Leading the way in mental health research, teaching and clinical services
The Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience – Thompson Institute was established by USC as a hub for world-class mental health research, teaching and clinical services.
Opening in 2018, the Institute is already at the forefront of research for some of Australia’s most pressing mental health issues, including dementia, suicide prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder and youth mental health.
USC received an Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) performance rating of 5 for neuroscience, well above world standard, as an outcome of the research conducted at the Institute.
The Institute is committed to finding cures for these conditions through onsite research and educating the next generation of mental health professionals and researchers working in the field.
Importantly, the Institute’s objectives are centralised around a community engagement model that enables the translation of research into practice.
This unique point of difference is called the Institute’s C-A-R-E model. It has four central themes:
- Provision of Clinical services
- Advocacy for patients and their carers
- Ground-breaking translation Research
- Education and teaching
The model’s rapid translation of research breakthroughs into clinical practice not only improves lives but reduces the economic and social impacts of mental health issues and creates commercialisation opportunities for USC.
Professor Greg Hill presented the Vice-Chancellor and President’s Award for Excellence in Research to Professor Jim Lagopoulos at USC’s September Graduation ceremony.
Professor Jim Lagopoulos BSc (USyd), MBiomedE (UNSW), PhD (USyd), FAINM, is the inaugural Director of the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience – Thompson Institute.
Support behind the scenes
BEFORE the Thompson Institute had a building, or even a name, Mary Henzell knew she wanted to support mind and neuroscience research at USC – so she created a scholarship.
The Judy Henzell Memorial PhD Scholarship was awarded to Dr Ben Isbel, whose research examined the ability of mindfulness to enhance attention, mood, and cognition in normal ageing.
This scholarship allowed him to lead the Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic, where he is exploring how mindfulness could help delay the onset of dementia.
“We have found that there is a clear link between mindfulness and healthy brain ageing,” Dr Isbel said.
“Results from our first study show that eight weeks of training is all that it takes to change the way the brain functions.”
Dr Isbel said that, with a young family, the financial support allowed him to focus on the research. To acknowledge the huge impact of her philanthropy, Dr Isbel presented Mrs Henzell with a bound copy of his PhD dissertation (pictured right).
A delighted Mary said, “I am so grateful that I was first to contribute to this research. It has been my absolute pleasure to have helped Ben and to have helped all this to happen.”
Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic
APPROXIMATELY 50 percent of the risk for developing dementia is modifiable. This means we can change it.
The Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic at the Thompson Institute will provide world-class research into reducing modifiable risk factors for dementia using lifestyle intervention programs.
The research will assess whether improvements in cognition (ie, memory and thinking) and mood can be brought about by lifestyle interventions, and identify the brain changes associated with any improvement. The clinic will open in November this year and the team are seeking people aged 50 – 85 years to take part in the research.
Studying young minds
THE Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study has reached its one-year mark with significant initial findings.
Professor of Youth Mental Health and Neurobiology Daniel Hermens at the Thompson Institute, said that 67 young people had enrolled in the ambitious study which was “building world-leading understanding of adolescent brain development, vital for early detection that a young person’s mental health is at risk”.
“Thanks to the commitment of our participants and their parents, we’ve completed more than 169 scans of young people’s brains, tracking their development every four months from the age of 12,” he said.
The study is the first of its kind, because researchers are scanning young people’s brains three times a year during the rapidly changing period of adolescence, as well as discussing what is happening in their lives, including stresses and influences.
Professor Hermens said the first year had unveiled some interesting discoveries. “Early findings have revealed significant links between sleep quality and mental wellbeing in 12-year-olds,” he said.
Professor Hermens said the study had also revealed a link between distress and the size of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is important for learning and storing memories.
“We know from studies in adults that mental illnesses such as depression have been linked to smaller hippocampus sizes,” he said. “Although it is not yet clear how this happens, it is thought that the hippocampus is vulnerable to stress.
“The good news is that the hippocampus can recover very well from things like stress and actually increase in size, due to synaptic plasticity which is when brain cells grow and make new connections with each other. This means that early intervention could aid a swift recovery in brain function and mental health.”
Professor Hermens said the Thompson Institute had also started investigating how brain function during rest can be an indicator of mental health.
Twelve-year-old participant Oliver Woods said he joined the study because it sounded like “an important project to be a part of”. “I am interested in knowing more about what studying the brain can do to improve everyone’s health as they grow up,” he said.
The LABS study aims to reach 500 participants over the next five years and is currently seeking 12-year-olds in high school to register.
Data from the study is also being de-identified and made available to schools to conduct their own scientific investigations into mental health data, as part of a Future Researchers program.
For more information, visit usc.edu.au/thompson-institute/research