NZBRI July Newsletter

The Stimulus

Official Newsletter of the
New Zealand Brain Research
Institute

Winter 2017 Edition

From Michael’s Desk ...

This year marks two centuries since Dr James Parkinson first described the
disease that now bears his name. It took nearly 150 years to develop useful
medications to reduce some of the symptoms. We still have no therapy
that can slow or stop the progress of the disorder, and certainly nothing
approaching a cure. Although we have learned a lot about the disease, after
200 years, we still don’t know what causes it.

Until this week, there was also a large gap in knowledge of Parkinson’s specific
to this country: there had never been a proper nationwide study of how many
people in NZ have the disease and how many new cases are diagnosed each
year. Good epidemiology is often fundamental to understanding a disease. If
the rates rise or fall, we can investigate what might explain the changes. We
can also check for variation geographically and across ethnicities to look for
possible causes and risk factors.

Previous epidemiological studies were carried out in 1962 in Wellington and
1990 in Dunedin. The 1962 study was prescient in many ways, particularly with
its focus on issues like dementia in Parkinson’s. But in other ways, the study
is almost pre-historic: it was carried out before dopamine-based medication
was available, and a proportion of the patients were relatively young “post-
encephalitic” cases. (In the first half of the twentieth century, that form of the disease followed on from an infection
with the virus that causes sleeping sickness. We seldom see post-encephalitic cases now: today, most people with
true Parkinson’s are relatively old and we can’t point to a definite cause of their illness.)

It was time to update our knowledge of Parkinson’s rates in NZ. Even the 1990 study was restricted to a single city,
with many studies overseas indicating that rates vary substantially across rural and urban areas. We also needed
to know how rates in Māori compare to Pākeha and other NZers, which has never been examined. So over the last
several years, Dr Toni Pitcher has led an epidemiology research programme at NZBRI, to provide up-to-date national
estimates of the rates of Parkinson’s, while examining NZ’s unique ethnic mix. National epidemiological studies are
difficult and expensive. We found a way to do it more efficiently, with a method that means we can easily monitor
changes by re-running the study periodically. Rather than deal with patients individually, we made use of “big data”:
national databases such as hospital discharge records and millions of Pharmac prescriptions. Mathematician Dr
Daniel Myall used sophisticated statistical modelling to take this information, account for its biases and estimate that
there are currently 9500 people in NZ with Parkinson’s. Daniel could also forecast that the numbers will double over
the next 25 years.

Our study has just been published in the international journal “Parkinsonism & Related Disorders”. Toni and her team
will follow up with findings on the unique ethnic variation of Parkinson’s in New Zealand, also identifying regional
“hotspots”. This research will improve understanding of the disease, as well as how to manage it better in this country.

The Wellington study: Pollock & Hornabrook (1966). The prevalence, natural history and dementia of Parkinson’s
disease. Brain, vol 89, pp 429-448
The Dunedin study: Caradoc-Davies, Weatherall, Dixon, Caradoc-Davies, & Hantz (1992). Is the prevalence of
Parkinson’s disease in New Zealand really changing? Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, vol 86, pp 40-44
The NZBRI study: Myall, Pitcher, Pearson, Dalrymple-Alford, Anderson, & MacAskill (2017). Parkinson’s in the oldest old:
Impact on estimates of future disease burden. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders

Funding for this research came from the Neurological Foundation and the Institute itself.

Editor Kate Russell, NZBRI 1/230 Antigua Street, Christchurch P 03 3531243, E [email protected] Web www.nzbri.org Twitter @NZBrain

NZBRI is a subsidiary of the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation

Volunteer Profile - Bruce Tulloch

At the NZBRI we are keenly aware of the incredible value of our volunteers, both the
patient volunteers and the healthy ‘control’ volunteers who power our various research
studies.

Bruce Tulloch has been volunteering for eight years so we asked him what drives him
to help us out with brain research at the Institute. As soon as I stepped into the Tulloch
home, I could see where Bruce’s interest in the brain came from. A Family of avid readers,
the Tullochs have an impressive library of books and Bruce tells me they are well-travelled
and a family that takes an active interest in politics and the environment.

After Bruce’s mother-in-law suffered a stroke, Bruce’s interest in the workings of the brain
intensified and he decided to become a ‘healthy control’ volunteer for our Parkinson’s
work at the Institute. Bruce has an annual check-up at the NZBRI, which includes a
perception test, word association, eye movement tracking and a memory test. Most years he also has an MRI to look
for any brain changes. Bruce says volunteering is ‘painless and costless’ and that he feels it is a great way to be making
a useful contribution to public health in his retirement.

We are very grateful to all our volunteers to give so freely of their time to assist us in furthering the science around
Parkinson’s and many other brain disorders. If, like Bruce, you would like to volunteer for our studies, you can contact
Dee at the NZBRI on [email protected]

FBI Fundraising Success

On April 1st, the FBI hosted the second annual Opera meets Art fundraiser at the Christchurch Art Gallery and for the
second year running, it was a sell-out.

Guests were treated to delectable canapes from Lizzies Cuisine and refreshments from Pegasus Bay Wines. A beautiful
array of art was available for purchase from Mel Brew, Philip Beadle, Melanie Hammett and other highly sought-after
Artists. The Opera Club, together with Artistic Director, Sharolyn Kimmorley, prepared a stellar line-up of popular
opera. The young May sisters captured the audience’s hearts with their piano and violin numbers.

The night was a huge success, raising more than $17,000 for our research. The FBI would like to thank Southern Eye
Specialists who sponsored the event and the Christchurch Art Gallery. Keep your eye out for information on next
year’s event, planned for March / April 2018.

Next up on the FBI calendar is their iconic golf tournament. With Sir Bob Charles donning his plus fours in the starting
line-up, the day has become a firm favourite for Canterbury businesses and golfers. Planning is well underway for
the November 24th event, with the FBI grateful for the on-going support of the Christchurch Golf Club. Registrations
are open for Hole Sponsors and teams, email [email protected] for more details or check out www.nzbri.org/
Support/Upcoming-Events/ We’re always looking for people who can help us out with raffle and team prizes, so please
contact us if you are able to assist us.

This tournament is a great opportunity for businesses
to show their support of the NZBRI, they can treat their
staff or entertain clients at a professionally run event
that’s sure to please. There is plenty to play for, with
prizes from many generous Canterbury businesses.
A trophy is presented to the top team, best man and
woman player, kindly donated by Leading Label and the
Orr Family Trust.

Researcher Profile – Maddie Pascoe

I was born in Dunedin and raised in Christchurch, but have always had strong
connections with Dunedin as a lot of my family live there and I spent two
years studying there. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do when
I was in high school, but I enjoyed the sciences – particularly biology. I had
always been quite fascinated by the brain, although I hadn’t pin-pointed that
I wanted to work in this kind of area. I decided to do a Bachelor of Science,
majoring in Psychology and Biology which I started at Otago University and
transferred to Canterbury to finish.

Outside of work I like to play guitar, sew, and last year I picked up snowboarding
which has been a good challenge.

Currently I spend half my time working as part of the team conducting neuropsychological assessments for
the progression study of Parkinson’s which tracks changes in cognition over time. This involves meeting with
participants and taking them through various puzzles and activities, but also talking to them and seeing how
they’re doing.

The other half of my time I work on the imaging component of a longitudinal study following a cohort of children
born in New Zealand with very low birth weight, through to adulthood. We are using MRI to look at differences
in brain structure and function between young adults born with very low birthweight and healthy controls born
at term and how these differences may be related to perinatal factors and measures of cognition. Ultimately
we’d like to see what factors may provide the best predictors of future outcomes for those born with very low
birthweight.

Initially I came to the NZBRI as a summer student working on a project looking at eye movements during a
cognitive task in those with Parkinson’s. I’d applied for the summer studentship programme because it sounded
interesting and I thought some research experience would be very valuable, but was really surprised when the
BRI Research Director contacted me about working on the project.

I thoroughly enjoyed my summer working at the NZBRI, so when the project ended I asked if there was anything
else I might be able to work on. I ended up doing some work processing and analysing MRI and was later trained
up to do assessments with participants in the Parkinson’s study. I thoroughly enjoy my work as I get to learn
about the brain and its complex biology, but also spend time chatting to our participants about their lives and
getting to know the people behind the research.

I feel very fortunate to be working at the NZBRI. What I love about the environment here is the different
perspectives and knowledge that come together by having colleagues, both staff and students, with different
backgrounds, and also the strong connections that are formed with our participants

Welcome to two new Board members

The NZBRI Board is delighted to welcome two new members to the governance
team and we look forward to working with them to provide strategic leadership to
the Institute.

Virginia Spoors

Virginia Spoors has 25 years of experience within the health sector, in workforce
development, quality and leadership roles. For the past eight years she has lead a
not -for -profit service within the disability sector for people with high and complex
physical and neurological needs. This has included expansion of services in the
community for clients living with complex disabilities, a new 6 bed transitional
rehabilitation unit for clients with stroke, spinal or brain injury, and the development
of a new Rehabilitation and Therapy service for people with neurological conditions.

She has a proven track record in motivating teams to lead positive change and
building resilience in people so that they are empowered to create opportunities
that are mutually beneficial.

Richard Sudell

Richard moved to Christchurch in 2013 with his wife Anthea and 3 boys, Freddie,
William and Hugo. He provides commercial, capital works and transaction advisory
services to both public and private sector clients. He was a founding director of
Trinity MRI, a specialist neuro-MRI facility in Auckland and FoodCap International,
where he helped to commercialise the FoodCap System, a turn-key integrated
supply chain solution for the processing and distribution of retail ready meat. He
has worked with the Manukau Urban Maori Authority and was on the establishment
committee for the Hone Tuwhare Charitable Trust, a charity dedicated to the
preservation, promotion and celebration of the work of Hone Tuwhare. He looks
forward to working with NZBRI.

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