Neuroscience Research Australia

Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) is a leader in brain and nervous system research. Our goal is to prevent, treat and cure brain and nervous system diseases, disorders and injuries through medical research.


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We need to talk about the bad science being funded


How Australians Die: cause #3 – dementia (Alzheimer’s)

Does your mum list all your siblings' names before she gets to yours? Don’t worry, she doesn’t love them more. from

Peter, Paul, Kylie … David! Why we forget family members' names






Health Check: can your brain be ‘full’?


Darling, I love you … from the bottom of my brain



The risk of Alzheimer’s increases with age. Shutterstock

Explainer: what is Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer’s disease causes progressive damage to the brain, resulting in problems with memory, cognition, social engagement, and, ultimately, a person’s ability to care for themselves. Alzheimer’s is the…
While a flinch, or a grimace may provide us with clues, ultimately we only know that someone’s in pain if they tell us. the italian voice/Flickr

Understanding pain: can the brain provide all the answers?

We now know that there’s much more to pain than simply what is happening in the painful body part, and attention has turned to the role of the brain. But not even this mysterious organ can tell us everything…
Animal-based therapies have a positive effect but having them visit nursing homes has a number of drawbacks. Duane Keys

Robotic animals may help some people with dementia

Late-stage dementia is characterised by increasing agitation that can be distressing for the person with the illness and their carers. So, researchers are investigating whether robots disguised as animals…
The ability to daydream offers us tremendous flexibility in our daily lives. Nennie T/Flickr

Daydream believer: why your brain is wired to wander

We are usually told that daydreaming is a waste of time and mental power, but the ability to daydream offers us tremendous flexibility in our daily lives. The frequency with which we daydream suggests…

Fake finger illusion pokes holes in body ownership

Memories of emotionally-dense events are formed in great detail, allowing them to be remembered extremely vividly, Julie Falk

Making a mark on the brain - how emotion colours memories

All memories aren’t created equal. Whether you remember an event the next day, week or year, depends on a number of factors, the most important one of which is the emotion associated with it. Emotional…
Consumers of research should not be satisfied with statements that “X is effective”, or “Y has an effect”. Gwenae l Piaser

Why hypothesis and significance tests ask the wrong questions

Empirical science needs data. But all data are subject to random variation, and random variation obscures patterns in data. So statistical methods are used to make inferences about the true patterns or…
The majority of people who have obstructive sleep apnoea are unaware they have the disorder. Image from

Explainer: what is obstructive sleep apnoea?

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common sleep-related breathing disorder, where the upper airway repeatedly collapses during sleep. During an obstructive breathing event, someone with OSA continues…

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