Wellington - The Neurological Foundation has given more than 10% of its $750,000 funding round to attract back to New Zealand a gifted young scientist who is researching how cannabis-like compounds in human brains may affect the development of parkinson's disease.

Dr Peter Freestone has been granted $88,000 to return from a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship in Rome and study in the physiology department at Auckland University, said foundation executive director Max Ritchie, of Auckland.

Recent studies discovered that the brain produces its own "endocannabinoid" compounds resembling the action of the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

In many brain regions, these chemicals regulate the flow of information between brain cells, yet little is known about their function in the midbrain cells that die in patients developing parkinson's disease, known as dopaminergic neurons.

Dr Freestone will investigate how the endocannabinoids interact with those midbrain cells, and look at whether they may be useful in treating the disease.

Dr Ritchie said the range of people being funded by the foundation showed the "highly innovative thinking" that enabled New Zealand to remain at the leading edge of research into the understanding, prevention and treatment of neurological disorders.

"This innovation provides hope for the one in five New Zealanders who will be struck with a brain disorder in their lifetime," he said.

The grants included funding for four major projects:

? research focusing on the use of MRI to capture changes in the brain associated with anxiety in people with Parkinson's disease (Dr Toni Pitcher, Otago University, $179,899);

? exploration of the mechanisms of nerve cell death in Alzheimer's disease for clues to discovery of potential drug treatments (Dr Ji-Zhong Bai, Auckland University, $116,735)

? evaluation of the scope for brain areas involved with sight to adapt following injury to the optic nerve, and potential for new treatments (Dr Benjamin Thompson and Prof Helen Danesh-Meyer, Auckland University, $107,700);

? study of the process by which substances produced by frying or grilling certain foods at high temperatures are taken into cells relevant to alzheimers disease (Dr Shamim Shaikh, Auckland University, $95,710).

A grant of $57,000 will be made to Dr Clinton Turner, at Auckland Hospital for Specialist postgraduate training in neuropathology.