Please join us this Friday 5 March for a special two-part colloquium:

1. A celebration of the School’s ARC, NHMRC and MRFF grant winners. Join us in congratulating our colleagues who were awarded significant research funding in 2020.
2. The first in our series of laureate talks given by grant winners – Prof Louise Sharpe, who, with co-investigators A/Prof Ben Colagiuri, Dr Jemma Todd and A/Prof Hamish MacDougall, was awarded an ARC Discovery Project.

Grant title: To focus on pain or not to focus: WHEN is the question

Grant summary: The experience of pain is a ubiquitous experience, and persistent pain is common and causes enormous personal and societal burden. Anyone who has been in severe pain will understand that pain captures attention, but the role that attention plays in increasing pain perception is poorly understood. This project will test a new conceptual model that calls for a change in the paradigm underlying research into attention and pain. We will use novel experimental tasks in virtual reality environments to address these important gaps in our knowledge. The project will significantly advance our fundamental understanding of the role of attention in pain perception and pave the way for translational research to reduce the substantial burden pain causes.