For someone living with Parkinson’s disease, everyday tasks like buttoning a shirt, shaving or tying shoelaces is often time consuming and frustrating. It can impact on the individual, as well as relationships with family, friends and carers. It is thought to affect more than four million people world-wide, and between 50,000 and 100,000 in Australia alone.

Associate Professor Ulrich Schall and his team from the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre for Brain and Mental Health are studying adults who have had a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease by looking into the role that dopamine plays in how they process sounds, both passively and while paying attention to those sounds.

In collaboration with the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s (HMRI) Brain and Mental Health Research Program, the researchers aim to develop a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease, potentially paving the way for the development of better, more targeted medications.

"Dopamine is a chemical messenger in the brain necessary for smoothly controlling bodily movements. People with Parkinson’s disease have too little dopamine, so medications are designed to stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain," said Professor Schall.

Dopamine also regulates how people respond to sudden, unexpected noises, but too much dopamine can cause people to hear things no one else can hear. When treated with medication to increase dopamine in the brain, Parkinson's patients sometimes show signs of psychosis.

"We are trying to determine why the brain fails to control the involuntary aspects of their condition by examining how people with Parkinson’s disease process sounds," Professor Schall said.

The illness progresses at a very slow rate and while longevity of life is not shortened, many treatments that alleviate symptoms do not halt or slow the progression of the illness.

According to Professor Schall, if the symptoms of Parkinson’s were better managed, people with the condition could experience improved quality of life.

"To continue this research we need to find adults with the condition who are willing to participate in our study," said Professor Schall.

Adults with Parkinson’s disease are invited to participate in three testing sessions: an interview and hearing threshold assessment; an EEG session which non-invasively records brain electrical activity; and a brain-imaging session in an MRI scanner.

If you would like more information about participating in this study, please call Vanessa Case, HMRI Research Nurse, on 4924 6603. People without Parkinson’s disease are also invited to participate in the study as healthy controls through the HMRI Research Register. For further information, please call the Register Co-ordinator, Trisha D’Accione, on 4985 5333.

The study is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.