Researchers will study headbutting rams to learn how repeated head blows cause brain injury in sportspeople and family violence victims.
The research could help identify what makes head blows lead to long-term brain conditions for some people while others remain healthy.
Dr Helen Murray from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research received NZ$283,000 from the inaugural Dame Rosie Horton Fellowship for the project.
The researcher said: “We needed a proper model of repeated head injuries, then I met a ram breeder at the national Fieldays in June and she told me how frequently rams headbutt each other.
“No one has ever done this type of research before, so it is a very blue-sky idea, but sheep have a lot of promise as a model of repeated head injury.”
Repeated blows to the head, often experienced by rugby players, boxers, family violence victims and military personnel, increase risks of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and frontotemporal dementia.
CTE is a progressive brain condition caused by repeated head trauma.
Murray said: “New Zealanders have such a passion for contact sports, so a lot of people in the country are experiencing repetitive head impacts.
“It is something that affects pretty much anyone who plays a contact sport.
“By looking at what is going on in the brain, we want to be able to figure out who is most at risk.”
The research expands Murray’s four-year study using human brain tissue donated to the Neurological Foundation New Zealand Human Brain Bank and international brain banks.
Earlier this year, Murray and PhD student Chelsie Osterman examined tissue from brains donated by former rugby players and other sportspeople.
They found a unique signature of inflammatory markers in the brains of people with CTE.
Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after death, but the insights bring researchers closer to detecting it in living patients.
Murray said: “Once we can identify the signature of degenerative brain disease in people who have these repeated head knocks, we can develop blood tests and brain scans to diagnose it as early as possible.
“That would allow people to take steps to prevent damage getting worse and helps pave the way to developing treatments.”
