Donated brains from Scotland could shed light on feel-good molecule Florey institute researcher Dr Tim Aumann with a slice of brain tissue embedded in wax. The donated brains of deceased Scots are to be sliced and studied in Melbourne, as researchers investigate whether there is a link between levels of the feel-good molecule dopamine and exposure to light. The study, designed by researchers at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, could lead to new treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's disease in which dopamine levels are low. The head of the Florey's adult neurogenesis laboratory, Tim Aumann, said the pilot study could prove the hypothesis that patients who died in winter had fewer dopamine cells in the midbrain and hypothalamus regions, where dopamine is produced. Dopamine is a reward molecule that reinforces behaviour beneficial to the body. The research raises the potential of drug-free treatments for a range of conditions, including schizophrenia and drug addiction where high levels of dopamine are recorded. Conversely there could also be ramifications for conditions such as ADHD and depression in which dopamine levels are low and seasonal affective disorder, where dopamine levels fluctuate. The study follows animal trials that showed there was a "chemical switching" that occurs in cells in rodent brains when they are placed in different environments. But it needs to be established if this translates from rodents to humans. The brain samples were imported because researchers needed to study people who had lived at high latitude, where the winter days were short and summer days long. The 20 samples from the brain bank at Edinburgh University are evenly split between patients who died in summer and patients who died in winter. "We're looking for changes in the number of dopamine cells," Dr Aumann said. So we will cut up the brains of these people who have been exposed to these different environments and then look to see if the number of cells has changed. The golf ball-sized blocks of brain, embedded in paraffin wax to solidify the jelly-like texture of a brain, are taken from the midbrain region associated with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's affects about one in 350 Australians. There is no cure for the condition, which is characterised by movement problems that are a result of degenerating nerve cells, or neurons, which control muscle activity. According to Parkinson's Australia, the prevalence of the condition is increasing at between 2 and 3 per cent a year. With colleagues Henri Prijanto and Malcolm Horne, Dr Aumann is seeking to raise $20,000 via crowd funding site Pozible to conduct the research.