Tiffany Ho, PhD
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

tiffany.ho@ucsf.edu

Dr. Ho is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in non-invasive MR imaging and training in affective science and developmental psychology. Dr. Ho's research program focuses on how stress-related changes in key neural circuits during sensitive periods of development contribute to depression risk and other related conditions.

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The primary goal of Dr. Ho's research program is to inform the development and refinement of interventions aimed at treating or preventing depression in adolescents, including identifying who may achieve the most gains from existing treatments based on their psychobiological profiles.

Current projects in the lab include:

(1) Characterizing the biobehavioral mechanisms by which experiences of early adversity and perceptions of stress influence brain phenotypes and neurodevelopmental trajectories in adolescents

(2) Understanding the confluence of inflammation and glutamate on neural circuitry, symptom progression, and treatment response in depressed adolescents

(3) Elucidating the roles of pubertal hormones on susceptibility to stress, mood dynamics, and longer term neurodevelopment

(4) Identifying multi-level predictors of depression and suicidal thoughts and predictors in adolescents using machine learning analytics

(5) Generating neuroscientifically validated digital phenotypes of mood (i.e., scalable biomarkers) in collaboration with Dr. Nicholas Allen at the University of Oregon / Ksana Health (6) Conducting harmonized meta-analytic investigations on the effects of stress and depression on brain morphometry in collaboration with ENIGMA

Education & Training

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  • Instructor Psychiatry Stanford University 09/2019
  • Postdoctoral Training Psychology Stanford University 07/2018
  • Postdoctoral Training Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University of California, San Francisco 12/2015
  • Ph.D. Cognitive Neuroscience University of California, San Diego 08/2012
  • B.A. Cognitive Science University of California, Berkeley 05/2006

Websites

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Grants and Projects

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Publications (116)

Top publication keywords:
Gray MatterGyrus CinguliPubertyWhite MatterSuicidal IdeationAdolescentNerve NetGonadal HormonesNucleus AccumbensAmygdalaLimbic SystemDepressive Disorder, MajorDepressionCorpus StriatumSuicide

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