New Zealand Brain Research Institute

06/05/2026

A Promising New Approach for Functional Seizures: Just Breathe?

Living with functional seizures (FS) can be incredibly challenging, and because they can happen multiple times a day, they often have a disastrous impact on a person's ability to work or study.

If you aren't familiar, FS are episodes that look just like epileptic seizures, but instead of being caused by brain pathology, they are thought to be linked to psychological factors. Currently, the main treatment is psychotherapy. However, therapy can be expensive, hard to access, and unfortunately, the stigma around psychiatric diagnoses means many patients don't finish their treatment.

But there’s some hopeful news! We are involved in a large, international study called the BREATHS trial to test a brand-new, simple treatment.

Here is a quick breakdown of what the study is all about:

• The Hyperventilation Connection: Researchers noticed a pattern—in the minutes right before a functional seizure starts, many people experience a significant rise in their breathing rate (hyperventilation).

• The New Treatment: The trial is testing "Breathing Control Training" (BCT). This is a technique taught by a respiratory physiotherapist.

• How It Works: Patients learn how to do slow, calm, diaphragmatic breathing (breathing deeply from the belly and exhaling through the nose). They practice this while sitting, standing, and eventually during everyday activities.

• Why It Could Be a Game-Changer: Unlike months of psychological therapy, this breathing training only takes one 60-minute session and a 30-minute refresher a month later. It is highly cost-effective and focuses purely on physical breathing, which many patients find much more comfortable and acceptable.

An earlier, smaller pilot study showed that this breathing training safely reduced seizure frequency for many participants. Now, this new trial will involve 220 people to properly confirm if learning to control breathing can help bring functional seizures to a halt.

Science is always moving forward, and it's amazing to see researchers looking for accessible, stigma-free ways to help people get their lives back!

See a full description of this study at

Introduction Functional seizures (FS) are events that resemble epileptic seizures, but are not attributed to brain pathology and are instead thought to be due to psychological factors. A small, multisite, open-label, single-arm, pilot trial of a breathing intervention known as breathing control trai...

12/04/2026

It's been 209 years since the 'Essay on the Shaking Palsy' (now known as Parkinson's disease) was published by James Parkinson's.

Many advances have been made since then, but many challenges remain.

Our friends at the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society are acknowledging some of the key figures involved in advances to date.

Research is a team effort, and we are pleased to be part of the global efforts to solve some of the challenges that remain.

05/04/2026

Congratulations to Professor Tim Anderson for being named a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

This honour regcognises Prof. Anderson’s extensive research contributions in the clinical neurology field with a particular focus on movement disorders.

Prof. Anderson has led NZBRI’s Parkinson’s disease research programme over many years, mentoring numerous postgraduate and early career researchers in the clinical nuances of this complex neurodegenerative disorder.

https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/latest-cohort-of-nga-ahurei-fellows-announced

02/04/2026

April is Parkinson's awareness month, a time to reflect on the disorder that affects ~14,000 New Zealanders and is central to many of our research activities.

We are please to see that the Christchurch City Council is again taking part in the 'Spark the Night' campaign where, on April 11th, landmarks and buildings around the world are illuminated with blue light in solidarity with those affected by Parkinson's. Check the link below for locations across New Zealand.

https://www.parkinsons.org.nz/events/spark-the-night-campaign

30/03/2026

We know that the food we eat is important for many aspects of our health and brain health is no different. These are some foods that help maintain brain health at all ages and stages.

25/03/2026

A core strength of NZP3 is the early adoption of advanced neuroimaging techniques. We began by using MRI to characterize structural and functional changes linked to Parkinson’s cognitive decline, eventually utilizing longitudinal tracking to monitor these changes over time. As New Zealand’s PET research pioneers, we expanded our scope to investigate brain metabolism and protein accumulation. Today, we integrate MRI, PET, and EEG data into sophisticated models to predict cognitive health. As a leader in Parkinson’s neuroimaging, NZP3 advances our understanding of cognitive brain changes and plays a key role in international groups, specifically the ENIGMA-PD consortium.

17/03/2026

Did you know..........That NZ Parkinson's Disease Progression Programme (NZP3) is NZBRI Flagship Project! NZP3 is a longitudinal (18-years) convenience cohort recruited from local neurology outpatient clinics in Christchurch. Within NZP3, participants are followed at regular intervals (~2-yearly) with comprehensive neuropsychological testing, movement assessment, symptomatic questionnaires covering a range of non-motor symptoms with a focus on neuropsychiatric symptoms, and brain imaging. The assessments include input from significant others. Since inception, we have collected data from 489 people with Parkinson’s and 108 control participants. Check out our website for more information!

09/03/2026

Kia ora!
I am Julie Vidal, a brand-new postdoctoral student from France! I obtained a grant 6 months ago from France Recherche Alzheimer to create a collaboration between France and New Zealand, under the supervision of John Dalrymple Alford at the NZBRI, so here I am!
My background is primarily focused on biology. I have a PhD in Neuropsychological and clinical neuroscience from Toulouse, but I am actually not so secretly passionate about neuroimaging, statistical processing and I love coding. So, during my PhD I followed different additional classes on this matter and even had the opportunity to leave for several months for Boston in USA and to develop my own preprocessing MRI software. Then I came back home and applied this knowledge on my real PhD focus: thalamic stroke!
My PhD focused on the thalamus, first aiming to segment its subnuclei on clinical routine MRI, and second, to identify the consequences of their impairments after a stroke and highlight their actual cognitive function. I also tried to understand why some thalamic stroke patients can have huge deficits such as amnesia, visual cecity, aphasia, while some others didn't even notice they previously had a thalamic stroke. Spoiler alert! The location of this stroke inside the thalamus matters a lot but tracts too! Finally, I studied the interthalamic adhesion, a mysterious small structure connecting both thalami but only in 80% of the population, mostly women. I developed an MRI protocol to identify it and tried to understand its possible function in cognition: there are no brain structures for decorative purposes! I also created an international thalamic subgroup (TANGO IA) for its study and I actively train different international groups to locate and characterize it.
Then the post-doctoral time came. I met John during my PhD in a congress in Spain and fell in love with the mountains in the background of his presentation on the... thalamus! So we decided to apply for different grants together, and obtained this grant, allowing me to come to Aotearoa! I have been hired to apply my knowledge on the thalamus in the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's field on local data but also on data acquired in France. I will then work part time here, part time back in France for still one year and a half.
I arrived 4 months ago and I already learnt a lot on those pathologies. I am currently wrapping up a paper on amyloid-PET and Alzheimer's disease through the lens of the thalamus. That's fascinating and I have still so much to learn: how could amyloid biomarker be the most relevant biomarker to study AD while it is also highly present in cognitively normal subjects? I also already had the opportunity to meet our colleagues from Auckland, including Reece Roberts, Ian Kirk, Santiago Mezzano, Catherine Morgan, and almost Lynette Tippett, with an open-minded workshop on neural dynamics from Mac Shine. I am now learning to process diffusion imaging with Santiago and I am very happy to add this new tool to my toolbox.
In the next few months, I aim to finish this first paper and then acquire all my datasets to compare thalamic involvement in both AD and PD. I also have a poster accepted to the OHBM congress in Bordeaux in June, a good occasion to go back in France! But I'll come back!
I am very grateful to be here, work with wonderful colleagues, explore your beautiful country in a van and learn so much from you.

02/03/2026

Kia ora, I’m Briar McKenzie, a dietitian and visiting research fellow at NZBRI. My research focuses on how diet influences brain health — both in reducing disease risk and in supporting quality of life for people living with neurological conditions.
Originally from Ōtautahi Christchurch, I recently returned from Sydney, where I am a Senior Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. My PhD (awarded in 2022) examined s*x and gender considerations in the relationship between diet and cardiometabolic disease, highlighting important implications for food policy. Part of this work explored how diet relates to dementia risk, which led to my postdoctoral fellowship, funded by the National Heart Foundation of Australia, investigating links between diet and vascular brain health.
Alongside my work in diet and brain health, I also contribute to and lead research on food policy and non-communicable disease policy impact evaluation in the Pacific region — two areas that I am currently working to bring together!
During my time at NZBRI, I am examining diet quality within the New Zealand Parkinson’s environment and genes study (NZPEGS), looking at what people are eating, what this means for overall health and wellbeing, and how dietary patterns relate to the specific nutritional needs of people living with Parkinson’s disease. I look forward to sharing findings soon.
Although my time at NZBRI is brief, I’m thoroughly enjoying meeting and learning from the team, and I’m very grateful to all NZPEGS participants and the investigator team for the opportunity to work with these valuable data.

21/12/2025

Earlier this month we celebrated the near 40 year career of Prof. Richard Jones.

Richard's research was in the field of biomedical and neural engineering. Richard was champion of collaboration, holding roles across NZBRI, University of Otago, University of Canterbury, and Te Whatu Ora, bringing together the expertise needed to get the project done.

Enjoy the quieter days, Richard!