The Winter 2015 edition of the NeuRA Magazine is ready to read! This quarter, we discuss potential treatment options for patients with chronic back pain with researcher Dr James McAuley. You can also read about our 2015 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Australia & New Zealand Fellowship winner Dr Muireann Irish. Subscribe here to receive future print or email editions of the NeuRA […]
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Can a simple rating scale discriminate between two debilitating diseases? What if you were told that you had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)? How about Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)? Would you know what that meant for you? Would you know the difference? These are the questions that continually plague doctors and researchers, because the reality is in some cases there is no […]
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Our scientists have been asked to compile a special edition of Schizophrenia Research, looking specifically at the hormones implicated in the disorder. The September issue of peer-reviewed journal Schizophrenia Research, will this year be guest-edited by Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert with assistance from myself and Katie Allen (right). We were invited to bring together a collection of articles that examine […]
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This article originally appeared on The Brain Dialogue. Suzanne Shubart. Now brain travellers can track their explorations with highly-detailed maps created with state-of-the-art imaging technology. The Big Picture You’re lost in the desert and, after wandering for days, in the distance you spot a giant red rock jutting out of the barren landscape. Had you never encountered this landmark before […]
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A little over five years ago, we sent out a request for volunteers to participate in the Cognitive and Affective Symptoms in Schizophrenia Intervention (CASSI) clinical trial. Now, we are pleased to report the exciting findings! Previous studies conducted by the Schizophrenia Research Lab found that there is a faulty gene that affects oestrogen receptors in the brains of some […]
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Growing up with a bright, studious neighbour whose company he enjoyed was one of the primary reasons that Yiru Zhang (below) decided to pursue a career in medical research. As a teen Yiru saw first-hand how the onset of schizophrenia diverted his friend and neighbour from her scholarly ambitions, and felt called to understand what caused the disorder and how […]
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Proprioception is the sense of our body’s own actions. It is how we know where our body is in space. Disruption to proprioception can occur in many clinical conditions, including dystonia, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. When people have problems with proprioception, they cannot make normal movements. Over the last decade, numerous new findings have led to a paradigm shift in […]
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Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert and her team of researchers are asking a question about schizophrenia that has not been answered before – Is the blood brain barrier compromised in psychosis? Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are diseases that affect an estimated 680,000 people in Australia and cost the economy $4.7 billion a year, yet their pathogenic mechanisms are little understood. One […]
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Self-experiments have long been a part of science and medicine. Over the years, self-experimenters have proven invaluable to the medical research community, and to the patients they are seeking to help. Prof Simon Gandevia is well known for putting himself ‘under the microscope’ and is perfecting a measurement technique he and his team developed to measure breathlessness in people with […]
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Hydrocephalus is a devastating structural neurological disorder marked by enlarged brain ventricles due to accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid. The current diagnosis and treatment of hydrocephalus is inadequate due to a lack of understanding about the mechanisms behind its development. Hydrocephalus may be accompanied by low intracranial pressure and it continues to remain a clinical challenge to differentiate this disease with […]
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