors for daytime vision, named blue, green and red cones for their sensitivity to different regions of the visible spectrum. It is known that blue cones contribute to brain pathways for colour vision, but recent data suggest there is also 'cross-talk' of blue cone signals to pathways for motion and high-acuity vision. This project comprises precise measurement of blue cone signals, and anatomica ....Chromatic Inputs to Cortical Receptive Fields in Primates. The human eye contains three kinds of receptors for daytime vision, named blue, green and red cones for their sensitivity to different regions of the visible spectrum. It is known that blue cones contribute to brain pathways for colour vision, but recent data suggest there is also 'cross-talk' of blue cone signals to pathways for motion and high-acuity vision. This project comprises precise measurement of blue cone signals, and anatomical tracing of blue cone pathways, in a primate model for human vision. The data will improve our basic knowledge of how the brain processes sensory signals.Read moreRead less
Neural plasticity in older adult human vision. This project aims to expand our understanding of age related changes in brain function, specifically plasticity. The project will increase knowledge of the role of an inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in visual plasticity. Expected outcomes include new knowledge regarding the regulation of brain function in adulthood, enabling future research and planning for societal benefit to older Australia.
The brain in real-time: predicting the present, reconstructing the past. This proposal aims to understand how the brain compensates for its own internal delays to function in real-time. Because it takes time for information from the senses to reach the brain, it takes time for us to become aware of an event that occurs in the outside world. This project will use an innovative combination of techniques to study how prediction and reconstruction mechanisms work together in the brain. Expected outc ....The brain in real-time: predicting the present, reconstructing the past. This proposal aims to understand how the brain compensates for its own internal delays to function in real-time. Because it takes time for information from the senses to reach the brain, it takes time for us to become aware of an event that occurs in the outside world. This project will use an innovative combination of techniques to study how prediction and reconstruction mechanisms work together in the brain. Expected outcomes of this project include a fundamental understanding of how we function in the present. This should provide significant benefits, such as an important theoretical advance in our understanding of how conscious awareness is realised in the brain, placing Australia at the cutting edge.Read moreRead less
The brain in real time: a neural model of rhythmic action and perception. This project aims to study a fundamental function of the human brain: its temporal architecture. It will provide an innovative perspective on the neural mechanisms underlying and relating perception, intention, and voluntary action in real time, though a combination of eye-tracking, behaviour, and neural recordings. By providing a common language with which to relate perception, cognition, volition and action, this will ....The brain in real time: a neural model of rhythmic action and perception. This project aims to study a fundamental function of the human brain: its temporal architecture. It will provide an innovative perspective on the neural mechanisms underlying and relating perception, intention, and voluntary action in real time, though a combination of eye-tracking, behaviour, and neural recordings. By providing a common language with which to relate perception, cognition, volition and action, this will provide significant benefits that will transform the way we think about brain function.Read moreRead less
Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to eval ....Colour visual processing by honeybees: solutions for decision making in complex environments. Honeybees are a cost and time efficient animal model for testing how information is processed in a miniature brain containing less than 0.01% of the number of cells found in a human brain. Bees use their ultraviolet, blue and green colour vision to efficiently find flowers in complex environments. This project investigates how colour information is processed by bees, and develops computer models to evaluate how novel solutions might be applicable for robotic vision. The model also allows for testing of how environmental factors, like changes in climate, might affect the way in which bees choose to visit certain flower types, including plants that have important environmental and economic impacts.Read moreRead less