Participants sought: How does the brain control blood pressure in hypertension?

We are seeking participants for our study, which is undertaking the functional identification of cortical and subcortical sites responsible for neurogenic hypertension in humans. 

That is, we are looking at how the brain controls blood pressure in hypertension.

New proteins discovered in brain injury

Schematic of overall experimental design for the proteomics analysis.
CSF = cerebrospinal fluid; TBI = traumatic brain injury;
TMT = tandem mass tag labeling. Image: Fig. 1 in the study

A team from Monash University’s Department of Neuroscience in Melbourne, Australia, collaborating with the Monash Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility, has found new proteins affected by brain injury which may represent new biomarkers, or biological indicators, of injury. 

It remains a significant clinical challenge to accurately predict long-term outcomes for a patient who sustains a severe traumatic brain injury.

Investigating the genetic influence on multiple sclerosis outcomes

Dr Vilija Jokubaitis is first author on the
  Brain paper

by Dr Loretta Piccenna

Researchers from the Department of Neuroscience at Central Clinical School have found that no common genetic variations (those found in 5% or more of the population) are strongly linked to disease severity in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Published in one of the top neuroscience journals, Brain, the multicentre study instead revealed that multiple genetic loci with small effect sizes were associated with clinical outcomes in people with RRMS. Further, a machine learning algorithm using this information, together with clinical and demographic variables available at disease onset, accurately predicted the severity of the disease.

Brain Awareness Week lecture

Central Clinical School and Alfred Health are teaming up to help celebrate Brain Awareness Week between March 11 - 17th. The annual week is hosted internationally by the Dana Foundation, and aims to draw attention to the value of brain research.

All staff are invited to a lecture in the former AMREP lecture theatre between 2-3pm on Thursday 14th March.

Analyzing structural brain MRI scans - not easy but here's how

If you have spent hours going through long software manuals and endless forums trying to work out how to analyze structural MRI scans, you will appreciate a recently published ebook by Dr Jerome Maller, MAPrc. The ebook provides step-by-step instructions on how to use your data to achieve the output you require. The focus of the handbook is T1-weighted and Diffusion data acquisition and analysis.  See:

http://jeromemallershandbookofstructuralbrainmrianalysis.yolasite.com/

New use for thermal imaging in neurosurgery

AVM: A congenital tangle of blood
vessels which can cause bleeding, pain
or other serious medical problems
Image: vascularrneuro.com

How do we tell when surgery to remove a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) has been successful? Normally it requires invasive angiography to image the blood vessels supplying the AVM. Associate Professor Peter Hwang and Dr Phil Lewis (Department of Surgery), working with Dr Jerome Maller (MAPRc), wondered whether the abnormally high blood flow through the AVM might be causing reduced blood flow and therefore lower temperature in structures fed by the same blood vessels. 

The main vessels feeding each hemisphere are the carotid arteries, which also supply blood to the eyes. The investigators found that in one patient, eye temperature on the side of the AVM was lower than the other, and this temperature difference disappeared after surgical removal of the AVM. They now plan to see if eye temperature difference can be used as a surrogate measure of AVM size or flow, and whether a resolution of eye temperature difference could be useful as an adjunct marker of the success of AVM treatment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25408956

Research study: exploring how social interactions are processed in thebrain

MAPrc are currently seeking healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 40 years, for a research study exploring how social interactions are processed in the brain.This study involves the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which is a painless, safe, and non-invasive means of stimulating nerve cells in the brain. More information about the study can be found at

Participants sought: Brain response to chronic low back pain anddepression

MAPrc are looking for volunteers aged between 18 and 65 years to join a research study investigating how the brain responds to chronic lower back pain and co-morbid depression. The research study, headed by Dr Bernadette Fitzgibbon, is exploring changes in the brain in people who suffer from low back pain and depression. See more at http://www.monash.edu.au/news/notices/show/do-you-suffer-from-chronic-low-back-pain-and-depression. For more about Bernadette's research, see www.maprc.org.au/dr-bernadette-fitzgibbon.