Our Research

Across the U.S. including Southern California, youth’s rates of mood and anxiety disorders increase significantly from childhood through adolescence. We are interested in how and why this happens. In early 2026, our research team is launching data collection at USC to investigate brain and behavioral mechanisms that we think will help predict the future emergence and course of emotional symptoms in early adolescence. Our focus is on symptoms of anxiety, irritability, and depression, and the ways in which youth process process rewarding (positive) and threatening (negative) stimuli and experiences in their environments. This project utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). This work is supported by MESO Lab startup funds from USC, and will generate data and findings for external grant applications. Long term, our goal is to leverage insight about symptom prediction to target early interventions tailored to youth and families.

Every year, about 1 in 5 U.S. teens will experience an episode of major depressive disorder (MDD). MDD is a heterogeneous diagnosis, meaning that its symptoms can vary from person-to-person (e.g., sad mood, irritability, loss of enjoyment in usual activities). In connection with the NIMH Intramural Research Program, we are working to parse this heterogeneity to help uncover mechanisms of specific symptoms in adolescent depression. Our team is analyzing multi-modal data from an NIMH-based sample of adolescents with depression that includes fMRI, EMA, lab tasks, and longitudinal and outpatient treatment course. Currently, our research questions focus on: (1) reward and interpersonal mechanisms that we think may distinctly drive irritability and anhedonia in MDD; and (2) dynamics among mood and anxiety symptoms that may help predict longitudinal and treatment outcomes. The long-term aim of this work is to develop improved, tailored treatments for adolescents with depression.

In the spirit of ‘team science’, we work together with other research labs to examine data from long-running, longitudinal cohorts of young people, some of whom are at elevated risk for emotional disorders. First, we collaborate with Dr. Ian Gotlib (Stanford University) and colleagues on studies investigating early-life stress, youth’s psychobiological functioning through the pubertal transition, and the emergence of emotional disorder symptoms through adolescence and young adulthood. Dr. Gotlib’s parent project is funded by the NIH (MH101495). Second, we collaborate with Dr. Giovanni Salum (Child Mind Institute) and colleagues to examine rich multi-modal data from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort Study for Mental Conditions (BHRC). The BHRC is funded through multiple sources. Our lab’s interests include tracing youth’s symptom course across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood in relation to biological and environmental predictors and outcomes.