Reduction Of Chronic Post-surgical Pain With Ketamine - ROCKet Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,823,395.00
Summary
Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a common complication of major surgery, and a significant burden on quality of life and ongoing health costs. Ketamine is a drug used by anaesthetists to treat severe acute surgical pain. Various small studies suggest that it may be unique in its ability to reduce the risk of CPSP. We propose a large trial of ketamine during & after anaesthesia for major surgery to test this. Demonstration of effectiveness would promote widespread change in clinical practice.
Physical, Lifestyle And Psychosocial Determinants Of Spinal Pain Development In Adolescents
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$682,800.00
Summary
This project aims to understand the development of back and neck pain in adolescence. By the age of 16 around half of all adolescents have suffered back pain and one third have suffered neck pain. For many adolescents this pain is disabling and over a third of sufferers miss school, miss recreation and seek medical help. The current understanding of back and neck pain in adolescence is quite limited - restricting the effectiveness of initiatives to prevent adolescents having to suffer spinal pai ....This project aims to understand the development of back and neck pain in adolescence. By the age of 16 around half of all adolescents have suffered back pain and one third have suffered neck pain. For many adolescents this pain is disabling and over a third of sufferers miss school, miss recreation and seek medical help. The current understanding of back and neck pain in adolescence is quite limited - restricting the effectiveness of initiatives to prevent adolescents having to suffer spinal pain and of treatment of those adolescents unlucky enough to have an episode. Better understanding and interventions for adolescent spinal pain will also have longer term implications by reducing adult spinal pain. Four out of 5 adults will experience spinal pain. In the USA treating adult back pain is the 4th largest health care cost. Many adults with chronic back pain had their first episode during adolescence. A better understanding of spinal pain in adolescence may help prevent it developing into a lifelong disability. We will collect information from 2,000 adolescents on their experience of back and neck pain and on potential physical, lifestyle and psychosocial risk factors. We believe factors such as their posture, muscle capacity, TV and computer use, mental health and social situation all combine to influence whether a person develops back or neck pain. The project is unique as it will not only collect a broad range of information during adolescence, but will also make use of a large database of health, developmental and psychosocial information already collected from these children since birth. With a better understanding of the development of spinal pain we will be able to develop guidelines to help prevent these problems. We will also be able to develop better treatment plans for sub-groups of adolescents with a particular combination of risk factors. Together these initiatives will assist in understanding and breaking the pathway to chronic spinal pain.Read moreRead less
Neural metrics for space time and numerosity. What we propose is ground-breaking research. It will increase Australia's international competitiveness is science, expand the knowledge base of brain function and psychology and provide valuable training for research scientists.
Characterising and linking intermediate-level processing of pattern, motion and position in human vision? This work will advance basic science by enhancing understanding of human coding of image structure. The aim is to provide a common structure for understanding visual processing of form, motion and position. The work will help lift the international profile of Australian science. Explaining how the primitives for shape perception are extracted will also have consequences of potential economic ....Characterising and linking intermediate-level processing of pattern, motion and position in human vision? This work will advance basic science by enhancing understanding of human coding of image structure. The aim is to provide a common structure for understanding visual processing of form, motion and position. The work will help lift the international profile of Australian science. Explaining how the primitives for shape perception are extracted will also have consequences of potential economic benefit. One important aspect is the design of displays that allow observers to absorb complex information about rapidly changing situations. This work has the potential to provide information that enables display designers to optimise the efficiency of presentation of pattern and motion information.Read moreRead less
How the human visual system uses pattern information to organize motion. This project is an investigation into human vision, a priority area for ARC. Its aim is to discover how photons from moving objects leave traces in the human visual system that assist it to determine the path of local motion and the structure of global motion. Its theoretical significance is that it will lead to substantial revisions of current models of human visual processing. Its practical significance is that it will pr ....How the human visual system uses pattern information to organize motion. This project is an investigation into human vision, a priority area for ARC. Its aim is to discover how photons from moving objects leave traces in the human visual system that assist it to determine the path of local motion and the structure of global motion. Its theoretical significance is that it will lead to substantial revisions of current models of human visual processing. Its practical significance is that it will provide a theoretical basis for the design of display systems that are more effective in conveying information about motion to human observers and eliminate errors inherent in existing systems.Read moreRead less
Applying the Psychologist's Microelectrode to High-Level Vision: What face aftereffects can tell us about face processing. Aftereffects, the psychologist's microelectrode, can show how our visual experience relates to neural activity. In the well-known waterfall illusion, neurons coding downwards motion become fatigued while watching a waterfall, making stationary objects on the riverbank appear to move upwards. Viewing a face for a few seconds can have a similar effect, causing a previously ....Applying the Psychologist's Microelectrode to High-Level Vision: What face aftereffects can tell us about face processing. Aftereffects, the psychologist's microelectrode, can show how our visual experience relates to neural activity. In the well-known waterfall illusion, neurons coding downwards motion become fatigued while watching a waterfall, making stationary objects on the riverbank appear to move upwards. Viewing a face for a few seconds can have a similar effect, causing a previously neutral or average face to take on the opposite identity. Here we explore what this and other face afterffects can tell us about how faces are coded in high level vision.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101043
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$404,956.00
Summary
Tackling facial prejudice. This project aims to investigate individual differences in facial prejudice, a powerful psychological bias whereby people rely on inaccurate first impressions to guide key decisions, such as whom to trust. Utilising recent advances in electrophysiology, the project will develop a new neural marker of individual differences in facial impressions that lead to prejudice. The project expects to lead to insights into the link between visual perception and social behaviour, ....Tackling facial prejudice. This project aims to investigate individual differences in facial prejudice, a powerful psychological bias whereby people rely on inaccurate first impressions to guide key decisions, such as whom to trust. Utilising recent advances in electrophysiology, the project will develop a new neural marker of individual differences in facial impressions that lead to prejudice. The project expects to lead to insights into the link between visual perception and social behaviour, and to develop strategies to reduce facial prejudice given the pervasive influence it has on everyday life.Read moreRead less
Form and motion interactions in human motion perception. Vision works efficiently to detect the motion of both ourselves and other objects by combining motion and pattern information. This project will determine how the visual system achieves this and also create a detailed model that will be directly applicable to areas ranging from clinical neuropsychology to the analysis and design of visual displays.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101334
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Sensory prediction: the role of forward modelling in visual processing. Because of motion, patterns of light received by our eyes contain inherent structure across space and time, a fact which the brain exploits to form predictions about future patterns of visual input. This project will determine how these predictions are constructed from motion signals system and what role they play in visual processing.