Bradley Peterson, MD

Professor of Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences, Pediatrics, and Social Work

Division Chief of Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences at CHLA

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Overview

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.

Awards

  • 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
  • Best Doctors in America, 2002
     – 2015
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society, 1986

Publications

  • 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 05; 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