How can non-invasive neuroimaging be used to quantify the biological underpinnings of neuropsychiatric diseases? What is the role of loneliness and social isolation in serious mental illness?

To answer these questions, I use functional, structural, diffusion and quantitative susceptibility mapping MRI techniques, alongside questionnaires and peripheral biomarkers, to investigate the neurological correlates of serious mental illness and loneliness/social isolation.

My research has shown that advanced diffusion MRI techniques can quantify unique microstructural pathologies in Schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Psychotic Spectrum Disorders. Recently, we also found that elevated responses of the hippocampus to aversive social stimuli is associated with loneliness in psychotic disorders.

Additionally, I have been working on new measures to non-invasively quantify dopamine and iron via quantitative susceptibility mapping techniques and have found decreased subcortical iron relates to increased symptoms in Psychotic Spectrum Disorders.

My research has been published in Nature: Science Communications, Brain Imaging and Behavior, Molecular Psychiatry, Cortex, Cerebral Cortex and Schizophrenia Bulletin. It has also been featured in the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School News.