The human brain is by far the most powerful supercomputer on the planet. It contains a complex network of about 80 billion neurons, with each one behaving like a separate computer processor. In addition to discovering more and more diseases associated with disruptions in brain function, we are also learning that we have the capacity to change our brains in positive ways. Who knows what else we will discover?

Have you ever wondered how you’re able to absorb information about the outside world, learn a language or the complicated rules of a game, remember your aunt’s birthday or read the newspaper while eating breakfast? That’s your brain at work. Your brain is the most complex organ in your body, so it’s only natural that you would be curious about what makes it tick.

The Neuronal Signalling Group’s research within The John Curtin School of Medical Research is driven by this curiosity about how the brain processes information and gives us the capacity to learn and remember. Professor Greg Stuart, the Group’s Leader, hopes that by understanding what goes on in the brain we will be in a better position to fix it in the event of a neurological disease, such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and dementia.

The Group conducts fundamental curiosity-based research. Professor Stuart runs a laboratory that investigates how single nerve cells in the brain process information, by using electrical recording and optical methods to observe and analyse electrical signalling within living nerve cells of rodents.

“The underlying premise is that if you want to develop better treatments, then you need to understand the system. I believe that increasing our knowledge of the brain will make it be possible to look at what’s going wrong in neurological diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s in a more targeted way. Hopefully, we can then design more specific therapeutic treatments for these illnesses.”

With dementia in its many different forms, there is a reduction in the brain’s capacity to absorb information. “As a consequence, there is a reduction in our ability to learn and remember new things,” Professor Stuart explains. “In part, this occurs through a reduction in brain plasticity.”

The flip side is that brain plasticity also enables us to learn new things, even things we did not think we could do, as demonstrated in the recent television program ‘Train your brain’ by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “The brain is not just this static thing you were born with. It has an enormous capacity to change and adapt, and not just when we are young. In my lab, among other things, we look at the mechanisms regulating changes in the strength of connections between nerve cells, which are thought to underlie how we learn and remember.”

While the Neuronal Signalling Group’s work will hopefully lead to more targeted treatments for diseased brains, who knows where else it might take us? “When we’re talking about the brain, we could be talking about artificial intelligence. We could be talking about better software programs. We could be talking about designer chips using brain mechanisms, which will help us to make better phones or computers. I think it’s very difficult to predict the long-term outcomes of curiosity based research. However, I’m excited about the prospects of where this research will take us in the future.”