CSRD Research Career Scientist Award Application

福特博士是神经科学和精神病学的资深研究员，拥有神经科学博士学位， 心理健康/精神病学的预约。她用脑电图和功能磁共振成像 磁共振成像（fMRI），探讨精神分裂症（SZ）和抑郁症的神经生物学 （MDD）。现在，她正在将COVID 19“长途运输者”添加到她用大脑成像研究的条件中 方法. SZ.福特博士在深圳的工作集中在一个基本的神经系统，抑制神经反应的自我- 与环境产生的刺激相比，产生的刺激。它被认为反映了一个 传出复制/必然放电机制，涉及从运动区到感觉区的信号传导，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都普遍存在， 她将这种机制转化为人类范式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 R 01的资助下，她表现出了 与幻听和妄想有关在目前的NIH R 03资助下，她是 现在询问丘脑-脑桥-小脑回路在这个系统成功运作中的作用。 福特博士的两名退伍军人事务部学员现在正在将这项工作扩展到一个新的精神病患者样本，这是他们的第一个 一级亲属、有临床精神病风险的青年和未受影响的对照参与者。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 放电机制随着最近资助的NIH R 03拨款，她问脑电图评估是否 感知减慢对认知有上游影响，并有助于精神病的临床特征， 精神分裂症谱通过一项即将资助的机械临床试验（NIH R21），涉及退伍军人管理局精神科医生、一名 她是VA放射科医生和UCSF心脏病专家，她询问生酮饮食是否可以恢复神经网络 SZ的稳定性，从而解决与功能不良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 反刍的负面后果，以及它们是否可以通过正念生活方式来拯救。 反刍是一种以自我苦恼和消极事件的递归思维为特征的内部认知状态 专注于痛苦的原因和后果，而不是解决方案。它跨越了诊断的界限： 它与MDD和SZ的症状严重程度和慢性化相关。正念与更少的 SZ患者幻听痛苦，MDD患者残留症状较少。它涉及到出席目前 允许情绪和思想进入和离开意识 不加评判，从而避免陷入沉思的恶性循环。与简单的走神相比， 正念招募了一个包括顶叶和前额叶结构的注意力网络， 招募默认模式网络。 长COVID 19.她正在研究的最新人群是COVID 19之后所谓的“长途运输者” 感染虽然肺部是归零地，但COVID 19通过器官系统从大脑到血管撕裂。 一些康复者抱怨持续存在的问题，包括挥之不去的认知问题，抑郁症， 焦虑福特博士与SFVAMC的实验室医学和放射学合作， 测试，神经成像方法，以及血液中的标志物，大脑中的信号损伤。仔细看看这些 如果我们要了解“COVID大脑”的病理生理学，并为 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.