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Across Domain Research

Intervention and treatment strategies

Formal theories in the five cognitive domains will be used to guide the development and implementation of methods for treating disorders of cognition. This is an ideal area for cross-domain collaboration, since the methodology for designing studies that yield rigorous evaluations of the efficacy of treatment methods for cognitive disorders (whether these studies be randomised control trials or single case studies) is the same regardless of the domain of cognition involved. A number of the members of the proposed Centre are expert in the methodology of treatment research and they will contribute to the design of treatment research in all five programs, and assist in the exchange of expertise across domains. Cognitive disorders where treatment research will be conducted include developmental and acquired dyslexia, SLI, developmental prosopagnosia, delusional belief, impaired social cognition in schizophrenia, autism and dementia, and impaired speech production abilities in aphasia. The interventions we design will apply cognitive theories to rehabilitation strategies, focusing on the cognitive underpinnings of specific cognitive disorders. The goal will be effective practical intervention. Treatment plans will be geared towards lessening the impact of the cognitive disorder on home, social and educational environments. By focusing on aspects of the particular disorder that are most disruptive to the person's normal social functioning, these treatment plans aim to reduce those aspects of the disorder that cause the most distress to the person in question and his or her carers and family members.

Longitudinal studies

Many cognitive disorders are complex, in that they involve impairments in more than one cognitive domain. For example, the developmental "syndrome" of autism has been variously associated with impairments in language, reading, memory, person-perception and belief formation. However, research on these impairments has largely proceeded in a domain-specific fashion, with little exploration of the effect that impairments in one cognitive domain might have on theories that are developed about cognitive processing in other domains. A great strength of the Centre is that it will bring together experts across a range of domains to explore these complex disorders, so as to further understanding of the full range of impairments and their interrelationships with each other. A particularly powerful way of carrying out such explorations is through longitudinal studies, as this allows specification of the course of development of cognitive processes within and across particular domains in a particular complex disorder and their causal relationships with each other.

Two types of longitudinal projects will be conducted within the Centre: studies of the development of cognitive abilities in children and studies of the dissolution of cognitive abilities in adults with progressive brain pathologies, particularly frontotemporal dementia. Both types of study will rely on cross-program collaborations since both will study changes in multiple cognitive and neural systems as the key ability is progressively acquired or lost. For example, we propose a large-scale, longitudinal study of the development of person perception, its underlying mechanisms (perceptual, cognitive and neural), and its relationships with other aspects of cognitive development (memory, executive functions, language and theory of mind) and with social functioning. We will study typically developing children, children with autism and children with developmental prosopagnosia. This unique and powerful study exploits the wide-ranging expertise in cognitive development distributed across the Centre, as well as the skills of all the person perception node researchers. It will provide a far richer understanding of person perception, and a stronger foundation for effective intervention, than anything currently available.

Neural markers of cognitive processes

In this research strand, we will use MEG, structural and functional MRI, and other brain imaging techniques to work towards identifying neural markers of the theoretically-defined processes represented in our cognitive models and to relate individual differences in cognitive function to differences in structure and neurochemistry. Identifying such markers in normally-functioning individuals is essential before we can go on to:

(a) determine how such neural signatures may be aberrant in individuals with particular cognitive disorders and

(b) assess the effectiveness of interventions by examining changes in these neural signatures before and after treatment.

Importantly, we will attempt to characterise not just neural localization but also the typical time-course in the unfolding of particular cognitive events at a neural level – something that is only possible with the precise temporal resolution of equipment such as EEG and MEG. Neuroimaging innovations developed in one domain will be shared with researchers in the other domains and, at a practical level, access to expensive imaging equipment and facilities will be coordinated at the Centre, including access to the unique MEG facilities housed at Macquarie University, so as to achieve maximum value and efficiency from these substantial infrastructure investments.

Mechanisms of learning in normal and disordered individuals

In every domain of cognition there is a need to learn, store and retrieve representations relevant for that domain. For example, in language, the meanings and pronunciations of words must be learned, in person perception, people's faces and other attributes must be learned, and in memory, the content of the memories themselves must be learned. In disorders of cognition there can be impairments to the mechanisms required for learning, storage and retrieval of these representations and intervention is directed at improving these processes. We will collaborate to investigate the mechanisms by which learning occurs and to study the factors that influence successful learning. We will determine which factors produce optimal learning conditions for individuals with normal cognition and thereby develop a clear theory of learning for that domain. We will then capitalise on this knowledge by investigating whether principles of learning in one domain can be applied in other domains, by exploring how learning is impaired in particular disorders of cognition such as dyslexia, and by examining whether the same factors that influence learning in normal cognition affect learning in these disorders. Such knowledge will directly inform methods by which cognitive disorders can most successfully be treated.