The chemistry of thoughts and brain function

Schizophrenia is associated with negative symptoms, cognitive impairment and lower antioxidant concentrations. We'll be talking about oxidative stress and reviewing the efficacy of the antioxidant treatment N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for schizophrenia.

Caitlin is a 3rd-year PhD Candidate. She recently presented original research at the Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference in Florence, Italy (2018) and was runner-up in the 3-Minute Thesis Competition (Centre for Mental Health).

To keep us alive the body tells the brain about its internal environment by sending electrical information along nerves. Recording this electrical activity from brain cells can help us to understand how the brain makes sense of this information.

Kimberly Thek is a PhD candidate at The Florey Institute, Melbourne. She is trying to work out the parts of the brain that keep you alive.

How does manipulating the activity of specific neural pathways predispose rats to pathological body weight loss? Find out about clues we can use to identify how brain dysfunction predisposes individuals to anorexia nervosa.

Dr Foldi obtained her PhD from the Queensland Brain Institute and did Posdoctoral training in electrophysiology at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockhold. She has been at Monash University since 2015, and her project was recently funded by the Rebecca Cooper Foundation.