Tim Paris wins 3MT competition

Talking for three minutes about something you’ve spent years researching is quite a challenge – how to fit all that complicated information into such a short speech and not confuse anyone? The talented Tim Paris, a UWS PhD student from the MARCS Institute, did just that at the recent Trans-Tasman Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at the University of Queensland – and was awarded first prize.

Judged by a panel that included Robyn Williams from ABC Radio National’s The Science Show, Tim presented his three-minute talk titled ‘Brain Waves that Predict the Future’.

Tim’s thesis is exploring how one specific brain wave, the gamma wave, influences how our brains process future events.

“Neuroscientists are discovering that we live slightly in the future,” he explains. “It’s all to do with predictions and we’re doing it all the time. For example, when someone moves their lips together to speak, we make a prediction about what sound he or she will make. If we hear the sound we expect, then slow waves are generated in the brain. However, if the sound is unexpected, our brain generates high-frequency waves (called gamma waves). These gamma waves are the brain’s signal to itself that something has gone wrong.”

Tim plans to map people’s brain waves as they experience unexpected events more and more often. He says he should find that, over time, these predictions are updated and the high-frequency gamma waves reduce, meaning that our predictions, too, have changed.

The future of this research could benefit people who don’t have the same ability to update their predictions, such as those diagnosed with schizophrenia. “It may be that they’re missing one key ingredient of perception – gamma waves – and I believe this research can lead to better identification and treatment of people with these conditions.”

Tim’s prize was a $5000 research grant and his win has ensured that UWS will host the 3MT finals next year.