New Zealand Brain Research Institute

21/09/2025

September is Alzheimer's Awareness month and yesterday (21st) was World Alzheimer's Day!

Here are some tips from the Alzheimer's Association on how to keep your brain healthy.

It's never too late to start!

19/09/2025

Not too late to revise some roro (brain) related kupu (words) in acknowledgement of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week).

🌿 It's that time of year again! Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) kicks off today!
Aotearoa is celebrating 50 years of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - five decades of passionate advocacy, community action, and a growing movement to honour and uplift Te Reo Māori.
Want to learn more about the history of the movement and ways you can get involved? 👉 https://www.reomaori.co.nz

🧠 Check out our pānui whakaahua (poster) with lots of great kupu (words) related to te roro (brain) and aurora (health)! Perfect for your office, lab, or classroom!
📥 Download your own copy here: https://www.aotearoabrainproject.nz/tools-and-apps

18/09/2025

Basic is good, thanks for your thoughts on this Cliff.

Comment from the University of Otago: Both fundamental and 'blue skies' research is shrinking to unsustainable levels as funding focus shifts to economic impact instead, writes Professor Cliff Abrahams

09/09/2025

Our team presented 5 posters and gave 10 oral presentations at AWCBR 2025

And we even managed to secure a few prizes……

Ezra Muir – People’s choice chocolate fish for best poster ‘Flash Talk’
Ann Holden – Highly commended Student oral presentation
Dr Kyla Horne – Highly commended Early Career Researcher oral presentation (sponsored by Aotearoa Brain Project: ABP)
Dr Lee-Anne Morris – ABP Speaker Award – best Early Career Researcher oral presentation (sponsored by ABP)

Congratulations team!

Prizes were presented by AWCBR co-chairs Simon O'Carroll and Kyla Horne

05/09/2025

Our Spring 2025 Newsletter is out! You can read it at

In this edition, we’re excited to share highlights from our successful Music Meets Art fundraiser, held on July 26th at The Piano.

05/09/2025

Many of our Team have spent the week in attendance at the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). This year was the first time the conference has been held in Christchurch, taking advantage of our fabulous convention centre, Te Pae.

The Team presented both oral talks and posters.

It is always great to connect with our neuroscience colleagues from across New Zealand and further afield.

25/07/2025

Dr Lee-Anne Morris has secured postdoctoral funding from the Neurological Foundation of NZ. Congratulations Lee-Anne!

Congratulations to our second First Fellow, Dr Lee-Anne Morris, University of Otago, Christchurch. She’s investigating how common medications used in Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia affect motivation. Read more https://neurological.org.nz/research/funded-projects/

08/07/2025

On Saturday July the 26th join us for an evening of Pegasus Bay wine, delicious canapes, live music, fine art, friends and fundraising for neurological research in Canterbury.

A programme of opera and musical theatre performed Rachel Doig, Eleanor Sim, Georgia Catherine, Holly Evans and Ben Knight with Alison Holden on the piano.

A performance of jazz favourites by Jennine Bailey (vocals), Tom Rainey (piano) and Michael Story (double bass).

Award winning wines sponsored by Pegasus Bay Winery.

Selection of canapes served by Lizzie’s Cuisine.

Art Auction sponsored by Team Sutherland Todd from Harcourts Holmwood.

An opportunity to support the fundraising of the Friends of the New Zealand Brain Research.

To buy your tickets visit

Music Meets Art - annual fundraising concert to support neurological research in Canterbury

18/06/2025

A special shout out to our research volunteers - without you there would be no research. We truly appreciate your generosity.

09/06/2025

Happy to support the New Zealand DIAN contributions - fantastic work by Drs Campbell Le Heron and Nicky Slater.

23/05/2025

So proud of Lee-Anne and the Cognitive Disorders Team.

20/05/2025

We completely agree that there are serious risks associated with this activity and it should be stopped. As one example, in our NZPEGS research (https://www.nzbri.org/Labs/Parkinsons-Environment-and-Genetics-Study/) our preliminary results indicate that a larger number of people with Parkinson's have had head injuries compared to people without Parkinson's.

The collision sport involves a ball runner and a defender running full speed into each other within a 20 metre zone.