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
- Carrión, RE, John, M, Dorvil, S, Auther, A, McLaughlin, D, Arnovitz, M et al.. Exploring the pathways between early auditory processing, processing speed, social cognition, and negative symptoms on social functioning in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: A structural equation modeling approach. Biol Psychiatry. 2025; :. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.06.033. PubMed PMID:40633882 .
- Yassin, W, Green, JB, Keshavan, M, Del Re, EC, Addington, J, Bearden, CE et al.. Cognitive subtypes in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025; :. doi: 10.1111/pcn.13861. PubMed PMID:40600477 .
- De la Hoz, JF, Arias, A, Service, SK, Castaño, M, Díaz-Zuluaga, AM, Song, J et al.. Characterisation of serious mental illness trajectories through transdiagnostic clinical features. Br J Psychiatry. 2025; :1-8. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2025.107. PubMed PMID:40545571 .
- Boen, R, Villalón-Reina, JE, Kushan, L, O'Hora, KP, Fung, H, Parker, N et al.. Gene dosage effects of 22q11.2 copy number variants on in-vivo measures of white matter axonal density and dispersion. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.05.29.656839. PubMed PMID:40501680 PubMed Central PMC12154836.
- Nerland, S, Barth, C, Jørgensen, KN, Wortinger, LA, Castro-Fornieles, J, Díaz-Caneja, CM et al.. Cerebral cortical alterations in adolescent early-onset psychosis: a surface-based morphometry mega-analysis. medRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.05.24.25328176. PubMed PMID:40492081 PubMed Central PMC12148263.