The Biological Psychiatry Podcast

Elvisha Dhamala
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The Biological Psychiatry Podcast is the official podcast of the Biological Psychiatry family of journals. Hosted by Social Media Editor Elvisha Dhamala, each episode features in-depth conversations with researchers about their latest work on psychiatric disorders, brain science, and mental health. The Biological Psychiatry journals advance scientific research and education in fields investigating the nature, causes, mechanisms, and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, and behavior. This podcast makes the research accessible to both scientists and non-scientists. From innovative findings in neuroimaging and genetics to clinical trials and translational research, we explore the discoveries, implications, and future directions shaping the field of biological psychiatry.

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    Air Pollution and Fear Learning in Adolescence

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Clara Zundel from the Wayne State University School of Medicine to discuss her recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. We know that air pollution is bad for our lungs, but what about our brains? Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions in adolescence, and they are closely tied to how the brain learns to associate cues with threat and safety. Yet whether the air we breathe might be disrupting those very processes has received surprisingly little attention. In this conversation, we explore how the team tested whether recent exposure to outdoor air pollution was associated with how adolescents acquire, extinguish, and recall fear. We also discuss what these findings suggest about how air pollution may alter the brain's ability to distinguish between threat and safety as well as why the team chose not to exclude participants with low skin conductance responsiveness and what that means for inclusivity in psychophysiology research. Paper: Outdoor Air Pollution Exposure Alters Fear Regulation and Fear-Related Neural Circuitry in Adolescence DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2026.100831 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  2. Oct 29

    Pubertal Timing and the Developing Brain

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Athanasia Metoki from the University of Pennsylvania to discuss her recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Adolescence is marked by profound biological transformation, and at the heart of it is puberty. The timing of puberty (i.e., whether a young person matures earlier or later than their peers) has been consistently linked to increased risk for depression, particularly in girls. This developmental period is also accompanied by substantial reorganization of functional brain networks. Yet how pubertal timing relates to those brain network changes, and whether those changes help explain the pathway to depression, has remained unclear. In this conversation, we explore how the team leveraged the large-scale Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study to conduct a whole-connectome analysis of pubertal timing, resting-state functional connectivity, and depressive symptoms. We also discuss what these findings tell us about puberty as a key window for brain development and emerging mental health risk. Paper: Functional brain network correlates of pubertal timing and depressive symptoms in preadolescence DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.08.007 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  3. Oct 22

    Cannabis Use and Psychosis Onset

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Matthew Large and Carly Stevens from the University of New South Wales to discuss their recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry. Cannabis is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances in the world, with roughly 200 million annual users globally. In recent decades, use has increased, potency has risen dramatically, and legal access has expanded. This raises urgent questions about potential psychiatric consequences, including the development of psychotic disorders. In this conversation, we explore how this team conducted an updated meta-analysis spanning 149 studies and more than 70,000 individuals to examine the association between cannabis use and age at onset of psychosis. They discuss their overall finding that cannabis use is associated with psychosis onset approximately 2.5 years earlier, but that this effect is not uniform across the lifespan. We also get into what these findings mean for public health messaging in an era of rapidly increasing cannabis use and potency. Paper: Cannabis Use and Age-Related Acceleration of Psychosis Onset: A Meta-Analysis DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.06.025 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  4. Oct 15

    Brain Aging and Cognitive Recovery in Late-Life Depression

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Katharine Dunlop from the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital to discuss her recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Depression in older adults doesn't just affect mood; it also often comes with significant cognitive difficulties that may not improve even when mood does. While repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, is emerging as a promising treatment for late-life depression that hasn't responded to medication, we lack reliable ways to predict who is most likely to benefit, particularly when it comes to cognitive outcomes. In this conversation, we explore how the team used brain charts to examine whether brain age can predict cognitive improvement following rTMS in older adults with depression. We also discuss what these findings mean for clinicians treating older adults with depression and how brain aging measures might eventually help personalize treatment decisions. Paper: Brain age is associated with cognitive improvement following repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in late-life depression DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.05.016 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  5. Sep 17

    Differential Effects of Psychotic Illness and Antipsychotics on the Brain

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Sidhant Chopra from Orygen and the University of Melbourne to discuss his recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry. When we see changes in the brain in someone with psychosis, is that the disease itself, or a side effect of the medications we're prescribing to treat it? This question has been surprisingly difficult to answer, because almost everyone who develops psychosis is immediately started on antipsychotic medication, making it nearly impossible to distinguish what the illness does to the brain from what the drugs do. In this conversation, we explore how the team addressed this question using a triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in people experiencing their very first episode of psychosis who had never taken antipsychotic medication. The conversation also dives into what these findings mean for how we think about the earliest brain changes in psychosis and the role of antipsychotic medication. Paper: Differential Effects of Illness and Antipsychotics on Cortical Thinning in First-Episode Psychosis: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.06.028 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  6. Sep 3

    Biological Fingerprints of Adversity

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Chase Antonacci from Stanford University to discuss his latest paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. What if the kind of stress a child experiences matters just as much as the amount? Emerging research suggests that early life adversity accelerates biological aging, but whether neglect and trauma have the same or different patterns of wear and tear has remained unclear. In this conversation, we talk about a longitudinal study that followed 225 children across four assessment waves over approximately six years, tracking a comprehensive battery of biological aging markers including cellular health indicators, brain aging, pubertal timing, and metabolic measures. We also discuss what these findings mean for the timing of clinical interventions and the promise and limitations of biological aging as a framework for understanding adversity's effects. Paper: Early Adversity Imprints Multisystem Biological Aging: A Longitudinal Study of Adversity Dimensions and Aging Phenotypes Across Adolescence DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2026.100782 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  7. Aug 20

    Trauma Exposure and the Visual Cortex

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Nathaniel Harnett from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School to discuss his recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. When we think about the neurobiology of PTSD, regions like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex typically come to mind. But an emerging body of research points to the visual cortex as potentially important for understanding trauma-related outcomes. A critical question, however, has remained unanswered: are changes in visual cortex structure a consequence of PTSD itself, or of trauma exposure more broadly? In this conversation, we explore how the team addressed this question by comparing cortical thickness of early visual areas in recently trauma-exposed individuals and controls across two independent samples. The conversation also looks at what these findings mean for understanding the earliest neurobiological impacts of trauma and identifying who may be most vulnerable to developing PTSD. Paper: Recent Trauma Exposure Is Associated With Greater Thickness of the Primary Visual Cortex: A Discovery and Replication Analysis DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.04.016 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  8. May 28

    White Matter Network Disruptions in Bipolar Disorder

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Leila Nabulsi from the University of Southern California to discuss her recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry. The brain doesn't work as a collection of isolated parts, it works as a network, with white matter pathways acting as the wires that connect regions into functional circuits. But understanding how those connections are altered in bipolar disorder has been difficult, largely because most studies have been too small or too variable in their methods to produce reliable answers. In this conversation, we explore how the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group tackled this challenge by pooling diffusion MRI data from 16 sites around the world to map structural brain network disruptions in bipolar disorder. We also discuss what these findings might mean for the everyday experiences of people living with bipolar disorder and where the field goes from here. Paper: Structural Brain Network Alterations in Relation to Treatment and Illness Severity in Bipolar Disorder DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.04.020 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  9. Apr 23

    Brain Development and Addictive Screen Use in Adolescents

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Omid Kardan from the University of Michigan to discuss his recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Screen time concerns are everywhere, but it's not just how much time young people spend on screens, it's how they use them. In this conversation, we explore whether differences in brain development during childhood can predict addictive patterns of screen use in early adolescence. Using data from the ABCD Study, the team found that delayed cortical maturation at ages 9-10 predicted addictive screen use two years later, with videogaming showing the strongest association. We discuss what cortical maturation means, why reward processing told a different story, and what these findings mean for parents, clinicians, and policymakers. Paper: The roles of delayed cortical maturation and lower anticipatory reward activation in predicting addictive screen use in youth DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.03.012 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  10. Apr 23

    Prenatal Income Instability and the Parental Brain

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Pilyoung Kim from the University of Denver to discuss their recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Pregnancy transforms the brain to prepare for parenthood, but what happens when financial instability disrupts that process? In this conversation, we explore how income losses during pregnancy dampen brain responses to infant cries in the postpartum period, while income gains strengthen neural bonding with one's own baby. We discuss what these findings mean for understanding the neurobiology of parenting, why income instability may matter more than poverty itself, and the implications for supporting families during this critical window. Paper: Income Instability During Pregnancy Prospectively Relates to Postpartum Brain Function for Parent–Infant Bonding DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.03.003 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  11. Apr 23

    Enriching Antipsychotic Clinical Trials with Speech Biomarkers

    In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Alex Cohen from Louisiana State University and Dr. Mark Opler from Clario to discuss their recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry. Psychiatric clinical trials have some of the highest failure rates in medicine. In this conversation, we explore how a simple, objective measure, the timing of a patient's speech, can be used to enrich clinical trial samples, nearly doubling drug-placebo effect sizes with half the sample. We discuss what speech latency reveals about schizophrenia symptoms, how this approach worked across 8 languages in a global Phase 3 trial, and what it means for the future of psychiatric drug development. Paper: A Single, Interpretable Vocal Biomarker for Enriching Antipsychotic Clinical Trials DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.11.025 Follow Biological Psychiatry: Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Instagram: @biologicalpsych LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

  • 11 Episodes

About

The Biological Psychiatry Podcast is the official podcast of the Biological Psychiatry family of journals. Hosted by Social Media Editor Elvisha Dhamala, each episode features in-depth conversations with researchers about their latest work on psychiatric disorders, brain science, and mental health. The Biological Psychiatry journals advance scientific research and education in fields investigating the nature, causes, mechanisms, and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, and behavior. This podcast makes the research accessible to both scientists and non-scientists. From innovative findings in neuroimaging and genetics to clinical trials and translational research, we explore the discoveries, implications, and future directions shaping the field of biological psychiatry.

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