Judith Ford

Judith Ford, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. She maintains an active research program with continuous NIH funding as Principal Investigator since 1984, demonstrating her sustained contributions to schizophrenia and psychosis research.

Dr. Ford's research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying schizophrenia through advanced neuroimaging techniques. Her work extensively utilizes fMRI and EEG to investigate functional and structural brain abnormalities, with particular emphasis on auditory processing deficits, neural network instability, and the relationship between brain activity and clinical symptoms. Recent projects examine neural network instability in schizophrenia that may be improved with ketogenic diets, auditory steady-state responses across the psychosis spectrum, and biomarkers of rumination through concurrent EEG and fMRI studies.

Analysis of her recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a strong trend toward sophisticated multimodal neuroimaging approaches, with increasing focus on machine learning applications, network connectivity analyses, and metabolic influences on mental health. Her work spans multiple disciplines including computational neuroscience, electrophysiology, and clinical psychiatry, with consistent application to schizophrenia research.

Dr. Ford has received continuous NIH funding as Principal Investigator since 1984, with current projects including R21MH127498 (2021-2023) on neural network instability in schizophrenia, R03MH125226 (2021-2022) on auditory steady-state response across the psychosis spectrum, and R03MH121900 (2020-2022) exploring the RDoC construct of agency using fMRI and EEG. Her longest-running project, I01CX000497 'Rescuing the ruminating brain,' has been active from 2011-2022.

She actively collaborates with researchers across multiple institutions through large-scale consortia, contributing to major neuroimaging initiatives like the ENIGMA consortium. Her laboratory combines cutting-edge neuroimaging technology with advanced computational approaches to develop biomarkers that could inform diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment development for schizophrenia and related disorders.