Bradley Peterson, MD

Bradley S. Peterson, MD, is the inaugural director of the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), as well as Vice Chair for Research and Chief of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine and the University of Southern California. He joined CHLA and USC in July 2014 after 13 years at Columbia University, where he served as the director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry, the founding director of the MRI Research Program, and the Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Before that, he spent 12 years at Yale University, where he served as Director of Neuroimaging at the Yale Child Study Center.

His research involves the development and use of neuroimaging technologies to identify the brain bases of psychiatric disorders and the mechanisms of therapeutic response across the life span. Specific disease processes that he studies include Autism, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia, eating disorders, stuttering, premature birth, and the effects of environmental toxins on brain development.

Dr. Peterson earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1987. He then completed a residency in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1990, a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral research fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center in 1992, and a clinical fellowship in child psychiatry at Yale University in 1994. He also trained in adult and child psychoanalysis at Yale and Columbia from 1996-2008.

• Keck School of Medicine, USC: Dean’s Teaching Award, 2017
• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: Outstanding Mentor, 2014
• New York Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell Universities: Excellence in Teaching, 2012
• American Psychiatric Association: Blanche Ittleson Award for Research in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012
• Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research: John J. Weber Prize for Outstanding Research, 2007
• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: Outstanding Mentor, 2006
• 2002
   -: Best Doctors in America, 2002
   – 2015
• Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society, 1986

• Tell It About Your Mother (06/28/2015)
• Air Pollution Takes Early Toll on Children (04/02/2015)
• Inaugural Director of Institute for the Developing Mind Named at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (4/30/2014)

• Developmental Differences in White Matter Microarchitecture in Youth with ADHD: Longitudinal Findings from the ABCD Study. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2026 Jul 15.. View in PubMed
• A Pragmatic SMART Study of Medication and CBT Sequencing in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Am J Psychiatry. 2026 Jun 24.. View in PubMed
• ADHD medications and preadolescent brain structure: patterns of cortical attenuation from the ABCD study. Sci Rep. 2026 Jun 12.. View in PubMed
• Adult Misuse of ADHD Stimulant Medication in the United States: A Rapid Review. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2026 Jun 04.. View in PubMed
• Early-Life Cumulative Intake of Ultra-Processed Foods and Subcortical Brain Volume at Age Six Years: A Prospective Cohort Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2026 Jun 02; 101350.. View in PubMed
• Effects of antidepressant medications on brain tissue microstructure in persistent depressive disorder across two randomized controlled trials. Neuroimage Clin. 2026; 50:104013.. View in PubMed
• Neonatal Cerebrovascular Stability Index and Oxygenation With 3-Month Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. JACC Adv. 2026 May; 5(5):102761.. View in PubMed
• Impact of maternal opioid use during pregnancy on offspring brain structure and function: a systematic review of magnetic resonance imaging studies. J Clin Neurosci. 2026 Jul; 149:112020.. View in PubMed
• Development and evaluation of an automated phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging algorithm for pediatric and adult cerebral blood flow measurement. Neuroradiology. 2026 Mar 27.. View in PubMed
• Associations of prenatal fine particulate matter mixtures with neurodevelopmental outcomes in early childhood: component- and source-specific insights. Part Fibre Toxicol. 2026 Mar 01; 23(1).. View in PubMed
• Developmental Differences in White Matter Microarchitecture in Youth with ADHD: Longitudinal Findings from the ABCD Study. bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 21.. View in PubMed
• Maternal and Childhood Weight and Brain Structure in Children: Separate and Combined Associations in a Cross-Sectional Study. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2026 Mar; 34(3):699-709.. View in PubMed
• Comparing Computerized Adaptive Testing-Mental Health (CAT-MH) and Behavioral Health Measure-20 (BHM-20) screening measures in college mental health. J Am Coll Health. 2026 07; 74(6):1745-1751.. View in PubMed
• Only One Percent of Important Shark and Ray Areas in the Western Indian Ocean Are Fully Protected From Fishing Pressure. Ecol Evol. 2026 Jan; 16(1):e72690.. View in PubMed
• ADHD Medications and Preadolescent Brain Structure: Patterns of Cortical Attenuation from the ABCD Study. bioRxiv. 2025 Nov 14.. View in PubMed
• Associations of Prenatal Social Support in Adolescent Mothers With Measures of Social-Emotional Development in Their Young Children. Brain Behav. 2025 Nov; 15(11):e71059.. View in PubMed
• Biophysically constrained dynamical modelling of the brain using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging. Brain Res Bull. 2025 Oct 15; 231:111541.. View in PubMed
• Association of 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure During Pregnancy in Adolescents and Young Adults With Measures of Fetal Autonomic Nervous System Development. Dev Psychobiol. 2025 09; 67(5):e70085.. View in PubMed
• Brain Abnormalities in Children Exposed Prenatally to the Pesticide Chlorpyrifos. JAMA Neurol. 2025 Aug 18.. View in PubMed
• Neonatal and 3-month cerebrovascular oxygenation, stability, and extraction in congenital heart disease versus control infants. J Clin Transl Sci. 2025; 9(1):e175.. View in PubMed
• Imputation models and error analysis for phase contrast MR cerebral blood flow measurements in heterogeneous pediatric and adult populations. Front Physiol. 2025; 16:1527093.. View in PubMed
• Author Correction: The potential role of early life feeding patterns in shaping the infant fecal metabolome: implications for neurodevelopmental outcomes. NPJ Metab Health Dis. 2025 Jun 06; 3(1):23.. View in PubMed
• Association of preoperative cerebral oxygenation with concurrent neurobehavioral scores in term neonates with congenital heart disease compared to healthy controls. Front Pediatr. 2025; 13:1482257.. View in PubMed
• Associations of Maternal Prenatal Zinc Consumption with Infant Brain Tissue Organization and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. Nutrients. 2025 Jan 16; 17(2).. View in PubMed
• Prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, reduced hippocampal subfield volumes, and word reading. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 04; 72:101508.. View in PubMed
• The role of the hippocampus in working memory and word reading: Novel neural correlates of reading among youth living in the context of economic disadvantage. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 01; 71:101491.. View in PubMed
• Brain tissue microstructure in a prospective, longitudinal, population-based cohort of preterm and term-born young adults. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2025 May; 66(5):635-649.. View in PubMed
• Maternal prenatal immune activation associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolite concentrations in newborn infants. Brain Behav Immun. 2024 Nov; 122:279-286.. View in PubMed
• Advancing the treatment of anxiety disorders in transition-age youth: a review of the therapeutic effects of unconscious exposure. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2025 Jan; 66(1):98-121.. View in PubMed
• “All we have to fear is fear itself”: Paradigms for reducing fear by preventing awareness of it. Psychol Bull. 2024 Sep; 150(9):1118-1154.. View in PubMed
• Consumption of different combinations of human milk oligosaccharides in the first 6 mo of infancy is positively associated with early cognition at 2 y of age in a longitudinal cohort of Latino children. Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 09; 120(3):593-601.. View in PubMed
• Progression of brain injuries associated with methotrexate chemotherapy in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Pediatr Res. 2025 Jan; 97(1):348-359.. View in PubMed
• A systematic review of MRI studies on the effects of maternal obesity on offspring brain structure and function. J Neurosci Res. 2024 Jul; 102(7):e25368.. View in PubMed
• A multi-site 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT study of cerebral blood flow in a community sample of patients with major depression. Transl Psychiatry. 2024 06 03; 14(1):234.. View in PubMed
• Mapping Early Brain-Body Interactions: Associations of Fetal Heart Rate Variation with Newborn Brainstem, Hypothalamic, and Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Functional Connectivity. J Neurosci. 2024 05 29; 44(22).. View in PubMed
• Pre-pregnancy maternal obesity and infant neurodevelopmental outcomes in Latino infants. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2024 05; 32(5):979-988.. View in PubMed
• Treatments for ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics. 2024 Apr 01; 153(4).. View in PubMed
• Tools for the Diagnosis of ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics. 2024 Apr 01; 153(4).. View in PubMed
• Craniofacial chondrogenesis in organoids from human stem cell-derived neural crest cells. iScience. 2024 Apr 19; 27(4):109585.. View in PubMed
• A Scoping Review of the Mechanisms Underlying Developmental Anesthetic Neurotoxicity. Anesth Analg. 2025 02 01; 140(2):409-426.. View in PubMed
• Correction: The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2024 Mar; 49(4):765.. View in PubMed
• Cerebrovascular responses to a 90° tilt in healthy neonates. Pediatr Res. 2024 Jun; 95(7):1851-1859.. View in PubMed
• The potential role of early life feeding patterns in shaping the infant fecal metabolome: implications for neurodevelopmental outcomes. NPJ Metab Health Dis. 2023; 1.. View in PubMed
• Editorial: Innovation in child and adolescent mental health interventions. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2023 12; 64(12):1649-1651.. View in PubMed
• The multi-level outcome study of psychoanalysis for chronically depressed patients with early trauma (MODE): rationale and design of an international multicenter randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry. 2023 11 16; 23(1):844.. View in PubMed
• The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2024 01; 49(2):476-485.. View in PubMed
• Maternal childhood maltreatment: associations to offspring brain volume and white matter connectivity. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2023 10; 14(5):591-601.. View in PubMed
• Longitudinal, prospective study of head impacts in male high school football players. PLoS One. 2023; 18(9):e0291374.. View in PubMed
• Utilizing maternal prenatal cognition as a predictor of newborn brain measures of intellectual development. Child Neuropsychol. 2024 May; 30(4):582-601.. View in PubMed
• Wearable and Mobile Technologies for the Evaluation and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Scoping Review. JMIR Ment Health. 2023 Jul 18; 10:e45572.. View in PubMed
• Maternal prenatal immune activation associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolite concentrations in newborn infants. medRxiv. 2023 Jul 03.. View in PubMed
• Widespread diversity deficits of coral reef sharks and rays. Science. 2023 06 16; 380(6650):1155-1160.. View in PubMed
• A randomized controlled trial of desvenlafaxine-induced structural brain changes in the treatment of persistent depressive disorder. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2023 06; 331:111634.. View in PubMed
• Geometry-derived statistical significance: A probabilistic framework for detecting true positive findings in MRI data. Brain Behav. 2023 04; 13(4):e2865.. View in PubMed
• Aberrant hippocampus and amygdala morphology associated with cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Front Cell Neurosci. 2023; 17:1126577.. View in PubMed
• Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age. Environ Health. 2023 01 24; 22(1):11.. View in PubMed
• Obesity and acute stress modulate appetite and neural responses in food word reactivity task. PLoS One. 2022; 17(9):e0271915.. View in PubMed
• Associations of Human Milk Oligosaccharides with Infant Brain Tissue Organization and Regional Blood Flow at 1 Month of Age. Nutrients. 2022 Sep 16; 14(18).. View in PubMed
• Factor Analysis of the Einstein Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale in Infants with Congenital Heart Disease and Healthy Controls. J Child Neurol. 2022 10; 37(10-11):851-863.. View in PubMed
• Morphological Biomarkers in the Amygdala and Hippocampus of Children and Adults at High Familial Risk for Depression. Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 May 12; 12(5).. View in PubMed
• Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor antidepressant effects on regional connectivity of the thalamus in persistent depressive disorder: evidence from two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Brain Commun. 2022; 4(3):fcac100.. View in PubMed
• Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with altered brain structure, function, and metabolism in childhood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 11; 63(11):1316-1331.. View in PubMed
• Causal effects of psychostimulants on neural connectivity: a mechanistic, randomized clinical trial. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 11; 63(11):1381-1391.. View in PubMed
• Cluster-level statistical inference in fMRI datasets: The unexpected behavior of random fields in high dimensions. Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 04; 87:19-31.. View in PubMed
• Using tissue microstructure and multimodal MRI to parse the phenotypic heterogeneity and cellular basis of autism spectrum disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 08; 63(8):855-870.. View in PubMed
• What you don’t know can help you: An activating placebo effect in spider phobia. Behav Res Ther. 2022 02; 149:103994.. View in PubMed
• Association of Prenatal Sugar Consumption with Newborn Brain Tissue Organization. Nutrients. 2021 Jul 16; 13(7).. View in PubMed
• A Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) study of medication and CBT sequencing in the treatment of pediatric anxiety disorders. BMC Psychiatry. 2021 06 30; 21(1):323.. View in PubMed
• Pregnancy-specific stress and sensitive caregiving during the transition to motherhood in adolescents. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2021 Jun 29; 21(1):458.. View in PubMed
• Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with childhood inhibitory control and adolescent academic achievement. Environ Res. 2021 11; 202:111570.. View in PubMed
• Intra-session test-retest reliability of functional connectivity in infants. Neuroimage. 2021 10 01; 239:118284.. View in PubMed
• Cerebral oxygen saturation and cerebrovascular instability in newborn infants with congenital heart disease compared to healthy controls. PLoS One. 2021; 16(5):e0251255.. View in PubMed
• Associations between childhood maltreatment, poor sleep, and prenatal distress in pregnant adolescents. Dev Psychopathol. 2022 08; 34(3):764-773.. View in PubMed
• An opportunity for multivariate pattern analysis in psychiatry – Authors’ reply. Lancet Psychiatry. 2021 02; 8(2):99-100.. View in PubMed
• Gray matter reorganization underpinnings of antidepressant treatment of persistent depressive disorder. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2021 02; 43:129-138.. View in PubMed
• Neonatal brain metabolite concentrations: Associations with age, sex, and developmental outcomes. PLoS One. 2020; 15(12):e0243255.. View in PubMed
• Use of random matrix theory in the discovery of resting state brain networks. Magn Reson Imaging. 2021 04; 77:69-87.. View in PubMed
• Associations of maternal fructose and sugar-sweetened beverage and juice intake during lactation with infant neurodevelopmental outcomes at 24 months. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020 12 10; 112(6):1516-1522.. View in PubMed
• Editorial: Biomarkers in precision medicine for mental illnesses. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020 12; 61(12):1279-1281.. View in PubMed
• Depression Risk Is Associated With Weakened Synchrony Between the Amygdala and Experienced Emotion. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 03; 6(3):343-351.. View in PubMed
• Association of Maternal Prepregnancy Body Mass Index With Fetal Growth and Neonatal Thalamic Brain Connectivity Among Adolescent and Young Women. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 11 02; 3(11):e2024661.. View in PubMed
• Brain-based mediation of non-conscious reduction of phobic avoidance in young women during functional MRI: a randomised controlled experiment. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020 11; 7(11):971-981.. View in PubMed
• Associations of Maternal Prenatal Drug Abuse With Measures of Newborn Brain Structure, Tissue Organization, and Metabolite Concentrations. JAMA Pediatr. 2020 09 01; 174(9):831-842.. View in PubMed
• Author Correction: Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks. Nature. 2020 09; 585(7825):E11.. View in PubMed
• Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks. Nature. 2020 07; 583(7818):801-806.. View in PubMed
• Associations between different dimensions of prenatal distress, neonatal hippocampal connectivity, and infant memory. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020 07; 45(8):1272-1279.. View in PubMed
• Human milk oligosaccharide 2′-fucosyllactose links feedings at 1 month to cognitive development at 24 months in infants of normal and overweight mothers. PLoS One. 2020; 15(2):e0228323.. View in PubMed
• Prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons modifies the effects of early life stress on attention and Thought Problems in late childhood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020 11; 61(11):1253-1265.. View in PubMed
• When it hurts even more: The neural dynamics of pain and interpersonal emotions. J Psychosom Res. 2020 01; 128:109881.. View in PubMed
• Functional connectivity of the reading network is associated with prenatal polybrominated diphenyl ether concentrations in a community sample of 5 year-old children: A preliminary study. Environ Int. 2020 01; 134:105212.. View in PubMed
• Experience during adolescence shapes brain development: From synapses and networks to normal and pathological behavior. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2019 Nov – Dec; 76:106834.. View in PubMed
• Editorial: Common factors in the art of healing. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 09; 60(9):927-929.. View in PubMed
• Maturation of Brain Microstructure and Metabolism Associates with Increased Capacity for Self-Regulation during the Transition from Childhood to Adolescence. J Neurosci. 2019 10 16; 39(42):8362-8375.. View in PubMed
• Prenatal socioeconomic status and social support are associated with neonatal brain morphology, toddler language and psychiatric symptoms. Child Neuropsychol. 2020 02; 26(2):170-188.. View in PubMed
• Effects of the antidepressant medication duloxetine on brain metabolites in persistent depressive disorder: A randomized, controlled trial. PLoS One. 2019; 14(7):e0219679.. View in PubMed
• The association between antidepressant treatment and brain connectivity in two double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials: a treatment mechanism study. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019 08; 6(8):667-674.. View in PubMed
• Parsing the Heterogeneity of Brain Metabolic Disturbances in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2020 01 15; 87(2):174-184.. View in PubMed
• Profiles of infant communicative behavior. Dev Psychol. 2019 Aug; 55(8):1594-1604.. View in PubMed
• Neural mechanisms of expectancy-based placebo effects in antidepressant clinical trials. J Psychiatr Res. 2019 09; 116:19-25.. View in PubMed
• A preliminary study on prenatal polybrominated diphenyl ether serum concentrations and intrinsic functional network organization and executive functioning in childhood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 09; 60(9):1010-1020.. View in PubMed

• Thompson, Paul
• Toga, Arthur