Dr Heather Whalley
Senior Research Fellow

- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine
Contact details
- Email: heather.whalley@ed.ac.uk
Background
Dr 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 and is currently an ESAT Fellow at the University.
Research summary
Dr Whalley's main area of research interest is to link neuroimaging techniques with underlying biology in a bottom-up approach in order to better understand debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly in adolescence. Her research therefore focuses on how causal risk factors contribute to disease in terms of their impact on brain structure and function.
Related links
Psychiatric disorders research at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
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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) -
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) -
Neuroimaging reveals a potential brain-based pre-existing mechanism that confers vulnerability to development of chronic painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN)
In:
British Journal of Anaesthesia, vol. 130, pp. 83-93
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2022.09.026
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Early-life inflammatory markers and subsequent psychotic and depressive episodes between 10 to 28 years of age
In:
Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health, vol. 26
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2022.100528
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Regional gene expression signatures are associated with sex-specific functional connectivity changes in depression
In:
Nature Communications, vol. 13, pp. 5692
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32617-1
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)