Research
Neurogenetic disorders; neurobehavioral biomarkers of serious mental illness
Appointments
- Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Brain Research Institute
- Integrative Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
- Director, Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States (CAPPS)
Biography
Her research aims to understand genetic and neurobiological risk factors for the development of early-onset neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Bearden’s work examines these questions through two complementary lines of research:
1) The investigation of early biomarkers that predict disease risk and trajectory in at-risk populations; and
2) Translational approaches to understanding disrupted brain circuitry in highly penetrant genetic subtypes (e.g, 22q11.2 microdeletions)
Publications
- Bai, Y, Vandekar, S, Feola, B, Addington, J, Bearden, CE, Cadenhead, K et al.. Longitudinal Relationships Between Cannabis and Tobacco Use and Symptom Severity in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis. medRxiv. 2026; :. doi: 10.64898/2026.03.16.26347411. PubMed PMID:41929302 PubMed Central PMC13042115.
- Peck, FC, Walsh, CR, Truong, H, Pochon, JF, Enriquez, KD, Bearden, CE et al.. Spectral and non-spectral EEG measures in the prediction of working memory task performance and psychopathology. bioRxiv. 2026; :. doi: 10.64898/2026.03.25.714248. PubMed PMID:41929093 PubMed Central PMC13042055.
- Ku, BS, Arrant, EJ, Addington, J, Bearden, CE, Cadenhead, KS, Cannon, TD et al.. Neighborhood social fragmentation and cerebello-thalamo-cortical connectivity in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis and healthy comparisons. Brain Environ. 2026;5 :. doi: 10.1016/j.braen.2026.100016. PubMed PMID:41907310 PubMed Central PMC13030900.
- Nair, A, Jalal, R, Lawrence, KE, Verma, N, Gutierrez, H, Laulette, K et al.. Triple-Network Functional Connectivity in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared to Early-Onset Psychosis. Autism Res. 2026; :. doi: 10.1002/aur.70163. PubMed PMID:41902610 .
- Lin, JR, Miller, D, Luong, D, Nelson, T, Crowley, TB, Tran, OT et al.. Deletion size and background genetic variation shape congenital heart disease phenotypes in 3,016 individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. medRxiv. 2026; :. doi: 10.64898/2026.02.23.26346918. PubMed PMID:41891037 PubMed Central PMC13015682.