Professor Heather C Whalley
Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health

- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine
- Generation Scotland
Contact details
- Email: heather.whalley@ed.ac.uk
Background
Prof Heather Whalley graduated in neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently completed an MSc by Research (with distinction) along with her PhD in the field of neuroimaging at the Division of Psychiatry, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences.
She previously held a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship and a Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh JMAS SIM fellowship. She is currently the Chief Scientist for Generation Scotland.
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
Professor Whalley's work focusses on the major global health challenge of mental ill health, particularly during adolescence. Her research involves linking neuroimaging, genomic, molecular and electronic/computational phenotyping, along with youth engagement, to improve our understanding and treatment of mental ill health.
Related links
Psychiatric disorders research at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
-
Cognitive Function in People With Familial Risk of Depression
In:
JAMA Psychiatry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.0716
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Large-scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium
In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), vol. 120, pp. e2213880120
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213880120
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Predicting sex, age, general cognition and mental health with machine learning on brain structural connectomes
(21 pages)
In:
Human Brain Mapping, vol. 44, pp. 1913-1933
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Concurrent validity and reliability of suicide risk assessment instruments: A meta-analysis of 20 instruments across 27 international cohorts
(15 pages)
In:
Neuropsychology, vol. 37, pp. 315-329
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000850
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Pathway-based polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and associations with reported psychotic-like experiences and neuroimaging phenotypes in UK Biobank
In:
Biological psychiatry global open science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.03.004
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Immuno-epigenetic signature derived in saliva associates with the encephalopathy of prematurity and perinatal inflammatory disorders
(17 pages)
In:
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, vol. 110, pp. 322-338
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.03.011
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The role of brain structure in the association between pubertal timing and depression risk in an early adolescent sample (the ABCD Study®): A registered report
In:
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 60, pp. 101223
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101223
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Childhood cognitive ability and self-harm and suicide in later life
(30 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.10.23285747
Research output: › Preprint (Published) -
Structural brain correlates of childhood trauma with replication across two large, independent community-based samples
(25 pages)
In:
European Psychiatry, pp. 1-25
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2347
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
AI-based dimensional neuroimaging system for characterizing heterogeneity in brain structure and function in major depressive disorder: COORDINATE-MDD consortium design and rationale
In:
BMC Psychiatry, vol. 23, pp. 59
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04509-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)