Profile image for Luke Downey

Professor Luke Downey

Professor

Biography

Professor Luke Downey  leads the Drugs and Driving Research Unit at Swinburne, managing a team of research assistants, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.

Alongside his research in human psychopharmacology, Dr Downey also examines how individual differences in emotional intelligence contribute to human behaviour. This program of research initially focused on developing reliable and valid measures to assess emotional intelligence in adults and adolescents. These measures can now be used to examine the role of emotional intelligence in predicting outcomes such as scholastic achievement, bullying, stress coping strategies, and recruitment consultant revenue.

In 2015, Dr Downey held a visiting scholar position at Harvard Medical School. He has also completed two years of postdoctoral work at Swansea University with Professor Andy Parrott. Luke held two consecutive fellowships from the NHMRC, an Early Career Fellowship (2013-2016) and a Career Development Fellowship (2017-2020).

Research interests

Neuroscience; Psychopharmacology; Epidemiology; Neuroscience; Psychopharmacology

PhD candidate and honours supervision

Higher degrees by research

Accredited to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal Supervisor.

PhD topics and outlines

2023 - Characterisation of gaze effects of alcohol consumption upon driving:  This program of research will attempt to characterise how gaze parameters are effected by alcohol consumption and how these changes can index driving performance (on-road & simulated)

Honours

Available to supervise honours students.

Honours topics and outlines

2023 - Effect of acute Methylphenidate (Ritalin®) dose on simulated driving: This project will examine and catalogue how an acute single dose of Methylphenidate (Ritalin® 10mg) affects driving performance & ocular activity. This will be achieved through a within-subjects, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over counterbalanced trial. This trial will involve two experimental conditions: active and placebo. 

2023 - Effect of acute Methylphenidate (Ritalin®) dose on visual attention: This project will examine and catalogue how an acute single dose of Methylphenidate (Ritalin® 10mg) affects visual attention, . This will be achieved through a within-subjects, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over counterbalanced trial. This trial will involve two experimental conditions: active and placebo. 

2023 - Medical Cannabis and Its Effects on Driving: This study will investigate how medical cannabis treatment affects driving performance and related cognitive skills. We will also investigate how medical cannabis affects cognitive performance and a range of other outcome measures including pain severity, quality of life, anxiety, depression, and use of other medications.

2023 - Trait and behavioural aggression in stimulant users: This project will examine how trait aggression moderates the impct of stimulant consumption upon tasks assessing behavioural aggression.

Fields of Research

  • Child And Adolescent Development - 520101
  • Psychology Of Ageing - 520106
  • Cognition - 520401
  • Behavioural Genetics - 520201
  • Social And Affective Neuroscience - 520207
  • Biological Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified - 520299
  • Clinical And Health Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified - 520399
  • Cognitive And Computational Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified - 520499
  • Social And Personality Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified - 520599
  • Applied And Developmental Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified - 520199
  • Psychopharmacology - 520205
  • Psychophysiology - 520206
  • Social And Affective Neuroscience - 520207
  • Clinical Neuropsychology - 520301
  • Cognition - 520401
  • Learning, Motivation And Emotion - 520403
  • Behavioural Genetics - 520201
  • Behavioural Neuroscience - 520202
  • Cognitive Neuroscience - 520203

Further information

Publications

Also published as: Downey, Luke; Downey, L.; Downey, L. A.; Downey, Luke A.
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.

Recent research grants awarded

  • 2022: Emyria Limited - The Emerald Clinics Cohort ? Paper # *; Emyria Limited Fund Scheme
  • 2021: Driver monitoring technologies to quantify impairment for medicinal cannabis users *; Road Safety Innovation Fund
  • 2021: RFQ: Medicinal Cannabis Detectability Trial *; VicRoads
  • 2021: RFQ: Medicinal Cannabis Drug Driving Study *; Department of Health and Human Services Fund Scheme
  • 2021: Use of Virtual Reality in facilitating movement through phases of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy *; Enosis Therapeutics Pty Ltd Partnership
  • 2020: Building an Integrated Approach to Employee Safety and Wellness *; WorkSafe Victoria
  • 2020: Cannabidiol (CBD) treatment for insomnia: a three-week randomised controlled pilot trial with a placebo run-in period (CBD-INS) *; Cannvalate Pty Ltd
  • 2020: Randomised controlled trial to determine the effects of short-term oral cannabidiol (CBD) ingestion on inflammation, muscle damage and functional recovery following downhill running *; Cannvalate Pty Ltd
  • 2020: Stage 3 of the Swinburne Microbiome Project: the isolation, growth and production of 4 probiotics for memory, anxiety, positive mood and BMI *; Equity Trustees Phyllis Connor Memorial Innovation Program
  • 2019: Cannabidiol (CBD) treatment for insomnia: a three-week randomised controlled pilot trial with a placebo run-in period (CBD-INS) *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2019: Medicinal cannabis clinical trials *; Cannvalate Pty Ltd
  • 2018: Examine the effect of acute and chronic supplementation of Blackmores Micronutrient Formulation versus placebo on memory and mood *; Blackmores
  • 2016: NHMRC 2016 Standard Equipment Grant: Optalert Drowsiness Measurement System (ODMS) *; NHMRC Standard Equipment Grant
  • 2015: The effect of two concentrations of hempseed oil on oral drug detection systems and driving performance *; Department of Human Services - Contracts
  • 2014: Biological and psychological health indices of Ecstasy/polydrug users: testing the Bioenergetic Stress Model. *; Emerging Research Priorities Scheme
  • 2013: Biological and psychological health indices of Ecstasy/polydrug users: testing the Bioenergetic Stress Model *; NHMRC Early Career Fellowship
  • 2013: Investigating Emotional Intelligence at Anglican Church Grammar School *; Anglican Church Grammar School
  • 2011: Amphetamines and Violence in Police Custody Project *; Victoria Police (for Grants)

* Chief Investigator


Recent media