Nikolova - NDA - Sibille

YULIYA NIKOLOVA, PH.D.

Dr. Yuliya Nikolova is a Scientist in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH. Before being appointed to her current position, she completed her PhD in Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in translational neuroscience at CAMH.

Our Research Focus

Dr. Nikolova’s work combines tools from experimental psychology, cognitive science, neuroimaging and genetics to study mechanisms of risk for mental illness. She is particularly interested in how neural circuits for reward and threat processing contribute to transdiagnostic cognitive and affective dysfunction. She has a strong focus on translation and integration across multiple levels of investigation, and works closely with preclinical teams to bridge basic science approaches with clinical research.

Meet the team

Kevan Clifford, PhD Student

Kevan's research combines bioinformatics and neuroimaging approaches to explore shared risk pathways between brain aging and neuropsychiatric illnesses. In addition, he leverages similar imaging genetics methods in complementary rodent models, offering a highly translational approach toward identifying targetable pathways for treatment and prevention.

Rubab Shafiq

MSc Student

Priya van Oosterhout, MSc. Student

Priya van Oosterhout is a MSc student working under the supervision of Dr. Yuliya Nikolova at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Priya is investigating how substance use disorders affect the way in which the brain ages, as measured by MRI data. In her free time, she enjoys trying new food, watching movies, and baking bread.

Peter Pangarov

Research Analyst

Peter Bedford

Research Analyst

Hayley Hinkson

Undergraduate Student

Team Publication List

Mareckova, K., Hawco, C., Dos Santos, F. C., Bakht, A., Calarco, N., Miles, A. E., … & Nikolova, Y. S. (2020). Novel polygenic risk score as a translational tool linking depression-related changes in the corticolimbic transcriptome with neural face processing and anhedonic symptoms. Translational psychiatry, 10(1), 1-10.

Patel, P., Miles, A. E., & Nikolova, Y. S. (2020). Cortical thickness correlates of probabilistic reward learning in young adults. Biological Psychology, 157, 107975.

Mareckova, K., Miles, A., Andryskova, L., Brazdil, M., & Nikolova, Y. S. (2020). Temporally and sex‐specific effects of maternal perinatal stress on offspring cortical gyrification and mood in young adulthood. Human brain mapping, 41(17), 4866-4875.

Mareckova, K., Marecek, R., Andryskova, L., Brazdil, M., & Nikolova, Y. S. (2020). Maternal Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy and Brain Age in Young Adult Offspring: Findings from a Prenatal Birth Cohort. Cerebral Cortex, 30(7), 3991-3999.

Nikolova, Y. S., Misquitta, K. A., Rocco, B. R., Prevot, T. D., Knodt, A. R., Ellegood, J., … & Banasr, M. (2018). Shifting priorities: highly conserved behavioral and brain network adaptations to chronic stress across species. Translational psychiatry, 8(1), 1-13.

Nikolova, Y. S., Knodt, A. R., Radtke, S. R., & Hariri, A. R. (2016). Divergent responses of the amygdala and ventral striatum predict stress-related problem drinking in young adults: possible differential markers of affective and impulsive pathways of risk for alcohol use disorder. Molecular psychiatry, 21(3), 348-356.

Nikolova, Y. S., Koenen, K. C., Galea, S., Wang, C. M., Seney, M. L., Sibille, E., … & Hariri, A. R. (2014). Beyond genotype: serotonin transporter epigenetic modification predicts human brain function. Nature neuroscience, 17(9), 1153-1155.

Nikolova, Y. S., Bogdan, R., Brigidi, B. D., & Hariri, A. R. (2012). Ventral striatum reactivity to reward and recent life stress interact to predict positive affect. Biological psychiatry, 72(2), 157-163.

And more on Google Scholar!