Effortless Assessment Research System (TIGER EARS)

MR imaging is currently not an accessible technology but smartphones are. EARS is a pioneering smartphone app that leverages data collected seamlessly from naturalistic phone usage (including social media use, keyboard content, and geolocation) in order to infer cognitive and affective states relevant for depression risk. The goal of TIGER EARS is to integrate digital phenotypes with neurobiological phenotypes in order to move toward scalable biomarkers of depression. TIGER EARS is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Nicholas Allen at the University of Oregon and founder of Ksana Health.

Neural correlates of depression-related smartphone language use in adolescents

Barriers to Being on Antidepressants (BOBA) and Beliefs on Behaviors and Access to Social Media (BOBAS)

The BOBA study comprises of focus groups and youth advisory boards to help researchers learn about the barriers that individuals who are historically underrepresented in biomedical research face with respect to participating in research studies.

We are also actively recruiting for BOBAS, which focuses on how best to conduct studies focused on the role of social media and social behaviors in depression from youth with lived experience. Please contact Cheryl Sun at cherylsun@psych.ucla.edu if you are interested in participating in BOBA/BOBAS!

Stress, Emotion, Endocrine, and Neurodevelopment (SEEN)

The broad goal of SEEN is to elucidate the multifaceted roles of puberty on susceptibility to stress, mood dynamics, and longer term neurodevelopment. We are currently examining the effects of life stress, pubertal stage, and hormones on brain circuitry in a longitudinal study of typically developing youth in collaboration with Dr. Ian Gotlib at Stanford University. We are also currently examining the relative utility of pubertal indices in explaining neurophenotypes and risk for depression in the NIH-funded ABCD longitudinal study of over 11,000 youth using machine learning predictive analytics. We plan on extending this work with dense-sampling studies.

Women’s Affect, Variability, Endocrinology, and Stress (WAVES)

WAVES is a dense-sampling project led by graduate student, Melanie Dratva, that focuses on the role of ovarian hormones dynamics on brain-derived neurotropic factors and mood health in typically cycling women. Please contact Melanie Dratva at madratva@g.ucla.edu if you are interested in participating in this study!

Multimodal Assessment of Inhibitory Control in High Risk Adolescents (MICA)[Data Analysis Stage]

Daughters of depressed mothers are at higher-risk for developing major depressive disorder by early adulthood. To develop more targeted early identification and prevention efforts for this HR population, it is essential to clarify risk factors associated with this illness early in development. It is not yet clear whether inhibitory control across multiple levels of assessment (report, behavioral performance, neuroimaging task activation, and functional connectivity) is a relevant risk factor for depression, evident in those at high-risk before first onset. This project, in its data analysis stages, is examining the dimensionality and construct utility of inhibitory control in mother-daughter dyads, whether inhibitory control is concordant between mothers and daughters, and how childhood adversity and inhibitory control contribute to onset of mood symptoms over 18-month follow-ups.

If you are interested in contributing to the data analysis stages of this project, please contact Dr. Katie Bessette at katiebessette@g.ucla.edu.