CSRD Research Career Scientist Award Application

福特博士是神经科学和精神病学领域的资深研究员，拥有神经科学博士学位和终身医学博士学位。 精神健康/精神病学的预约。她使用脑电(EEG)和功能磁学 磁共振成像(FMRI)，研究精神分裂症(SZ)和严重抑郁障碍的神经生物学 (MDD)。现在，她在她的脑部成像研究中加入了柯萨奇病毒19个“长距离拖拉者” 方法：研究方法。 SZ.福特博士在深圳的工作集中在一种基本的神经系统上，这种神经系统可以抑制对自我的神经反应 产生的刺激与环境产生的刺激进行比较。它被认为反映了一个 传出复制/推论放电机制，涉及从运动到感觉区域的信号，准备 自我产生的感觉事件的感觉区域。这种机制在所有动物物种中普遍存在，并且 她将这一机制转化为人类范例的工作揭示了感官的根本缺陷 精神病患者的信息处理。在NIH R01的资助下，她表现出了不足 在这些机制中与幻听和妄想有关。以目前NIH R03的资金，她是 现在询问丘脑-桥脑-小脑回路在该系统成功运行中的作用。 福特博士的两名退伍军人训练生现在正在将这项工作扩展到一种新的精神病患者样本，他们的第一个 学位亲属、临床上有患精神病风险的年轻人，以及未受影响的对照组参与者。他们是 发现小脑和脑桥之间的连接与传出复制/推论的作用有关 放电机制。通过最近资助的NIH R03拨款，她询问是否对EEG进行了评估 知觉减慢对认知有上游影响，并与精神病的临床特征有关 精神分裂症谱系。在一项由退伍军人事务部精神病学家参与的机械性临床试验(NIH R21)中， 一位放射科医生和一位加州大学旧金山分校的心脏病专家，她正在询问生酮饮食是否能恢复神经网络 SZ的稳定性，从而解决与功能低下相关的认知缺陷和代谢综合征 和缩短的寿命。 MDD/SZ。大约4年前，她将MDD添加到她研究的临床人群中，并询问 沉思的负面后果，以及它们是否可以通过正念的生活方式来拯救。 沉思是一种内部认知状态，其特征是对自我苦恼和负面事件进行递归思考 专注于痛苦的原因和后果，而不是解决方案。它跨越了诊断界限： 在MDD和SZ中，它与症状严重程度和慢性化有关。正念与较少的 SZ患者出现幻听苦恼，MDD患者残留症状较少。它涉及到出席现在 瞬间体验和感觉以及允许情感和思想进入和离开意识 无需判断，从而避免陷入沉思的螺旋式下降。与简单的走神相比， 正念招募了一个注意力网络，包括顶叶和前额结构，而思维只会走神 招募默认模式网络。 Long-COVID19.她正在研究的最新人群是继COVID19之后的所谓“长途运输者” 感染。虽然肺部是归零地，但柯萨奇病毒19会撕裂从大脑到血管的器官系统。 一些康复的人抱怨持续存在的问题，包括挥之不去的认知问题、抑郁和 焦虑。福特博士与SFVAMC的实验室医学和放射学合作，利用心理学 测试，神经成像方法，以及血液中的标志物，信号在大脑中的损害。仔细看看这些 如果我们要了解“COVID脑”的病理生理学并准备应对，问题是及时和迫切的 下游问题。

Dr. Ford is an established investigator in neuroscience and psychiatry, with a PhD in neuroscience and life-long appointments in mental health/psychiatry. She uses electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to investigate the neurobiology of schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). And now, she is adding COVID19 “long haulers” to the conditions she studies with brain imaging methods. SZ. Dr. Ford’s work in SZ was focused on an elemental neural system that dampens neural responses to self- generated stimuli compared to stimuli arising from the environment. It is thought to reflect the operation of an efference copy/corollary discharge mechanism involving signaling from motor to sensory regions, preparing sensory regions for self-generated sensory events. This mechanism is ubiquitous across all animal species, and her work in translating this mechanism to a human paradigm has uncovered a fundamental deficit in sensory information processing in people on the psychosis spectrum. With NIH R01 funding, she has shown deficiencies in these mechanisms are linked to auditory hallucinations and delusions. With current NIH R03 funding, she is now asking about the role of the thalamo-pontine-cerebellar circuit in the successful operation of this system. Two of Dr. Ford’s VA trainees are now extending this work to a new sample of people with psychosis, their 1st degree relatives, youth at clinical risk for developing psychosis, and non-affected control participants. They are finding connectivity between cerebellum and pons is related to the action of the efference copy/corollary discharge mechanism. With a more recently funded NIH R03 grant, she is asking whether EEG-assessed slowed perception has upstream effects on cognition and contributes to clinical features of psychosis in the schizophrenia spectrum. With a to-be-funded mechanistic clinical trial (NIH R21) involving a VA psychiatrist, a VA radiologist, and a UCSF cardiologist, she is asking whether a ketogenic diet can restore neural network stability in SZ, thereby addressing both cognitive deficits and metabolic syndrome, associated with poor function and a shortened life span, respectively. MDD/SZ. About 4 years ago, she added MDD to the clinical populations she studies and is asking about the negative consequences of rumination and whether they can be rescued by a mindfulness approach to life. Rumination is an internal cognitive state characterized by recursive thinking of self-distress and negative events focusing on the causes and consequences of distress rather than solutions. It cuts across diagnostic boundaries: It is associated with symptom severity and chronicity in both MDD and SZ. Mindfulness is associated with less distress from auditory hallucinations in SZ and fewer residual symptoms in MDD. It involves attending to present moment experiences and sensations and allowing emotions and thoughts to enter and leave consciousness without judgment, thereby avoiding a downward spiral into rumination. Compared to simple mind wandering, mindfulness recruits an attention network including parietal and prefrontal structures while mind wandering only recruits the default mode network. Long-COVID19. The newest population she is studying is the so-called ‘long-haulers’ following COVID19 infection. While the lungs are ground zero, COVID19 tears through organ systems from brain to blood vessels. Some who recover complain of ongoing problems, including lingering cognitive problems, depression, and anxiety. Dr. Ford has joined forces with both Lab Medicine and Radiology at SFVAMC to use psychological testing, neuroimaging methods, and markers in the blood signaling damage in the brain. A close look at these problems is timely and imperative if we are to understand the pathophysiology of “COVID brain” and prepare for down-stream problems.