Research Themes

Through our research, we aim to improve lives through a deeper understanding of the brain in health and disease. To better strive for this goal, research at the Institute is streamed into four main themes: 

Synaptic, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience

Brain connections & plasticity

Circuits, Systems and Computational Neuroscience

Neural networks

Cognitive, Behavioural and Sensory Neuroscience

Brain and behaviour

Clinical Neuroscience

Brain diseases

Synaptic, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

We investigate how our brain operates at the level of individual cells and their connections called synapses. The brain cells called neurons have a unique ability to communicate with each other, a process that can adapt and change depending on an individual’s experience – the source of the brain’s amazing plasticity. Drug therapies also operate at this scale, so by understanding the workings of the brain at the cellular and molecular level, we are much more likely to find new “druggable” targets for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, motor neurone disease amongst others.

Faculty

+ Dr Tara Walker (Research Fellow)

Circuits, Systems and Computational Neuroscience

Our researchers explore how groups of cells, often in different parts of the brain, interact with each other. This includes studying which way the information travels and how groups of cells control the flow of information. Our computational neuroscience researchers take the complexities of the brain and simplify them into mathematical models, based on available experimental data, that give us hypotheses about how the brain might function. These hypotheses can then be tested by experimental neuroscientists, whose findings further inform the computational models in a cycle that delivers us ever-more detailed information and predictions about brain function. This level of neuroscience is the most likely to provide us with knowledge about how the brain actually works: how information is transferred to ensure the right parts of the brain are active to achieve tasks, and other parts of the brain do not interfere. It is also the level about which we know the least, making our efforts in this area key to understanding the brain.

Faculty

Cognitive, Behavioural and Sensory Neuroscience

Research in our theme focuses on sensory processing, brain functions and resulting behaviours that affect the whole of an individual. This includes tracking inputs to the brain through multiple sensory systems and brain outputs in the form of cognition and behaviour. If we want to understand the brain and ourselves, we need to understand how sensory inputs shape the responses of humans, and a variety of model animal systems, to the environment and to the specific needs of each species. In the case of humans, we may think of this how brain activity drives cognition and behaviour, including capacities such as attention, learning, memory and decision making.

Faculty

Clinical Neuroscience

Our genomics researchers explore brain function by investigating the genome and how our DNA influences our behaviour, brain structure and function and our predisposition to neurological and mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and motor neurone disease. Our clinical researchers work directly with patients to improve prevention strategies, diagnoses and treatments. They are on the front line of developing new treatments and diagnostics to improve quality of life for affected people and their families.

Faculty