Birkbeck

An internationally recognized scientist, her work has transformed our understanding of the brain networks that play a central role in many mental health disorders, including obsessive compulsive disor...

When conflicting images are presented to either eye, binocular fusion is disrupted. Rather than experiencing a blend of both percepts, often only one eye's image is experienced, whilst the other is su...

The tally of Australian mammals extinct since 1788 is now 39 species – far more than for any other country

Self-related processes in the default mode network (DMN) have been viewed predominantly through a cognitive lens, often overlooking the embodied dimen…

While histamine-1-receptor (H1R) signaling in neurons regulates arousal, these receptors are also abundant on cortical astrocytes. This study shows that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates calcium acti...

The thalamus connects the sensory organs and major subcortical brain regions with the neocortex. The thalamus has long been divided into multiple discrete nuclei, based on cytoarchitecture, histochemi...

OHBM Australia: Uniting the Australian human brain mapping community

This study aims to compare the neural representational geometry of visual perception and visual working memory using human fMRI. In our pilot experiment, observers viewed a face-scene blended image (s...

Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2025 Conference Melbourne, November 24th - 25th, 2025

Skilled movement often requires flexibly combining multiple subskills, each requiring dedicated control strategies and underlying computations. How the motor system achieves such versatility remains u...

The complex mechanics of the arm make the neural control of reaching inherently posture dependent. Because previous reaching studies confound reach direction with final posture, it remains unknown how...

The noradrenergic system plays a diverse role in learning, from optimising learning behaviour to modulating plasticity. Work bridging across micro- and macroscale levels is revealing how noradrenaline achieves this diverse role in learning. Through its balance of targeted versus broad modulation of neurons and non-neuronal astrocytes, the noradrenergic system acts across multiple neurobiological and temporal scales to support adaptive learning. With a multiscale organisation that constrains behaviour and brain dynamics based on value-laden information, and the capacity to bridge the fast neural timescales of milliseconds with the slower timescales of natural behaviour, the noradrenergic system acts as an ‘orchestra conductor’ coordinating learning across scales.