Dr Melanie Cheung, Research Fellow from Department of Anatomy and Centre for Brain Research was recently awarded Next Woman of the Year Award in Health and Science for her ground breaking neuroplasticity-based treatment for Huntington’s disease (called FightHD).
In partnership with neuroplasticity pioneer Dr Mike Merzenich, Melanie developed FightHD neuroplasticity-based training to address early cognitive changes in HD (attention, speed of processing, working memory, emotional recognition, decision making, switching, sequencing, impulse control, language, auditory perception, psychomotor control)
The early results show for the first time, that that 100h of FightHD neuroplasticity-based cognitive training is driving positive neurological changes in 8 major domains affected by HD (visual, sensorimotor, dorsal and ventral attention, limbic/amygdala, frontoparietal, default mode and basal ganglia) impairments in connectivity are shown in red in the figure below.
The regions highlighted in green are areas of significantly increased connectivity following FightHD neuroplasticity-based cognitive training in 7 presymptomatic HD (pre-HD) participants compared to 5 pre-HD’s that did active control training (Cheung et al., unpublished data).
Melanie would like to acknowledge her research team: Soweeta Fort-D’Ath, Jo Dysart, Dr Greg Finucane, Dr Mike Merzenich, Associate Prof Lynette Tippett, Dr Margaret Dudley, Prof Richard Faull, Dr Liz Tong, Dr Leo Sugrue, Noelani Kong-Johnson, Danielle Hays, Jess Gerbic, the research participants and their families, and her tikanga advisory group: Jaye Goldsmith, Hinetera Jones, Dr Waiora Port, Tengaruru Wineera, Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Huirangi Waikerepuru, Dr Hemi Whaanga, Hera Pierce and Ripeka Hollis-Walker. The research was funded by HRC and Fulbright New Zealand.
