Project Summary: Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon, often regarded as a mixing of senses, which affects over 4.4% of the general population. A person with Synaesthesia, a Synaesthete, may smell or taste words, have visual experiences when hearing sounds, or have experiences of colour when viewing...
Project Summary: Myelin is an electrically insulating material that forms a sheath around the axons of neurons in the central nervous system, and increases the speed at which impulses are propagated. Diseases related to the damage of myelin are referred to as demyelinating disorders. Multiple sclerosis...
Project Summary: The typical clinical features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) include slow movements, stiffness and resting tremor, often associated with the presence of protein deposits and severe progressive damage to brain cells. However, this disease is not homogeneous but encompasses a wide spectrum of clinical and...
Project Summary: Cognitive fatigue is the subjective feeling of increased effort or lack of mental stamina that is accompanied by suboptimal cognitive performance.1 It is pervasive across all medical specialities, and is particularly common and debilitating in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Half of patients with PD report...
Project Summary: Every 20 minutes someone in Australia suffers a stroke and approximately half of the stroke survivors have spatial neglect [1]. Persons suffering from spatial neglect are not paying attention to the space opposite of their brain lesion and severe forms of neglect lead to...
Project Summary: Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are abnormalities of blood vessels, in which direct connections form between arteries and veins. The high-pressure arterial blood injects into fragile cerebral veins and leads to a high risk of brain haemorrhage and stroke. AVMs occur in approximately 0.1% of...
Project Summary: Cerebral carnevous malformation (CCM), also known as Angioma or Cavernoma, is a cerebrovascular disease which affects the blood vessels supplying the brain and is the leading cause of strokes in young patients. The disease causes collections of abnormal vessels to form throughout the brain,...
Project Summary: Stroke is among the top ten causes of death in children and is more common than brain tumours. Contrary to popular belief, children do not recover better than adults because more than half of childhood stroke survivors have long term disabilities, which may include...
Project Summary: There is a critical need for inexpensive, individualised rehabilitation interventions that improve motor function in stroke patients. Each year 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke, and in one third of cases, the stroke results in permanent disability [1]. Long-term impairment to motor function...
Project Summary: Despite decades of intensive research a patient diagnosed with glioblastoma, a devastating form of brain cancer, still faces a dismal prognosis of only 15-18 months’ survival. Trials of targeted therapies for glioblastoma, while successful in other cancers, have proven ineffective. This is due in...
Project Summary: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, affecting ~30% of the elderly population over 75. Although classic symptoms include a decline in memory, the condition is only truly diagnosed at autopsy based on the presence of pathological features known as amyloid-beta...
Project Summary: As a neurosurgical trainee at the Royal Melbourne Hosptial, Dr Mitchell manages the care of patients with brain cancer. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common, and most aggressive type of brain cancer. Dr Mitchell sees firsthand the devastating impact this cancer has, cutting...
Project Summary: As the brain ages it takes on a pro-inflammatory profile associated with priming of immune cells so that they become hyper-active. Aged individuals, even otherwise healthy ones, therefore respond to illness and infection with exaggerated immune responses that can be fatal. The brain’s immune...
Project Summary: This project will investigate the mechanisms by which a genetic mutation causes epilepsy. Epilepsy is a very common neurological disorder. People with epilepsy have a tendency to suffer from seizures: temporary symptoms or signs caused by abnormal electrical activity within groups of brain cells...
Project Summary: Aging causes our cells to decline in both integrity and function. As such, the incidence of disorders that affect nerve cells, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), increases with aging. In healthy cells, our genes are tightly regulated so that the correct combination of genes are...
The inaugural Professor James Lance AO CBE Award Project Summary: Making headway into migraine: assessment of subcutaneous lignocaine and ketamine use in the management of chronic (transformed) migraine and development of a biomarker of headache. Migraine is the most prevalent disabling neurological disorder and has a major impact...
Project Summary: Dementia is an increasing epidemic currently affecting some 321,600 people in Australia, with a projected increase to 553,285 by 2030 and 942,624 by mid century. The economic impact of dementia on the health care system and community is considerable. Alzheimer's disease is the most...
Read more about the Elizabeth Simpson Award....
Project Summary: Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a highly prevalent chronic illness, characterised by repetitive collapse of the airway during sleep, causing falls in blood oxygen levels and sleep disruption. OSA is associated with memory and concentration problems. Another common condition, dementia, affects over 280,000 Australians....
Project Summary: Neurodegenerative disease are a major health issue, with 342,800 Australians suffering from dementia. Many people know someone with dementia and its devastating impact on individuals and their families. Currently there are no effective treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD)...
The Brain Foundation is providing you with a free detailed online presentation on Dystonia. Dystonia is a neurological disorder characterised by involuntary muscle contractions which may lead to repetitive movements or atypical postures. Movements may be painful and can involve twisting or tremors. Neurologist Florence Chang from Westmead...
The Brain Foundation is the largest, independent funder of brain and spinal injury research in Australia. We believe research is the pathway to recovery.