Brain Modelling

The Brain Modelling Group models and analyses brain structure and dynamics in health and disease. This work currently follows two major themes: developing new diagnostic methods for neonatal brain health and modelling large-scale brain activity across the lifespan.

In neonates, the group uses techniques from physics and machine learning to extract more information than ever before from intensive care monitoring of babies born prematurely. The goal is to enable early detection of injuries and early prognosis of developmental outcomes, so that clinicians can optimise care with personalised markers of brain health, potentially opening the window for new treatments. On the modelling side, the group is harnessing the rapid developments in neuroimaging technology and connectomics to develop new mathematical models of brain activity, in particular at the spatial scales most relevant to human health. The goal is to fill in some of the large gaps in our knowledge of how neuroimaging brain signals emerge from brain structure, on how this relationship varies as we grow and age, and how things can go wrong leading to neurological and psychiatric disorders.

CURRENT RESEARCH

  • modelling large-scale brain dynamics across the lifespan
  • novel methods for early detection and prognosis of preterm brain injury
  • modelling the interplay between brain dynamics and metabolic resources
  • developing novel methods for connectomics

Staff

  • Corey Forrest, PhD Student
  • James Pang, Visiting Scientist
  • Kartik Iyer, Senior Research Officer
  • Nathan Stevenson, Senior Research Officer
  • Shrey Dutta, Visiting Scientist

External Collaborators

  • Professor Sampsa Vanhatalo, University of Helsinki
  • Professor Michael Breakspear, University of Newcastle
  • Professor Paul Colditz, University of Queensland
  • Professor Linda de Vries, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands
  • Professor Philip Mitchell & Dr Gloria Roberts, University of New South Wales
  • Professor Mark Woolrich, University of Oxford
  • NHMRC
  • Rebecca L Cooper Foundation

STUDENT PROJECTS

Modelling neural circuit control of effort under stress

This project is suitable for Honours, Masters, or PhD student Background The decision to put in effort to attain rewards is essential for success in life, and critical for survival. Yet, we understand very little about the brain processes that promote persistence and enable individuals to ‘keep going’ instead of ‘give up’ when increasing amounts […]

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Physiological signal analysis from infancy to adolescence

Suitable for PhD, Masters or Honours students. The advent of precision medicine demands better tools for measuring human structure and function. A particularly important period of development where this lack of diagnostic and prognostic tools is felt in earnest, is the period from infancy to adolescence. We measure the function of the brain, heart and […]

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Modelling brain dynamics across the lifespan

Suitable for PhD or Honours students. This project would suit students with a background in physics, maths, or a related discipline, and an interest in computational neuroscience, with some experience in programming (e.g., in MATLAB). A major challenge for neuroscience is to understand how the brain’s densely interconnected network of neurons—the “connectome”—gives rise to the rich […]

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