# CSRD Research Career Scientist Award Application

> **NIH VA IK6** · VETERANS AFFAIRS MED CTR SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · —

## Abstract

Dr. Ford is an established investigator in neuroscience and psychiatry, with a PhD in neuroscience and life-long
appointments in mental health/psychiatry. She uses electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), to investigate the neurobiology of schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder
(MDD). And now, she is adding COVID19 “long haulers” to the conditions she studies with brain imaging
methods.
SZ. Dr. Ford’s work in SZ was focused on an elemental neural system that dampens neural responses to self-
generated stimuli compared to stimuli arising from the environment. It is thought to reflect the operation of an
efference copy/corollary discharge mechanism involving signaling from motor to sensory regions, preparing
sensory regions for self-generated sensory events. This mechanism is ubiquitous across all animal species, and
her work in translating this mechanism to a human paradigm has uncovered a fundamental deficit in sensory
information processing in people on the psychosis spectrum. With NIH R01 funding, she has shown deficiencies
in these mechanisms are linked to auditory hallucinations and delusions. With current NIH R03 funding, she is
now asking about the role of the thalamo-pontine-cerebellar circuit in the successful operation of this system.
Two of Dr. Ford’s VA trainees are now extending this work to a new sample of people with psychosis, their 1st
degree relatives, youth at clinical risk for developing psychosis, and non-affected control participants. They are
finding connectivity between cerebellum and pons is related to the action of the efference copy/corollary
discharge mechanism. With a more recently funded NIH R03 grant, she is asking whether EEG-assessed
slowed perception has upstream effects on cognition and contributes to clinical features of psychosis in the
schizophrenia spectrum. With a to-be-funded mechanistic clinical trial (NIH R21) involving a VA psychiatrist, a
VA radiologist, and a UCSF cardiologist, she is asking whether a ketogenic diet can restore neural network
stability in SZ, thereby addressing both cognitive deficits and metabolic syndrome, associated with poor function
and a shortened life span, respectively.
MDD/SZ. About 4 years ago, she added MDD to the clinical populations she studies and is asking about the
negative consequences of rumination and whether they can be rescued by a mindfulness approach to life.
Rumination is an internal cognitive state characterized by recursive thinking of self-distress and negative events
focusing on the causes and consequences of distress rather than solutions. It cuts across diagnostic boundaries:
It is associated with symptom severity and chronicity in both MDD and SZ. Mindfulness is associated with less
distress from auditory hallucinations in SZ and fewer residual symptoms in MDD. It involves attending to present
moment experiences and sensations and allowing emotions and thoughts to enter and leave consciousness
without judgme...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10486313
- **Project number:** 1IK6CX002519-01
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS AFFAIRS MED CTR SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Judith M Ford
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-04-01 → 2029-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10486313

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10486313, CSRD Research Career Scientist Award Application (1IK6CX002519-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10486313. Licensed CC0.

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