Grant success for MAPrc
MAPrc has achieved excellent results obtaining a number of significant grants for funding commencing in 2013
Senior researchers at MAPrc have been awarded with three Project Grants through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and two Discovery Project grants through the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The grants (detailed below) will be used to continue investigating new treatment options and exploring how to better improve the efficiency of existing treatments.
NHMRC Project Grants:
Prof Jayashri Kulkarni: $599,514
Adjunctive Hormone Therapy for Treatment Resistant Depression in Perimenopausal Women
MAPrc Research Director Prof Jayashri Kulkarni has received two NHMRC grants commencing in 2013. NHMRC grants are very competitive and successful applications need to be of a very high calibre. The first of Professor Kulkarni's grants (above) will fund hormone treatment research in women with depression related to the menopause. Using a hormone called tibolone, we hope to provide a new approach for women with depression, in their late 40's and 50's.
Prof Jayashri Kulkarni, A/Prof David Barton, Dr Caroline Gurvich: $788,419
Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators - A New Adjunctive Treatment for Men with Schizophrenia?
Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators - A New Adjunctive Treatment for Men with Schizophrenia?
The second grant (above) builds on our previous research with a non-feminising estrogen called raloxifene. We will be using adjunctive raloxifene to treat psychosis symptoms in men. Our previous research has shown that raloxifene improves key symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations and delusions. It is hoped that our new NHMRC funded research will assist men as well as women suffering with symptoms of schizophrenia.
Prof Paul Fitzgerald, Dr Kate Hoy: $471,252
Accelerated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression 
MAPrc Deputy Director Professor Paul Fitzgerald and Research Fellow Dr Kate Hoy were chief investigators on a successful NHMRC Project Grant to investigate the efficacy of an accelerated course of TMS treatment for depression. TMS, as it currently stands, requires a considerable time commitment from both patients and clinicians. If the time to response to TMS could be substantially compressed, the treatment would be cheaper to administer and more acceptable to patients.
ARC Grants:
Hohwy, Dr Jakob; Enticott, Dr Peter G; Frith, Prof Uta
When should we stop trusting the senses? Perceptual decision making under ambiguity
When the input to the senses is ambiguous, our preconceptions often come to influence how we experience the world. This can lead to disagreement and often shows up as odd behaviour in different people. This project explores the mechanisms that determine how different people respond to ambiguity, and how much they then rely on their preconceptions.
Tsuchiya, A/Prof Naotsugu; Maller, Dr Jerome J; Foster, Dr Brett L; Takaura, Dr Kana
The neuronal basis of visual consciousness: how brain rhythms control the doors of perception
Slow oscillatory brain wave activity may control the incoming flow of visual information from the world and modulate our perception. While recording neuronal activity directly from the brain, this project will modulate this rhythmic influence using novel visual illusions and brain stimulation techniques to control subjective visual perception.
